“Sometimes I think peace is only war in disguise” (126).
Stardate: 4720.1
The Enterprise is mapping a Class-Q planet called Delta Canaris IV, which is emanating heavy gravity waves and requires constant ship adjustments. Morale is high among the crew (even though they haven’t had decent shore leave since Argelius, as depicted in the original series episode “Wolf in the Fold”). Captain Kirk handles some ordinary ship business, like disciplining Scotty’s Engineering chief, an attractive young woman named Heather McConnel, for rigging a gambling scam of some sort (it becomes readily apparent that Scotty is madly in love with her). However, before long Kirk receives an urgent encrypted message from Starfleet designated solely for him and the Enterprise is urgently whisked away at warp factor eight to tend to an emergency with the Klingons on Alnath II, a planet which is located in neutral space between the Federation and the Klingons.
Along the way they encounter a Vulcan science ship, the T’Pau, whose entire seventy-two-member crew has been killed. And they are all dead seemingly without reason. What killed them? Did the Klingons use a new secret weapon? The mystery only deepens when the Vulcan bodies are beamed back to the Enterprise and Dr. M’Benga is not about to find an apparent cause of death for any of them (Dr. M’Benga has studied on Vulcan and thus he understands Vulcan anatomy far better than Dr. McCoy).
Upon arrival at Alnath II, the Enterprise meets a disagreeable, eccentric Andorian archaeologist of great renown named Threllvon-da. He is leading a team of Andorian scientists on the planet’s surface. Amidst his jumbled ramblings, Dr. Threllvon reveals he has uncovered the mysterious ruins of a large pyramid structure, the remnants of an ancient race that apparently fled the planet long ago. Later, he finds a hidden underground city with glowing colors powered by a strange central energy source. The Enterprise offers assistance to Dr. Threllvon-da (especially Spock’s young trainee, Lt. Candra Avitts, who is fervently in love with her mentor). The Enterprise also squares off with a huge Klingon dreadnought in the vicinity of the planet, called the “Terror” and helmed by Commander Kalan (The Klingon Gambit takes place after the establishment of the Organian Peace Treaty as depicted in the classic episode “Errand of Mercy”).
However, strange things start happening. Fights break out among the crew, people are easily angered, Chekov gets trigger-happy with the Klingons, Spock’s emotions get the better of him, Dr. McCoy grows borderline insubordinate with Captain Kirk, Scotty roams the ship stripping it for parts to obsessively improve the engines, Uhura openly fantasizes about Dr. M’Benga, and general chaos ensues (reminiscent of “The Naked Time”). At one point, we see half-naked crewmen running about as Kirk walks by, and Lt. Kyle is not focused on his job at the transporter, instead busy sculpting things like the Venus de Milo, while Lt. Gordon gets drunk while he is supposed to be maintaining the life support systems, and even Nurse Chapel and Lt. Avitts nearly come to blows over Spock’s affections (they yell at each other and level epithets like “slut!”). What is going on here? Is the crew merely succumbing to a bout of “space happy” cabin fever as Bones seems to think? Or is there something more nefarious at work?
Kirk and crew eventually are persuaded that the Klingons have truly traveled to Alnath II simply for a mining operation. They are digging an ore out of the planet called topaline (used to power their life support systems), rather than unleashing a super weapon. And their machinery keeps interfering with Dr. Threllvon-da’s work. But the Klingons are actually facing their own insubordination crisis aboard the aptly-named “Terror” as Kalan’s second-in-command Kislath tries to instigate a mutiny. Amidst considerable jockeying between the Enterprise and the “Terror,” Kirk manages to save Commander Kalan and negotiate a truce over Alnath II so the Klingons can mine topaline and the Federation can conduct archaeological research. But at one point in the squabble, Kislath successfully fired upon the Enterprise –why didn’t this trigger a violation of the Organian Peace Treaty?
In the end, Dr. Threllvon-da finds a green-tinted crystalline jewel that appears to be the energy source for the ancient city. It has qualities that are reminiscent of a virus, it has been causing everyone to behave in such a strange manner. The Enterprise crew places the jewel inside a rodinium box and tensions are immediately eased. From here, we learn that the jewel actually produces what people deeply desire most of all: Scotty wanted to super-tune the engines, Lt. Kyle wanted to be a great sculptor, each of the Klingons wanted to be commander of the ship, and others wanted less tangible things like emotions. The jewel affects beings differently. Though Kirk was conveniently unaffected because what he desired most of all was peace with the Klingons. And apparently the jewel constructed the city on Alnath II because Threllvon-da wanted desired most of all was to find an ancient underground city. Additionally, the Vulcans aboard the T’Pau all died because they desired to become “pure intellects freed from physical bodies” which Spock notes is the logical conclusion of physical existence (hence why they were not actually killed by the Klingons). This is all quickly revealed in the last page or two of the novel.
My Thoughts on The Klingon Gambit
The Klingon Gambit is a fairly mediocre early Trek novel, reminiscent of the clumsy Bantam era (though perhaps it is a slight step above those clunkers). For starters, the title of this book is a bit misleading since there isn’t much of a “gambit” the Klingons are pursuing. And the novel is rife with all manner of ridiculous character portrayals, especially, the romances of Spock and Lt. Avitts, Scotty and Chief McConnel, Uhura and Dr. M’Benga and so on. I have always been allergic to wedged-in romance subplots in Star Trek, especially in the original series. At one point, Kirk and Scotty watch his young associate Chief McConel walk out the door and they comment on her attractive “behind twitching” as she walks away. There are one too many eye-rolling moments like this in The Klingon Gambit.
And there are many other head-scratching characterizations in this novel, as well. Perhaps most notoriously, Dr. McCoy is depicted as extremely cantankerous (even for him), showing little-to-no respect for Starfleet’s chain of command from the get-go (prior to arrival at Alnath II), disrespecting Captain Kirk and questioning all of his decisions. And to top it off, there are various dated tropes throughout the book like the fact that many non-white members of the crew are referred to distantly as “The Asian Man” (Sulu), “The Black Doctor” (M’Benga), “The Bantu Woman” (Uhura) and so on. Also, much of the Star Trek jargon has been mangled here, such as the “autochef,” the computer-driven “autosurgeon,” “ray guns,” and even “turbo elevators.”
Anyway, while there is a compelling premise here concerning a mysterious derelict science ship filled with deceased Vulcans and the need for the Enterprise to work together with the Klingons to resolve the dilemma on Alnath II, ultimately The Klingon Gambit is a skippable Star Trek novel.
Vardeman, Robert E. The Klingon Gambit. A Timescape Book published by Pocket Books New York, 1981. For “Mike and Marilyn, my favorite ‘Kring-ons.’”
Robert E. Vardeman (1947-present) was nominated for the 1972 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer after starting his career writing for fanzines. Throughout his career, he has written numerous science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and even video game tie-in works. He penned two Star Trek novels: The Klingon Gambit and Mutiny on the Enterprise. There is a wonderful interview with Robert Vardemann included in Jeff Ayers’s guidebook Voyages of Imagination and it comes recommended from me for fans of Trek literature.