“So you really did lose your memory…”
Stardate: Unknown (this book takes place in the summer and autumn of 2279 approximately six years after the events of V’Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and six years prior to Khan Noonien Singh’s escape from exile on Ceti Alpha V in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan).
Sudden bursts of gravimetric electromagnetic energy (wormhole fluctuations, or “vacuum flares”) begin randomly striking ships outside Argelius II (pronounced “Arg-ee-lee-yuhs,” the hedonistic planet from the episode “Wolf in the Fold”). The causes are unknown but they are growing in both number and frequency. The strikes are akin to lightning, perhaps not unlike “The Lights of Zetar.” Commander Pavel Chekov, aboard the USS Reliant (helmed by Captain Clark Terrell) is joined by Captain Spock of the USS Enterprise as they discover a surprising pattern to the vacuum flares: the Enterprise once visited each system where the flares are striking in reverse order. The Enterprise visited Argelius for shore leave (“Wolf in the Fold”), Altair VI for an inauguration ceremony (“Amok Time”), Deneva to rescue the people from a neural infestation (“Operation — Annihilate!”), Cygnet XIV for computer maintenance (as referenced in “Tomorrow is Yesterday”), and finally Makus III for a medical supply run (“The Galileo Seven”). Then there are more strikes near the Vega colony (from “The Cage” and “The Menagerie” two-parter), and a terrifying series of strikes on Denobula, killing over a hundred people, before Earth itself appears to be threatened. The one thing all these vacuum flares have in common? Uhura visited the surface of each planet during the Enterprise original five-year mission.
Meanwhile, Admiral Kirk is currently serving as commandant of cadets at Starfleet Academy. He oversees a diplomatic mission to return the “Sword of Renz Verus” from the Andorians to the Romulans. This ancient sword had been the traditional symbol of the famous Renz Verus shipyards on Romulus for centuries, but when the sword was lost in the Earth-Romulan War, the Romulans blamed the Andorians. Now, returning the sword is a gesture of good will. However, despite the Romulans being pacified to some extent, and the Klingon War having ended, the Federation still has its enemies. Admiral Kirk encounters an Arcturian named Rakatheema who alerts Starfleet to the existence of a genetically modified ancestral warrior race developed on Arcturus (the Arcturians are pale hairless humanoids who experience a rapid maturation and learning process; their sacred duty is to fight only in defense of Arcturus). The Arcturian warriors are known as the “Warborn” and they have been kept in cryogenic stasis for many years, waiting to be awoken.
Some in Starfleet are optimistic that the 20,000 Warborn can be used as a tool to defend the Federation, while others claim the Warborn are arguably a type of augment, and therefore incompatible with Federation ethics. After all, wasn’t this the primary concern with Khan Noonien Singh? The Arcturians debate the issue among themselves. The more forward-thinking optimists believe the Warborn can successfully serve the Federation and Starfleet, while more ancestral traditionalists claim the Warborn can only to defend their home planet of Arcturus and nothing more. “However much you profess your benevolent intentions, being in Starfleet forces people to become fighters. Trying to be both scientists and soldiers at once –it keeps you from doing either one as well as you should” (79). This whole ethical dilemma raises all sorts of fascinating issues in the novel, but ultimately Starfleet is persuaded to awaken the Warborn (many of whom have been dying as a result of stasis failure) and we learn that they are named after Shakespearean characters like Portia, Bertram, and Horatio and so on. The Warborn are put through a shortened but rigorous cadet training program at Starfleet Academy, thanks to Rakatheema and a lovely pediatrician named Ashley Janith-Lau, whom we initially believe to be a romantic interest for Kirk but who later turns out to be infatuated with Dr. Leonard McCoy. However, when Rakatheema is shockingly murdered at Starfleet Academy, it’s left to Admiral Kirk and a few old friends to help solve the mystery.
“We don’t know what new challenges we’ll face if we admit the Warborn. But we don’t know what challenges we’ll face if we go out to explore other planets, meet other cultures. And that is exactly why we do it. That, to us, is the very thing that makes it impossible to pass up” (35).
