“I can’t say as ever I was lost–
But I was bewildered once for three days” –Daniel Boone
Stardate: Unknown (2259)
The first novel in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds literary line comes from the skilled hand of John Jackson Miller, a fan favorite writer of Star Wars and Star Trek media tie-in books (as well as a recent celebrated duology of Batman novels). Based heavily on episodes like Star Trek: Enterprise’s “North Star,” John Jackson Miller’s The High Country offers a part-Western, part-high fantasy adventure as the Enterprise visits a remote, little-known planet that prevents the use of technology in order to preserve a utopian, luddite way of life. The events of this novel take place in 2259 (the exact stardate is unknown) following the capture of the U.S.S. Enterprise by the pirates of the Serene Squall (as seen in the episode “The Serene Squall” from Season 1, Episode Seven) and before the routine survey of the Jonisian Nebula in which Dr. M’Benga’s daughter’s fantasy book comes to life (as seen in “The Elysian Kingdom” Season 1, Episode Eight). As a big fan of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, I had a great time with The High Country, even though I would submit that it is perhaps a bit too long and perhaps a bit too complicated for my taste.
At the outset, the Enterprise enters the Bullseye Nebula as they approach an unnamed planet (FGC-7781 b), a pre-warp society near the last known position of the U.S.S. Braidwood, a civilian anthropological expedition that was most recently heard from a year ago. In order to avoid violating the Prime Directive (General Order One), a landing party of Pike, Spock, Uhura, and Una are dispatched via the special Eratosthenes shuttle (designed by former Enterprise Chief Engineer, Professor Galadjian). The shuttle Eratasthones was named after the first human to calculate Earth’s circumference and axial tilt using only pillars and shadows. However, as the shuttle approaches the planet, it suddenly malfunctions and all systems go down. In order to save the traveling crew’s life, Hemmer makes the risky decision to use the transporter beam to send them down to the nearby foreign planet. Security Chief La’an Noonien Singh is left in charge of the Enterprise.
Down on the planet, we are given four different storylines of the crewmen which all eventually intersect –Pike awakens in an old Western farm town, Spock awakens underwater, Uhura awakens in a volcanic wasteland, and Una Chin-Rieley awakens in a forest filled with dangerous creatures. Throughout the novel, Miller paints an immense picture of a complex world filled with varying landscapes, creatures, languages, topography, and diversity –the scope is epic. We are shown one planet, with many different communities and cultures all living in harmony. We learn that the planet is called “Epheska” and the people are called Skagarans. Notably, Miller offers us readers five different maps to orient us to this vast world. From regions like the Gorm Tigah settlement, the Sawgrass, the Sunny Valley, Havenbrook, the Island of Nerathos, Dry River, the Temple of Agar, Grandwood, Goldmeadow, and Om Mataya to creatures like the ollodon, Yuganan, hennigars (native fowl), and communication devices like the zazic and rondures, as well as people like the Zoldaari, Menders, and the ancient Strooh people, The High Country is a staggering achievement of rich science fiction-fantasy imagination. Especially when one considers that most Star Trek adventures merely feature simplified planets with easily understood monocultures.
At any rate, along the way Pike encounters a band of friendly locals as well as an old childhood friend (who once taught him his equestrian skills on earth) named Lila Talley, a warden among the Skagarans who lives a simple life as a sheep-herder ever since she crashed onto the planet aboard the U.S.S. Braidwood. She later turns out to be traitorous as she reports Pike and the Enterprise to the planet’s leader, General Drayko, who is featured leading the Skagarans through a grand religious ceremony known as the Jubilee. Pike is very nearly taken by Drayko until he flees to the far-side of the planet with his merry band of rebels in a literal wagon train (as opposed to a “wagon train to the stars”). At the same time, Una Chin-Rieley is rescued from the forest by a large hunter of sorts named Celarius (who later turns out to be a prince, the son of General Drayko, a name that connects him to Miller’s previous Star Trek: Picard novel entitled Rogue Elements). She is soon reunited with Uhura who has mounted a traumatizing, lonely, multi-day escape from the craggy volcanic mountain where she had materialized. There, she encountered a mysterious flaming force that appears to be a living form of fire which she keeps inside a lantern, it is responsive to Uhura’s empathetic emotions (Uhura calls it an “empatherm” which she nicknames “Empy”). It is a living being with a beginning and end, but it cannot feel harm and represents the living will of Epheska made manifest, serving only those who care for the planet (though the Skagaran luddites have forced it to do their bidding). Thus, “Empy” serves Uhura throughout the novel and it comes to her rescue at several key moments. As it turns out, the locals call this strange substance the “sah’ree” or “Sorry,” though they do not really understand it. Anyway, Uhura and Una Chin-Rieley are imprisoned by General Drayko before they escape with Celarius and later regroup with Pike, after he has stumbled upon Spock who has been rescued in an old 18th century seafaring vessel called the H.M.S. Thunderer populated by Vulcans (there are many relics on Epheska apparently left behind by Chinese colonists who were once brought to this planet centuries earlier, the Vulcans crash-landed about a hundred years ago and sought to keep to themselves away from General Drayko’s civilization).
