“Loving a Vulcan is a disease…”
Stardate: 6451.3
Initially written as a script for The Original Series, Kathleen Sky later reworked the story and published it as the novel Vulcan!, the eighth book in the original Bantam “Star Trek Adventures” book series, after the show was not renewed for a fourth season. Vulcan! was written with assistance from Kathleen Sky’s second husband Stephen Goldin (who also penned the Star Trek novel Trek to Madworld), along with help from Dorothy Fontana who apparently helped clarify certain facts about Vulcan sexuality (she apparently attempted to lay to rest the myth that Vulcans mate only once every seven years).
In the novel Vulcan! we learn that ion storms are rolling through Romulan space and they are affecting a huge magnetic field along the Romulan Neutral Zone, pushing a remote system aptly called “Arachnae” from Federation space into Romulan territory. The Enterprise has been assigned to chart this unusual shift and possibly stop it from happening. For this mission, Kirk is given the honorary rank of Ambassador and he is allowed permission to violate the Prime Directive if needed. But the biggest new introduction in the book is Dr. Katalya Tremain, a beautiful woman who is a foremost exobiology expert in this region of space. But Kirk is worried about her. Starfleet has informed him that Dr. Tremain is very difficult to work with, yet Commodore David Stone (from the episode “Court Martial“) insists that she participate in the mission. However, this insistence becomes even more absurd when she arrives on the Enterprise from Starbase Eleven and immediately demands to leave. Why? Because she has a deep hatred of Vulcans –she refuses to work alongside Spock!
Nevertheless, she is compelled to stay aboard the Enterprise by Commodore Stone for some strange reason. Very quickly Dr. McCoy grows enamored with Dr. Tremain. He is fascinated by her brilliance (she published a landmark book on the Diplopoda of Marius IV) along with her physical prettiness. He runs a series of aptly named “Sigmund” psychoanalytic tests on her. These tests are intended to assess her mental state and determine where she developed such a fierce hatred of Vulcans. But we have to wonder where the “Sigmund” tests have been in the past? Wouldn’t this have served an important function on prior missions? It’s always a bit dangerous to introduce new technology like this just to service a new plot. At any rate, Bones probes around in her mind in attempt to figure out why she hates Vulcans so much. Here, he learns that the captain of her late husband Jeremy Tremain’s ship, The Calypso, had been a Vulcan named Selik, who was sent to the planet Bellaea where the ship became infected with parasitic creatures. And while the parasites were eating away the instruments and destroying the ship’s life support systems, Selik decided to destroy The Calypso, killing all aboard, rather than risk the parasites spreading any further. Bones thinks this explains why Dr. Tremain despises Vulcans, but Spock suspects there might another deeper cause after he researches her file and finds that her parents were also senior officers The Calypso when it was destroyed. We later learn that Dr. Tremain’s marriage to Jeremy Tremain was also falling apart at that time, as well.
On the way to Arachnae, we meet a panoply of new Enterprise crewmen, such as Ruth Rigel, chief veterinarian who has a pet mongcat named “Fuzzybutt,” and other crewmen like Ensign Theodore Lowrey, Shigada, Mueller, Dickinson, Mendoza, Achroyd and others. When the Enterprise arrives at Arachnae IV, the Enterprise finds it to be a dry Class-M planet populated by strange “Arachnian” creatures. The Arachnians appear to be a cross between large ants and tarantulas with golden fur. The crew quickly organizes a landing party to investigate the Arachnians, hoping to see if they are intelligent, and potentially rescue them from impending Romulan domination. But they must work speedily because the planet is quickly being pushed into Romulan territory and the Enterprise fears a hostile Romulan ship may soon arrive to claim the planet. In one of the more bizarre twists in the plot, Bones accidentally misses joining the landing party (despite promising Dr. Tremain he would join her on the surface) because he decides to help Lt. Rigel find her missing mongcat “Fuzzybutt” which has apparently gone missing…? This ridiculous little plotpoint reminded me a bit of Sulu’s rat who goes missing in Mission to Horatius.
