“There are no troublemakers on Perry… none at all…”
Stardate: 6827.3
The Enterprise is in a stable orbit around a dead uninhabited planet (an unnamed orange planet). The ship is strained from weeks of work and the crew is long overdue for some rest and relaxation on Starbase 6 but first they must transport a medical team to Waycross where the Enterprise will also receive needed repairs (the ship’s dilithium crystal supply is dangerously low). However, surprise-surprise, a Klingon ship appears out of nowhere after having inexplicably evaded the Enterprise’s sensors. The Klingons immediately begin threatening the Enterprise. We learn their leader is named Korol, a brother of Khall, another Klingon whom Kirk had previously fought to the death in hand-to-hand combat on a remote jungle planet. Now, Korol wants his vengeance on Kirk so he swears a Klingon “oath of blood.” Yet curiously Korol quickly disappears after announcing his plan to strike Kirk at a future unexpected moment –why not simply attack Kirk right away? This is followed by an attack on the transporter.
“You lived, Kirk. My brother died. There is the difference. You will pay for that difference, pay dearly. Not now, maybe not tomorrow, but someday. Someday, when you least expect it, I will kill you. Slowly. Painfully. It will give me great pleasure. I have sworn the oath of blood upon our father’s grave” (5).
At any rate, before the Enterprise can continue along on its mission, Vice-Commodore Larry Propp of the USS Phoenix relays a message from headquarters (Propp was so-named by Jack Haldeman after Larry Propp who was co-chair of the 1982 WorldCon). The Enterprise is urgently needed over at a planet called Perry where a remote colony has recently made contact via “subspace transmission” requesting to join the Federation. The Enterprise just so happens to be the nearest ship to Perry. From here the crew researches the history of this mysterious colony on Perry: a group of colonists left earth some 300 years ago and, using a modified ramjet, ion-drive ship, they made landing on Perry, the fourth of eight planets in that star system (a “Class M-one” planet). The colony was led by a mysterious philanthropist and scientist named Wayne Perry. Little is known about what happened to him. Another ship, the USS Potemkin, was set to visit Perry in six months, but now the Enterprise will replace that mission.
Upon arrival at Perry, the Enterprise organizes a landing party with the usual cast of characters meets a remarkable local culture –everyone on Perry wears baggy shirts and slacks, as well as colorful scarves to denote their employment status, and they have limited access to technology. They meet a woman named Ami and a man named Rus, both pages of the ruling council (then they meet Jon, Mika, Dawn, Joan and others of the council). The Enterprise has apparently been summoned to Perry because some members of the colony have recently grown interested in space travel. But before long the whole Enterprise crew gets infected with a mysterious disease (a “psychoactive virus”) that prevents people from committing acts of violence. If people attempt to become violent, they immediately lose consciousness and have no memory of the impending conflict. This unusual virus spreads back aboard the Enterprise just as the Klingons under Korol suddenly reappear and attack Enterprise while the ship starts losing power.
Back on the surface, the landing party encounters a shockingly young and spry Wayne Perry, even though he should be about 300 years. They quickly discover Wayne Perry is actually a holographic computer construct. What does this mean? Why does he exist? What is his function? Apparently this version of Wayne Perry has been ruling the planet like a god and it was he who seeded this strange virus in the colonists to prevent violence. Indeed, he dubs it a success and hopes to spread the virus throughout the galaxy. Eventually, Kirk, Spock, and the others investigate in the chambers beneath the city (a shielded area which causes them to lose contact with the ship). Here they learn about a race of “Immunes” who have been unaffected by the virus (though the Immunes are also incapable of reproducing). Then the crewmen find an underground lair where something horrifying lies: “On the platform lay a man. His hair was long, pure white, cascading nearly to the floor. His fingernails were at least six inches long. Wires and tubes le from his body to a control board” (98). This is the original Wayne Perry who is dying. As Spock explains, he is suffering from Dexter’s disease, a neurological degeneration that causes megalomania.
The landing party then persuades the Wayne Perry holographic construct to hook Spock up the device since the real Wayne Perry is dying. Spock agrees to this dangerous procedure. Meanwhile, back aboard the Enterprise, Scotty develops a rash plan to thwart the Klingons. He beams over to Korol’s ship and infects the Klingons with the mysterious psychoactive virus, causing all the Klingons to faint before they can attack him, while the rest of Enterprise crew can steal the Klingon dilithium crystals, as well as their device that was used to evade Federation sensors. The Klingons are thus rendered incapacitated while Bones develops an inoculation for the disease and Rus and Ami finally confront Wayne Perry while Spock successfully overcomes his assimilation to the machine’s power. In the end, the Enterprise successfully ends the tyrannical reign of Wayne Perry on Perry and as for the Klignons, the Klingon priest accuses Korol of breaking his “blood oath” thus Korol is to be severely punished by the Klingon High Council. The Enterprise crew all embrace each other in a silly closing scene reminiscent of many third season episodes. So ends this quirky little Star Trek adventure.
Perry’s Planet is one of the shorter Star Trek novels. It offers an amusing, albeit entirely predictable little adventure (reminiscent of any number of TOS episodes like “The Return of the Archons” or “The Apple” among others) in which a tyrannical demagogue oversteps his rule with ostensibly good intentions (ending violence). The concept of the Klingon “oath of blood” is further explored here, as is the idea of Federation diplomacy, though there is curiously no mention of the Prime Directive or the existence of Klingon shields. And as far as characters go, Scotty’s thick brogue is successfully captured, in addition to familiar character traits seen in Nurse Chapel, Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu, and Bones even is given a new love interest (Dr. Kelly Davis) though she decides to remain behind on Perry. All in all, another middle-of-the-road Bantam era Star Trek novel.
Haldeman II, Jack C. Perry’s Planet. Bantam Books, New York, New York, 1980 (republished in 1996). Dedicated to Alice Lorena and Jennifer Sarah “Good kids.” Jack Haldeman (1941-2002) was a biologist, science fiction writer, and brother of award-winning science fiction author Joe Haldeman (who wrote two early Trek novels “Planet of Judgment” and “World Without End“). According to Jeff Ayers in his wonderful resource book Star Trek: Voyages of the Imagination, Joe Haldeman handed over all his Star Trek notes to his brother but they never discussed Perry’s Planet and Joe Haldeman has never read another Star Trek having been burnt out on Star Trek. Jack Haldeman chaired numerous science fiction conventions throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He died in 2002 of cancer.
Poor Korol