The Tantalus Trap!

Summary
While mirror Spock and Spock finish their mind meld on Vulcan, Admiral Kirk and crew manage to separate the saucer of the Enterprise and continue the battle with Excelsior under the command of his counterpart. After several near misses, Scotty manages to restore power to the Tantalus field and Kirk orders Scotty to use it against several key areas in Excelsior's engineering section. After the ship is disabled, a boarding party from Enterprise manages to recapture Excelsior and return it to Federation control. After a brief confrontation with his counterpart, Kirk has all the Imperial crewmembers placed in stasis until they can determine what to do with them. After Saavik and Scotty repair Excelsior's engines, Kirk reports the recapture of Excelsior to Starfleet. Grand Admiral Turner commends Kirk for retaking the ship, but still orders Kirk back to Earth. But instead of heeding the order, Kirk makes plans to use Excelsior to infiltrate the Empire's invasion force, posing as his counterpart, with hopes of thwarting their invasion plans. Saavik determines that Excelsior's transwarp engines should be able to cross the inter-dimensional barrier. As they do so, the Klingon ship they captured returns to the scene carrying both Spocks aboard, having arrived too late to follow Excelsior across.

Memorable Quotes
"No! Damn him! No!"
 * - Mirror Kirk after he realizes that the saucer section of the I.S.S. Enterprise have survived the explosion.

Background Information

 * The saucer section escaping the stardrive section's destruction is later shown in the comic "Debt of Honor",, and.

Creators

 * Writer: Mike W. Barr
 * Artists:
 * Tom Sutton (pencil art - interior and cover)
 * Ricardo Villagran (inking - interior and cover)
 * Michele Wolfman (color art)
 * John Costanza (letter art)
 * Editor: Marv Wolfman

Characters

 * James T. Kirk
 * Saavik
 * Garrett : Starfleet commodore who was the commanding officer of Starbase 13.