Star Trek 4 (Novel)
| Series | Star Trek |
| Published by | Bantam Books |
| Previous | Spock Must Die! (TOSON01) |
| Next | Star Trek 5 (Blish05) |
| Written by | James Blish |
| Released | Jul 1971 |
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More Dazzling Exploits by the Dynamic Crew of the Enterprise
Based on the Exciting Television Series Created by Gene Roddenberry
Six Assignments in Space and Time
In the name of the Federation Council and the Starfleet Command, Spock and the Enterprise crew grapple with:
- A silicon-based monster
- An interplanetary spy
- An amorous Amazon
- A misguided mobster "boss"
- A time-jumping technician
- and the mind-enslaving elders of Talos IV, in the Hugo Award-winning episode "Menagerie"
Ready to face any danger the solar sphere could thrust at them, they ranged to the outer limits of experience looking for adventure.
Kirk—Captain of the Enterprise, the top man in Space Service—Starfleet Command—he alone makes the decisions, so grave that they can affect the future course of civilization throughout the Universe.
Spock—Science Officer—Inheriting a precise, logical thinking pattern from his father, a native of the planet Vulcan, Mr. Spock maintains a dangerous Earth trait… an intense curiousity about things of alien origin.
McCoy—"Bones," the magnificent medic, a dour super-Scot and the last word in first aid.
With a crew of 400 skilled specialists, the mammoth space ship Enterprise blasts off for intergalactic intrigue in the unexplored realms of outer space.
All Our Yesterdays
Adapted from the episode All Our Yesterdays.
Written by Jean Lisette Aroeste.
Beaming down to the planet Sarpeidon, which is about to be engulfed in the explosion of its sun, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy discover a huge library. The librarian, Mr. Atoz, has supervised the transfer of his race into the planet's past by the use of a machine called an atavachron. At Atoz's invitation, Kirk and Spock begin to examine various historical eras using the machine. When the captain hears a woman's scream, he leaps to her aid through the atavachron's portal, only to find himself in Sarpeidon's medieval past, where he is soon charged with witchcraft and imprisoned.
Spock and McCoy, attempting to follow, unintentionally enter Sarpeidon's ice age, where they meet a woman named Zarabeth. Spock soon discovers his emotional control is slipping, and he finds himself falling for Zarabeth while he begins to revert to the ways of his Vulcan ancestors. Zarabeth, also from the future, says that they cannot return to their original time without dying, assuming that they were prepared like she was. When they reveal that their time travel was accidental, she reveals that not only can they return, they must, or they will die.
In the medieval period, Kirk escapes and, with the aid of yet another time traveler, returns to the library. After Mr. Atoz and several of his duplicates fail to return Kirk to the past, they begin to search for Spock and McCoy, who have returned to the place where they arrived. Guided by Kirk's voice, they return to their proper time, and Zarabeth remains behind, unable to make the journey. Mr. Atoz then leaps through the atavachron to a time of his own choosing, and the Enterprise leaves the system before the sun goes nova.
Related Data
The Devil in the Dark
Adapted from the episode The Devil in the Dark.
Written by Gene L. Coon.
The pergium miners on planet Janus VI are being killed by an unknown creature that can burrow through stone. Chief mining engineer Vanderberg summons the Enterprise to assist in locating and killing the monster. When the creature steals a vital part of the PXK reactor, which regulates the mining colony's support functions, Spock realizes they are dealing with an intelligent life form. After Captain Kirk wounds the entity, Spock performs a Vulcan mind meld. He learns that the creature, which calls itself a Horta, is killing only to prevent the destruction of its thousands of silicon eggs. Dr. McCoy, using construction materials, heals the wounded Horta. The miners attack with the intention of killing the creature, but when they learn she is only a defensive mother and they have been killing her unborn children, they calm down. Vanderberg and his people agree to form a symbiotic relationship with the Horta. The freshly hatched children will dig the pergium—while the miners will sit back and become rich.
Related Data
Journey to Babel
Adapted from the episode Journey to Babel.
Written by D.C. Fontana.
The Enterprise is en route to an important Federation conference on a planet code-named Babel. Traveling aboard are delegates from many worlds, including Vulcan Ambassador Sarek and his Human wife, Amanda—revealed as Mr. Spock's parents. Spock and his father have not spoken for 20 years, a fact that causes embarrassment for Captain James T. Kirk, but not for Spock. The journey is also complicated by an unidentified vessel, which is following the Enterprise, and tension between various delegates, particularly Sarek and Tellarite Ambassador Gav; when Gav is murdered, Sarek is the prime suspect. The stress reveals that Sarek is suffering from a heart condition and needs an immediate operation to save his life. Only his son can serve as the blood donor, but when Kirk is attacked and stabbed by Thelev, a member of the Andorian delegation, Spock assumes command. Despite the danger to his father's life, he refuses to step down until the unidentified ship following the Enterprise is stopped. Spock's mother is unsuccessful in her appeals to her son to permit the operation to be performed, so Kirk fakes a return to duty to trick Spock into reporting to sickbay. The vessel, revealed to be an Orion ship, attacks the Enterprise and is destroyed. Thelev is exposed as a surgically-altered Orion spy, posing as an Andorian, and commits suicide on the bridge. The operation on Sarek is successful and the ambassador resumes diplomatic relations with his son.
