Time for Yesterday

Living in the past, dead to the present, only Spock's son can save the future!

Summary

 * From the book jacket:
 * Time in the galaxy has stopped running in its normal course. That can mean only one thing -- the Guardian of Forever is malfunctioning. To save the universe, Starfleet Command reunites three of its most legendary figures -- Admiral James T. Kirk, Spock of Vulcan, and Dr. Leonard McCoy -- and sends them on a desperate mission to contact the Guardian, a journey that ultimately takes them 5,000 years into the past. They must find Spock's son Zar once again, and bring him back to their time to telepathically communicate with the Guardian.


 * But Zar is enmeshed in troubles of his own, and soon Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find themselves in a desperate struggle to save both his and their world.

The Guardian of Forever has malfunctioned and is emitting waves of accelerated time that are causing premature star deaths throughout the galaxy. After Spock recalls that his son Zar was once able to communicate telepathically with the Guardian, the Enterprise is placed under the temporary command of Admiral Kirk and detailed to transport a powerful telepath to the Guardian. The telepath manages to partially restore the Guardian's timetravel functions but collapses in a comatose state. Using the time portal, Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy travel into the past of the planet Sarpeidon to find Zar, hoping that his powerful telepathy combined with Vulcan shield training will allow him to successfully restore the Guardian to its normal state while protecting himself from adverse effects.

They find Zar in charge of a small, technologically advanced settlement that is about to engage in a battle with an alliance of less advanced but more numerous enemy clans. His death in the coming battle has been foretold by the priestess Wynn, the daughter of one of the enemy clan chiefs, who declares that the alliance will be denied victory only if "he who is halt walks healed" and "he who is death-struck in battle rises whole." "He who is halt" clearly refers to Zar, who walks with a painful limp because of a leg injury he suffered many years before. In order to increase his city's odds of survival, Zar marries Wynn, forcing her father to change sides. The Enterprise crew manage to convince him to come back with them and deal with the Guardian, although he insists that he will return afterward to fight in the battle despite the prophecy.

Zar successfully achieves a mind meld with the Guardian and returns its consciousness to its physical structure, along with a burst of power that turns out to be several beings of pure energy exiting from the portal. The Guardian explains that it abandoned its duties to search for its Creators, who long ago evolved into pure energy and entered another dimension. Its fundamental programming required it to answer their summons and bring them home, resulting in its apparent malfunction. They wish to find their home planet, but they have forgotten where it is. In order to converse with Zar and the Enterprise crew, the Creators assume the form of people drawn from their memories, such as Zarabeth, Sam Kirk, McCoy's ex-wife Jocelyn, and Kirk's mother Winona. While some of the beings act in a benevolent manner, a few are capricious and cruel. Eventually, Kirk and the others manage to convince them that their search would endanger intelligent life throughout the galaxy, and they re-enter another dimension via the Guardian. The Guardian, with the assistance of Zar and Spock, is able to force the less benevolent Creators to comply.

McCoy convinces Zar to undergo treatment and physical therapy aboard the Enterprise, healing his leg and giving him a greater chance of survival in the coming battle. Zar achieves peak physical condition and is able to walk normally again, fulfiling the first half of Wynn's prophecy. When he returns to Sarpeidon's past, Spock secretly follows him, intending to help save him in the battle. He brings with him two of the ancient Vulcan weapons from his collection, the lirpa and the ahn-woon. Spock is unable to prevent the death-blow from landing, although he manages to deflect it slighty, and Zar is unconscious but still alive. In order to fulfill the second half of the prophecy, Spock puts on Zar's armor and shows himself to the army, leading them to believe their leader has risen from the dead. Zar's army wins the battle. After ensuring that Zar will survive the blow and leaving him to Wynn's care, Spock returns to the present.

Memorable Quotes

 * Quotes needed

“Remember that on any world the wind eventually wears away the stone, because the stone can only crumble; the wind can change.”

― A.C. Crispin, Star Trek #39: Time for Yesterday

Background Information

 * Book 2 of The Yesterday Saga.
 * This novel takes place shortly before . In the epilogue, Spock invites Kirk to oversee the Kobayashi Maru scenario decipted in the movie. Also, Chekov is not present in the story, as he is serving on the Reliant.

Characters

 * James T. Kirk
 * Spock
 * Leonard McCoy
 * Montgomery Scott
 * Hikaru Sulu
 * Nyota Uhura
 * Admiral Harry Morrow
 * Zar : Spock's son.
 * the Guardian of Forever
 * Gary Mitchell (as an "echo" of the Guardian)
 * Winona Kirk (as an "echo" of the Guardian)