“If you cannot be logical, be silent.”
We open with a space battle between Enterprise and some Klingons. Chekov is injured. Spock quotes Hamlet. Crewman Remington is mortally injured, completely paralyzed from the skull down, but alive. McCoy can’t cure him, but Spock believes the doctors at the Vulcan Science Academy can.
You see, Spock’s mother Amanda has degenerative xenosis. It is like an allergy to living on an alien world and thought to be incurable. A team of doctors at the Academy is trying out a new cure on her and it may also help crewman Remington. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and crewman Remington head for Vulcan on a shuttle leaving Enterprise and crew behind. Once they arrive at the Academy, they find the patients taking part in the new cure are being murdered one by one. Will they find the murderer before Amanda falls victim?
Kirk has brought his jump to conclusions mat along with him to find the murderer and he suspects T’Pau, Sarek, Sorel, Corrigan, Sendet, and Eleyna. Using his mat, he eliminates suspects from the list one at a time.
Random Thoughts Written Down as I Read:
Sarek teaches at the Academy when he’s not Ambassadorring. Silly me, I thought either of those would be a full-time job. A great majority of his students are human, as is his teaching assistant Eleyna, who is single.
Sarek approves of Spock’s friends. Sarek tells jokes. Sarek has a heart-to-heart with a doctor whose wife is also being treated. Good to see Sarek got over being an ass.
Visiting Amanda’s sterile chamber requires Sarek to be barefoot? Forget about it—the author does.
The doctor Sarek commiserates with is Sorel. His partner is Daniel Corrigan and they made Spock.
Vulcan male names begin with S : Spock, Sarek, Sorel, Soton, Sendet, Soran, Senek, Storn, Spelak, Surak, Spet, Skep, Stonn, Sev, Suvel…
Vulcan female names begin with T’ : T’Mir, T’Par, T’Zan, T’Vel, T’Sel, T’Pau, T’Pree, T’Peyra, T’Pring, T’Sey, T’Ra, T’Vet, T’Par, T’Nie…
I still don’t know what letter begins the names of Vulcans who are LBGTQ.
The Enterprise crew, Spock’s family, and the doctors all go to dinner together at Angelo’s. Yes. It is Italian. Yes, it is run by stereotype Italians.
All adult male Vulcans are married; they have to be. No Pon Farr outside of wedlock!
If a Vulcan’s mate dies, s/he will die too unless there is a relative to bond with them within an hour to help deal with the severing of the marital bond. It just doesn’t seem like a survival trait, y’know?
After Sarek’s heart surgery on Enterprise during “Journey to Babel,” Spock and Sarek joined a shipboard poker game. And won.
Dr. Corrigan uses a chronometer.
This is where we recruit Dr. M’Benga.
There’s a whole lotta mind-melding goin’ on up in here.
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are guests at Sarek’s. Kirk sleeps in Spock’s old room, McCoy sleeps in the spare room and I don’t know where Spock sleeps or why it matters because we don’t explore the rooms and everyone uses the master bath.
There are no water showers on Enterprise, only sonic ones.
Kirk has a type: human, blond, petite, blue-eyed, soft, curvy, and intelligent. Eleyna is this type. He asks her out. She says no.
The 1st murder victim is Lady T’Zan, Dr. Sorel’s wife. Her funeral is held in an auditorium. Everyone who is anyone—and anyone who is not—goes. Sorel’s daughter T’Mire proposes to Dr. Corrigan. Never and always touching and touched.
T’Pau scorns humans.
All the Vulcans want everyone married and try to play matchmaker all the time.
Vulcans apparently don’t kiss or even embrace. Sex must be difficult.
Remember the injured Enterprise crewman, Remington? He’s murdered. I know you’re shocked that a brand new character is dead.
McCoy is a doctor, not an engineer.
Vulcan males cannot divorce. Vulcan females can opt out every seven years.
Kirk becomes Columbo. There is no crime on Vulcan, so there is no police force. The logical Vulcans neglect to account for insane Vulcans and the large population of alien immigrants on their world.
Sarek swears in Vulcan.
Eleyna has a dimple in her cheek which shows when she smiles. Kirk asks her out again. She accepts.
There is one old woman on Vulcan in charge of all supplies. Kirk checks out a tricorder from her.
A computer cannot lie. Mine sure can be an SOB, though. And I really don’t want to discuss printers.
James Kirk, boy detective!
M’Benga’s black, but McCoy can tell he’s exhausted.
There is a fire in the Academy! Amanda is in danger! Kirk, Spock, and Sarek fight the fire! The ceiling collapses! On Spock! Sarek tears down a wall to get to Amanda! Kirk collapses from smoke inhalation! Everyone is ok!
Kirk wonders who blabbed about Pon Farr. So it wasn’t him.
Eleyna visits Kirk in recovery and tells him he looks good in anything. She also expresses her admiration for Sarek.
Dr. Corrigan wonders if T’Mir wants to marry him just so she can escape Pon Farr. They discuss Pon Farr long and long and it begins to sound like marital rape. They mindmeld and this time it’s ok that it reads like sex because it is. Then they have sex.
Vulcan’s ‘moon’ T’Khut is explained for the first time in print.
Dr. Sorel must find a new wife before he goes into Pon Farr again in less than 5 years.
Sarek tells McCoy a very sweet story about meeting and courting Amanda.
Kirk and T’Pau bond over an ancient manuscript and he explains his actions in “Amok Time.”
Kirk sees T’Pring’s rejection of Spock as proof that Vulcans be illogical. I disagree. I feel she was coldly logical.
Vulcans try to breed lying out of their children. They do not lie. But if they do, it can be discovered by ‘Verification,’ which is a rapey mindmeld which can result in madness or death.
Vulcans just meld all over the place. All of the time. It’s kinda open. Swingy.
Eleyna takes Kirk on a picnic in the desert. While they make out, she trips and falls against him, pushing him down a canyon and breaking his ankle. She leaves him and goes for help. Kirk should stop kissing on first dates.
After 5 hours stranded in the moonless desert, Kirk begins to realize Sendet may not have been the killer. And maybe Eleyna pushed him on purpose. And maybe she left him to die. Or maybe! A le-matya ate her! He is attacked by a le-matya and passes out after killing it.
McCoy realizes Kirk’s I trouble and takes Sarek’s car out into the desert and finds him.
Sarek is teaching class when Amanda calls out to him mentally that she is danger. He RUNS. The power goes out and he can’t get to her, so he and Spock mindmeld with Amanda to save her.
Amanda tells Sarek she loves him. He calls her beloved.
As they leave Amanda’s room, Eleyna approaches and expresses sorrow over Amanda’s death. McCoy shouts that she’s the killer!
Sarek sees green. He asks her why she did it. It’s because she’s in love with Sarek. She killed T’Zan and Remington with bad aim, set the fire, tried to kill Kirk, and feels it is unfair that Amanda still lives.
‘Beloved’ is not a pet name. Amanda literally means beloved.
I have no idea what that creature on cover is or why it’s menacing Spock.
WTF: