Star Trek: The Motion Picture (novel)

The Great Bird of the Galaxy writes a Star Trek novel! – Novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, authored by creator Gene Roddenberry.

Summary

 * From the book jacket
 * The writer-producer who created Mr. Spock and all the other Star Trek characters – who invented the starship Enterprise, who gave the show its look, its ideals – puts it all together again here in his first Star Trek'' novel!


 * Their first five-year mission is over. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, all the crew have scattered to other jobs or other lives. Now they are together again on a fabulously refitted USS Enterprise as an incredibly destructive power threatens Earth and the Human race.


 * Preface by James T. Kirk, Rear Admiral
 * Preface by Gene Roddenberry, author

Admiral James Kirk, on a break from the Admiralty, relaxes in Africa at the world famous museum city, Alexandria. He slowly begins to receive a signal from Starfleet Command through a senceiver implant in his brain. The information plays out in his mind, of Klingon cruisers destroyed by a powerful cloud in space heading towards Earth. Meanwhile on Vulcan, Spock kneels before the Vulcan masters on Gol. He is about to achieve kolinahr, when a powerful consciousness touches his mind. Spock telepathically senses Kirk's thoughts of the attack on the Klingons. After a mind meld, the Vulcan Master T'Sai sends Spock away without achieving kolinahr.

Kirk contacts his associate, Vice Admiral Lori Ciana, whom he has been involved with for the two-and-a-half years since the end of the Enterprise mission. She informs him that Admiral Heihachiro Nogura plans to launch the Enterprise to intercept the cloud. Kirk goes to Starfleet headquarters and convinces Nogura to hand command of the Enterprise over to him.

Once aboard the Enterprise, Kirk informs Captain Decker that he is assuming command. Decker is unhappy with the decision, but remains aboard as first officer. Suddenly, disaster strikes when the transporter malfunctions. Admiral Ciana and the Vulcan science officer Sonak are both killed. Later on the rec deck, Kirk briefs the crew on the cloud. Unexpectedly, the crew witnesses the destruction of Epsilon IX at the hands of that same cloud as the event occurs.

After the transporter is repaired, new crew members beam aboard. Lieutenant Ilia, a Deltan and former lover of Decker, takes the navigator position. Then Leonard McCoy beams aboard, after being drafted back into service by Kirk. He resumes his position as CMO.

With the crew finally together, the Enterprise leaves orbital dock. Once the ship's engages warp drive, a wormhole appears. The Enterprise is trapped inside, on a collision course with an asteroid. Torpedoes are fired and the asteroid is destroyed, freeing the ship. However, the warp engines are down.

A shuttle docks with the Enterprise. The crew is shocked to find Spock has come aboard. Spock immediately gets to work on fixing the engines, and the Enterprise warps towards interception with the cloud. Spock reveals he has been in mental contact with the cloud and senses perfect logic.

The Enterprise intercepts the cloud, and they are immediately scanned. The cloud returns no response to friendship messages and fires on the Enterprise. The force field holds and the Enterprise survives, however power is severely drained. The cloud fires again, but at the last second the energy bolt fades from sight. The cloud has received and understood friendship messages.

The Enterprise enters the cloud. Sensors detect an object at the cloud's center. Kirk risks a scan, and the cloud responds by sending a green energy probe to the bridge. It begins scanning the computer. A security officer attempts to stop it, but the probe lashes out at him and he vanishes. Spock intervenes when it attempts to scan his console, to prevent it from learning Earth's defenses. The probe attacks Spock, but Ilia interferes. She too vanishes, and the probe with her.

A tractor beam pulls the Enterprise inside the object at the center of the cloud. Once inside, the "intruder alert" alarm sounds. Inside Ilia's quarters, a probe identical to her in appearance is found claiming to be sent by Vejur to observe the carbon based units infecting Enterprise. She explains that Vejur is heading towards Earth to find the "Creator" and join with him. Kirk assigns Decker the task of learning as much information from the Ilia-probe as possible.