So the landing party (sans Bones) beams down to the planet surface only to be immediately attacked by Arachnians. About half a dozen crewmen are severely wounded, all of them die from their wounds, leaving only Spock and Dr. Tremain stranded together. Then, before the Enterprise can beam them back aboard the ship, the Romulans suddenly arrive and the Enterprise cannot risk lowering its shields to activate the transporter. Thus, Spock and Dr. Tremain are left completely alone to explore the planetary caves together wherein they find an Arachnian hive, and in the ensuing adventure, they grow a bit closer (cue the outrageous sexual innuendo as Spock invites Dr. Tremain to “sleep with him” for warmth, he grabs her rear-end while they are rock climbing, and Dr. Tremain even strips down to bathe while she believes Spock is sleeping). Eventually, Spock is violently attacked by an Arachnian but he somehow manages to find the strength to perform a mindmeld with the creature. But when Spock discovers that the Arachnians are, in fact, not intelligent creatures, his mind is soon altered (apparently a mindmeld with a intelligent creature can cause serious harm to the melder). Meanwhile, the Enterprise remains in a stand-off with the Romulan Commander Maximus Thrax of the “Decius” while in orbit over Arachnae. Here, we are given a few terrific scenes of the internal struggles facing Thrax and his son Licinius aboard the Decius. Back on the surface, Spock somehow also mindmelds with Dr. Tremain as she makes an effort to return his mental state to normalcy. While probing around in her mind, he finally discovers the secret as to why she hates Vulcans. As it turns out, she was actually in love with Selik, the Vulcan captain who set The Calypso to self-destruct when it was infiltrated by parasites. And to this day, she is still in love with Selik’s ghost. Spock tries to set her mind right by overcoming this painful memory.
In the end, Kirk finally decides to drop the Enterprise’s shields for a brief moment in order to beam Spock and Dr. Tremain back to the ship along with the dead bodies from the landing party. This occurs just moments before Arachnae is fully absorbed by Romulan space. While the shields are down, Kirk threatens Romulan Commander Thrax that he will blow up their ship if they try to attack while the Enterprise is beaming up its crew. Thrax suspects a trap but he allows this to transpire anyway. As the novel concludes, Kirk gives his regards to Thrax and wishes him luck with managing the planet Arachnae as the Enterprise sails away. Meanwhile, Dr. Tremain expresses her wish to visit the planet Vulcan so she can finally rid herself of all the prejudicial toxins in her mind about Vulcans.
Vulcan! is another fairly ridiculous early Star Trek novel, though I will confess I enjoyed this one far more than most of the other books in the “Star Trek Adventures” series. I was drawn to the idea that an ion storm can alter the boundary along the Romulan Neutral Zone, the very notion of the mysterious Romulans has fascinated me ever since the classic episode “Balance of Terror.” And it was nice to see some other points of continuity, like the appearance of the Horta creatures on Arachnae (from “Devil in the Dark”) in addition to Bones dropping some of his classic phrases like “She’s dead, Jim.” I always appreciate stories that show us the perspective of the Federation’s enemies, which in this case is Romulan Commander Thrax and his son Licinius (these scenes were another nice nod to “Balance of Terror”) and the central question over whether or not the Arachnians are intelligent creatures was interesting.
However, this story is still riddled with all manner of absurdities. For example, why would Starfleet insist on Dr. Tremain boarding the Enterprise if she holds nothing but contempt for Vulcans? And once she is aboard the ship, what are we to make of the “Sigmund” test she is administered? How is this an ethical test? To what extent is it a form of indoctrination? Wouldn’t the crew have been able to use this device on any number of other missions? And why not instead simply have Spock conduct a mindmeld with Dr. Tremain earlier in the story while she is incapacitated? Unfortunately, the odd romantic love triangle between Dr. Tremain, Bones, and Spock sinks this story for me and it leads to more headshakes reminiscent of the silly “slash” era nonsense. At one point, Dr. Tremain is even holding Kirk’s hand as they discuss the landing party!
Kathleen Sky wrote a second Star Trek novel entitled Death’s Angel (1981), which wound up being the final book in the “Star Trek Adventures” series. I guess I will look forward to giving it a read in the future. In the edition I read of Vulcan! the one and only David Gerrold offers a fond introductory tribute to Kathleen Sky which is well worth a read for Trek fans –and once again Bob Larkin’s original cover art is wonderful!
Sky, Kathleen. Vulcan! Bantam Books, New York, New York, September 1978 (fifth printing through June 1985). “This book is dedicated, with love, to Dorothy Fontana, who was there at the beginning…”