Related Data
The Menagerie
Adapted from the episode The Cage.
Written by Gene Roddenberry.
En route to the Vega Colony following an incident on Rigel VIII, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 investigates a distress call from Talos IV. An attraction quickly forms between Captain Pike and one of the survivors, Vina. When Vina lures Pike to a rock formation to show him the secret of how the survivors stayed in perfect health for nearly twenty years, several Talosians emerge from a concealed elevator, render Pike unconscious, and drag him into their underground chamber.
Pike awakens in a small enclosure, where he is transported by way of the Talosians' telepathic powers of illusion, to a number of locales, all of which feature Vina as an object for him to protect, desire, and even love. The Talosians have lured the Enterprise to their planet so that Pike can serve as a mate for Vina, enabling the Talosians to breed a race of Humans they can use as slaves.
The Talosians allow Number One and Yeoman Colt to beam down, reasoning that perhaps the captain would be more attracted to one of his crewmates. Pike, having discovered that the Talosians cannot probe into hostile emotional moods, deliberately assumes an attitude of mindless anger, which he uses to cloud their telepathy as he plans the group's escape. The Talosians confide to Pike that they never wanted slaves; they only wished to perpetuate their heritage in the offspring of Pike and Vina. Finding Humans to be unsuitable for their goals, Pike and his crew return to the Enterprise, though Vina, who was horribly injured and disfigured during the crash of the S.S. Columbia, chooses to remain behind, where the Talosians can continue to give her an illusion of beauty. Back aboard the Enterprise, Pike refuses to discuss what had happened, and the Enterprise resumes course for the Vega Colony.
Related Data
The Enterprise Incident
Adapted from the episode The Enterprise Incident.
Written by D.C. Fontana.
Captain James T. Kirk, in an overworked and confused state, takes the Enterprise into Romulan space, where the starship is immediately surrounded by Romulan ships that demand their surrender. Kirk and Spock beam aboard the Romulan flagship, and Kirk attempts to explain his ship's trespass as equipment failure, but Spock denounces his captain, stating that he deliberately acted without orders in entering Romulan territory. Dr. McCoy is the beamed aboard the Romulan vessel to examine the increasingly erratic Kirk, who, infuriated beyond reason, suddenly turns and attacks Spock. Acting in self-defense, Spock uses the Vulcan death grip, instantly killing Kirk. McCoy returns to the Enterprise with the captain's body. The Romulan Commander is highly interested in Spock, both professionally as well as personally, and she attempts to induce him into defecting to the Romulan Star Empire. Spock appears to be interested in her offer.
But the entire affair has been a hoax, to gain possession of the Romulan cloaking device—and there is no such thing as a Vulcan death grip. Kirk, surgically altered to appear Romulan, is beamed back aboard the flagship and steals the device. After the theft is discovered, Spock is detained as a spy. As he awaits execution, Chekov locates the Vulcan using the Enterprise's sensors, and Spock is beamed back aboard — along with the Romulan Commander. The Enterprise escapes by using the cloaking device, hurriedly installed by Scotty. Kirk is left with an unexpected bonus—the captive Romulan Commander — while Spock must contemplate the deceit that he practiced on the woman.
Related Data
A Piece of the Action
Adapted from the episode A Piece of the Action.
Story by David P. Harmon
Teleplay by David P. Harmon & Gene L. Coon.
One hundred years before the start of the Enterprise's five-year mission, the U.S.S. Horizon visited the isolated planet Dana Iotia II. The Iotians, a highly imitative people, modeled their planet's culture after a book left behind on their world by one of the crew of the Horizon. The book, Chicago Mobs of the Twenties, inspired the Iotians to duplicate the gangs of old Chicago. At first the Enterprise landing party, consisting of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, have difficulty. Bela Okmyx, a key gang leader who first makes contact with the starship crew, wants to use the Enterprise's weapons to take over Iotia. Rival gangster Jojo Krako has the same idea. By playing according to Iotia's unique "rules," Kirk finally succeeds in uniting the planet's most influential gangsters, setting up a world government headed by Okmyx. Kirk leaves behind the fiction that the Federation will expect an annual "piece of the action" from Iotia's new government.