Spock secretly leaves the ship in a spacesuit, intent on mind melding with Vejur. He passes through an elaborate gallery of Vejur's journey, seeing stars and entire planets. After finding a sensor and melding with it, Spock discovers Vejur's journey began at a planet of living machines, and concludes that the entire vessel is a lifeform. Vejur is the ship itself. Vejur senses Spock's presence, and Spock is injured during the meld. Kirk, now in a spacesuit, leaves the ship to find Spock, when the Ilia-probe reveals Vejur is sending Spock back to the Enterprise. There, Spock reveals Vejur has accumulated vast knowledge, but without the ability to feel that knowledge was useless, leaving Vejur without the answers it needs.

Background Information

 * This is the novelization of by Gene Roddenberry, who is billed in the book jacket blurb as his nickname, "Great Bird of the Galaxy".
 * This was the first Pocket Books Trek novel (though the imprint wouldn't officially begin its novel series until The Entropy Effect in 1981). It was also briefly issued as a hardcover, slip-cased, numbered limited edition. (This edition is dedicated to Majel Barrett.)
 * In Admiral Kirk's preface, he mentions that during his five-year mission, 94 of his crew perished. While this number equates, as it is higher than the number of people we know of dying in TOS, many later comics and novels have featured numerous crew deaths that exceed this number.
 * In his preface, Kirk also establishes that his middle name is indeed "Tiberius".
 * Will Decker is revealed to be the son of Commodore Matt Decker. This information is not officially established in the film.
 * Spock began training to achieve kolinahr 2.8 years prior to this story.
 * The UK and Australian editions, from Futura Publications, contain an insert of color plates: ten captioned publicity stills from the movie. These editions also have a brief addition to the main text about Vice Admiral Lori Ciana, better explaining how she went about getting herself onto Kirk's crew.
 * All editions share a typographical error - "Ciani" - when first introducing this character.
 * Before the personal encounter of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Decker and the Ilia-probe with the still-functioning Voyager 6 relic spacecraft at its heart, Roddenberry consistently uses the spelling Vejur for the "intruder's" name from the text on page 179 of the novelization.

Main

 * James T. Kirk : Rear admiral, chief of Starfleet Operations.
 * Spock: Science Officer.
 * Leonard McCoy : CMO.
 * Montgomery Scott : Chief Engineer.
 * Uhura : Communications Officer.
 * Hikaru Sulu : Helmsman.
 * Pavel Chekov : Chief of security.
 * Ilia : Navigator.
 * Willard Decker : Captain, temporary grade reduction to Commander.
 * Janice Rand : Transporter chief.
 * Vejur : Also known as V'Ger. Vejur seeks the creator.

Others

 * Lori Ciana: A Starfleet vice admiral in 2272 assigned as Rear Admiral James T. Kirk's commanding officer in his post as chief of Starfleet Operations (as well as his ex-lover, for some of the two-and-a-half years since he relinquished captaincy). She died in a transporter accident along with Commander Sonak when they were attempting to board the Enterprise.
 * The character who died on the transporter was seen in the movie, but no reference was made to her rank or status. In Roddenberry's draft, she was being sent by Nogura to temper Kirk's enthusiasm for starship command – a role that ended up being performed by McCoy.


 * Sonak : Starfleet commander assigned as Enterprise science officer.
 * Nogura, Heihachiro : Commander in chief of Starfleet in 2272.
 * DiFalco : Chief.
 * Phillips : Security officer.
 * Chavez : Security officer, rank of ensign.
 * Called Perez in the movie.


 * Kugel : Assistant engineer.
 * Quarton : Assistant engineer.
 * Named for British Star Trek fan, Janet Quarton, who also inspired the name for Q.


 * Branch : Commander of the Epsilon IX station.
 * Rhaandarite ensign (unnamed USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) personnel)
 * Only referred to as ensign here. His race is not established in this novelization.


 * T'Sai : Vulcan master.
 * Libyan scholar : Earth civilian.

Mentioned

 * Matt Decker : Will Decker's father.
 * Samuel Kirk : Jim Kirk's grandfather.

Chronology

 * 1999 : Voyager VI falls into a black hole and contact is lost.
 * 2043-2047 : Mind Control Revolts
 * 2270 : Five-year mission ends. Kirk is promoted to Admiral.  Spock and McCoy leave Starfleet.
 * 2272 : The events of this novel.

External link


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