At the same time, as the vacuum flares continue to grow, Spock, Scotty, Chekov and others bring Uhura in for questioning (both Montgomery Scott and Nyota Uhura are currently serving aboard the USS Asimov) at which time we are reminded of a little-explored incident in the Enterprise’s five-year mission in which Uhura’s memory was mostly wiped clean by the hostile space probe known as Nomad (from the episode “The Changeling”). This whole debacle caused her to struggle to recall her early life and so as the former crewmen try to uncover this strange mystery we are given a rare and wonderful glimpse into Uhura’s backstory. We meet her long-lost family living on Earth in the United States of Africa (M’Umbha and Alhamisi) as well as her former lover Rajendra “Jen” Shastri who describes how they initially fell in love when they were both subspace hams, before Uhura was singing one day and accidentally made contact with an ancient race of plasma beings who were living in the early minutes of the universe. She and Rajendra often made contact with these beings during periods of shore leave together, but since Uhura has gone silent after losing her memory (and Starfleet has ordered the whole effort classified), the plasma beings have gotten increasingly erratic with their attempts to re-establish communication with Uhura, hence the vacuum flares.
After some of uncomfortable scenes of Rajendra struggling to reconcile the fact that Uhura cannot remember him (even though he is now married with a child), they decide to re-establish contact with the plasma beings with Uhura singing an old Martian love song to them. Why did the plasma beings reach out and attempt to communicate in the first place? The officers surmise that they were once members of a dying civilization –intelligent life from the primordial minutes of the universe, a recovered a memory from a lost era of the universe (it will likely take generations of Starfleet scientists to dissect their messages) but we believe they were simply calling out for someone to notice them… and after all isn’t that what living things want; to be remembered?
In the end, the vacuum flares finally stop as the plasma beings receive Uhura’s song, and also Kirk et al solve the murder mystery at Starfleet Academy. As it turns out, the true killer was Portia’s brother Horatio (who was able to frame her since they share similar a DNA signature). Why did he kill Rakatheema? Horatio believed the purpose of the Warborn must remain pure and Rakatheema was a threat to that very concept. He confesses the whole plot on his deathbed before his sister Portia snaps his neck.
Living Memory is a terrific and meticulously researched Star Trek novel (for a full review of all the references mentioned in this book see Christopher L. Bennett’s website). In addition to portraying a great deal more of Uhura’s life, we are given lots of little nods to other character’s backstories, like Sulu’s discovery of his daughter Demora (from Star Trek Generations) and there are plenty of connections to other Star Trek novels, such as the character Rhenas Sherev who previously appeared in The Captain’s Oath or Uhura’s charting mission on the Asimov which is a continuation of the mission she began in The Higher Frontier. Additionally, lots of familiar alien species appear in this novel (the Arcturians actually appear in the background of Star Trek: The Motion Picture), but there are also lesser creatures mentioned like the Tiburonians (Dr. Sevrin’s species from the episode “The Way to Eden”), the feather-winged Aurelians (from The Animated Series), and even the humanoid antlike Kaferians on Tau Ceti III (from the TNG episode “The Big Goodbye”). It is all very impressive!
With the era of the TOS films being a somewhat less explored timeline in the Star Trek litverse, Living Memory is given quite a lot of creative room to explore here. By this point in the canon, the original crew is all somewhat scattered: Admiral Kirk is Commandant of cadets at Starfleet Academy, Spock is Captain of the Enterprise, Sulu is an instructor at Starfleet Academy, Chekov is aboard the Reliant along with Lt. Kyle, and Scotty and Uhura are both serving aboard the Asimov. Yet despite being located all over the galaxy, the former crewmen are all still united by their shared service on the Enterprise. And even though the two separate plotlines in Living Memory are never really tied together (Plot A being the vacuum flares, Plot B being the Warborn dilemma), I still thought Living Memory was another standout Star Trek novel from Christopher L. Bennett. This is a fitting tribute to the life and legacy of the late Nichelle Nichols who played Nyota Uhura.
Bennett, Christopher. Living Memory. Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, New York, New York, 2021. Dedicated to Nichelle Nichols.