Throughout all of this, the Enterprise has been unable to contact its landing party due to a device on Epheska called the “Baffle” which disrupts the use of any modern technology. If the Enterprise gets too close, its systems will fail just like the Eratosthenes shuttle (plus Dr. M’Benga worries that his daughter, who is trapped inside the ship’s transporter to save her, will die –her story is told in the episode “The Elysian Kingdom”). Some on Epheska celebrate their simple life. They have deliberately hidden themselves away inside this nebula to escape the galaxy and its ruin, hoping to remain in a state of grace and practice their craft rather than industry. However, Pike and his crew must find a way to escape. He manages to communicate with La’an on the Enterprise via old-fashioned methods (i.e. morse code) and she manages to send down various rounds of supplies (such as a canister of viridium to track Pike), along with the ship’s Aenar engineer Hemmer, who winds up constructing a rudimentary ice transport from the seafaring vessel materials (dubbed the “Thunderer II”) that leads them up to The Devil’s Dish where the Baffle system can be controlled, but if reversed it might the harmonious life on Epheska, and if dialed upward, it could run the risk of destroying all nearby ships and magnetism on surrounding planets. The results could be suicidal and catastrophic.
In the end, all parties converge on the Baffle and it is Lila Talley who pushes the dial, hoping to gain revenge on the Klingons who murdered many of her friends and family on the planet Kelfour VI. When she activates it, many of the crew are stretched out into the universe via the planetary “rondures” (orb-shaped methods of communication that appear throughout the novel) creating a “baffle bubble” until Uhura destroys the main rondure (the “nodal rondure”) with the help of the Enterprise and its transporter while Pike appeals to Lila’s emotions for her long-lost neighbors and family (apparently, she once had three children who were killed). In the end, the disastrous effects of dialing up the Baffle are prevented while the Enterprise crew can now be safely beamed away from Epheska. The Vulcans are given the chance to go home, while Lila Talley is given her chance to live a remote life (throughout the novel, there is an unspoken romantic tension between the two that is never really addressed, and in the end, Pike simply departs for another mission). However, there was also unspoken romantic tension between Una/Number One and Celarius –will he ever return again in the future? Amazingly, none of the characters from either the Enterprise or on Epheska dies in this story so it’s entirely possible that we might see Lila Talley or Celarius again down the road.
“Behind every explorer is an exploiter” (88).
Notes:
- A.E. Hodgkin has been mentioned in several other Star Trek novels and episodes. He had been studying termites more than a century earlier than this novel when he came up with his Law of Parallel Planetary Development (a reference to Star Trek Enterprise).
- Uhura reflects on the fact that her parents taught at the University of Nairobi. Her parents and brother died in a shuttle accident. In her homeland, she remembered several volcanic features such as the extinct Mount Kenya and Emuruangogolak on the Gregory Rift.
- Dr. Galadjian is a reference to Star Trek Discovery.
- Reference to the Nimitz-class starship, Admiral Brett Anderson had gone down in one called the Europa at the outset of the Klingon War.
- As a kid in California, Pike mentions how he visited Bar T Ranch.
- The Skagarans came to Epheska as a Luddite colony from earth.
- Of the prime Directive, Pike says Starfleet previously called it General Order One, a noninterference doctrine.
- Klingon monastery at Boreth (a reference to Star Trek Discovery).
- The mororse code Pike sends to the Enterprise is “11010100101” which stands for “NCC-1701” as well as Code 710, a warning for starships not to approach.
- Captain Pike acknowledges that his name comes from an object for striking a fish.
- Captain Georgiou (Star Trek Discovery) once traced a Starfleet chevron into a surface to alert Shenzhou.
- Pike was lost in the Pergamum Nebula (apparently, a nod to Star Trek Discovery).
- Several Klingons are mentioned like Khaless the Unforgettable (founder of the Empire) and T’Kuvma (who sought recent destructive conflict with the Federation).
- Pike’s father was a science teacher who taught comparative religions.
- The Vulcan Navy on Epheska is led by T’Var (he has been referenced in other Star Trek novels).
- Lila Talley was once part of a luddite colony on earth. Her neighbors and family then fled for Kelfour VI where the Klingons killed them by burning up the atmosphere.
- As this novel appeals heavily to Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek Enterprise, Jonathan Archer is mentioned numerous times.
Miller, John Jackson. Star Trek Strange New Worlds – The High Country. Gallery Books, New York, NY, 2023.