“The mission of the Enterprise is one of discovery, not secrecy.
Let that be its tradition for generations to come.”
Stardate: Unknown (2268)
In a historian’s note, the third novel in the Legacies trilogy, Purgatory’s Key by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, takes place several months after the TOS episode “Journey to Babel” and immediately following the Romulan attack on the planet Centaurus (as depicted in the prior novel Best Defense). In this book, we pick up right where we left off in Best Defense. The Enterprise now has a damaged warp drive after the battle on Centaurus and Spock and Chekov devise a probe to be sent into the Jatohr universe in the hopes of tracking down Una, her lost crew, and now Sarek, Councillor Gorkon, Joanna McCoy (Bones’s daughter), and others who are trapped in the dreamy, disorienting, amnesia-filled Jahtor universe. The probe has been re-tuned to the atomic vibration of the Transfer Key in order to be sent directly into the other universe. Meanwhile, the Klingons have arrived on Usilde in the Libros System where they are desperately trying to figure out the Citadel. But they need the Transfer Key and soon find out that “it is as if the machine lives” in an amalgam of Klingon and Jahtor technology. Their numbers are greatly diminished by the floating Jahtor sentry globes all over the Citadel.
We also learn there is a vengeful Klingon named Commander Visla aboard the D5-class battle cruiser called the I.K.S. Qo’Daqh. Her son, K’tovel, was a crew member on the I.K.S. HoS’leth where he was denied an honorable death by Kirk and the Enterprise when the Klingons were beamed away and rescued from certain death. And now, Visla is on a mission to exact revenge on the Enterprise for disgracing her family. She eventually launches an attack on the Enterprise but it fails and she is taken aboard the Klingon ship, the Vron’joQ under Captain J’Teglyr. The other Klingons chastise her for nearly violating the Organian Peace Treaty (once again, the only thing keeping this fragile peace together is the Organian Peace Treaty as established in the classic TOS episode “Errand of Mercy”). And the giant slug-like Jahtor creatures are facing their own crisis of confidence under the authoritarian rule of Woryan thanks to renegade dissidents Jatohr like Cisdor and Anadac, the latter of whom is tasked with carrying on the work of Eljor, the Jahtor scientist who sacrificed himself eighteen years earlier in order to hand the Transfer Key over to Lieutenant Una and Captain April (as depicted in the first book Captain to Captain).
At the same time, Spock’s mother Amanda Grayson is traumatized after losing her husband Sarek in the alternate universe, but she holds out hope for his return after receiving mysterious telepathic visions from Sarek (thanks to their mind-melding at the time of their marriage). In the other (Jatohr) universe, Sarek has managed to dispel himself of the illusions in the Jahtor universe. He mentally enters a void, a higher plane of existence consisting of pure consciousness where he meets a mysterious friendly being called Edolon. As it turns out, the odd timeless quality of the Jahtor universe was merely a “Thoughtspace,” a waiting room of sorts for sentient beings when they entered the disorienting Jahtor universe made to look like a desert planet with twin suns (a la Tatooine) but is merely a shared mental construct. Only a being with truly strong mental disciple can free him or herself from this faux Thoughtspace. The real Jahtor universe occurs in the strange void (indeed, people who are killed in the Thoughtspace are not actually killed in reality). However, we learn why the Jahtor are so eager to leave their universe –because it is dying. In the strange void, Sarek manages to make contact with the Enterprise probe and relay critical information back to Spock and the crew (apparently, the probe causes agony to the Jahtor). Then, Sarek gathers up all the Usildar who have been imprisoned in the alternate universe and prepares them to be transferred back to Usilde.
In the end, Spock and a landing party infiltrate the Citadel on Usilde and activate the Transfer Key only to accidentally bring the Jatohr to Usilde instead, thanks to the Transfer Key’s pre-programming. And to make matters worse, the Citadel suddenly comes to life and begins accelerating in low orbit like a ship, while also releasing a dangerous chemical compound into the atmosphere that promises to threaten all non-Jatohr life forms, including the native humanoid Usildar. This creates an ominous ticking clock on the situation. However, in a bit of a contrived convenience, Woryan suffers a mental break during the transfer to Usilde and now Edolon becomes the Jatohr new leader. And, thankfully, Edolon is a more noble leader who promises not to colonize other worlds. And Visla makes one more attempt to destroy the Enterprise by slaying J’Teglyr, but she is then, in turn, also slain. And the day is saved thanks to Sarek’s contact with the probe, and also the mental connection between Sarek and Amanda, which allows for everyone in the Jahtor universe to be rescued.
The Federation pledges to dispatch the Jatohr to a more suitable planet while also promising to undo the negative terraforming of the Jahtor for the native Usildar on Usilde. All the people trapped in the Jatohr universe are brought back to the correct universe and Spock and his team are all beamed back to the Enterprise moments before the flying Citadel is destroyed. As the novel concludes, Kirk believes Starfleet command can be convinced that Una’s insubordination was actually for the greater good (I mean, it worked for Spock in “The Menagerie”) and the book ends as the Enterprise speeds off to Starbase 6 following a tearful reunion between Dr. McCoy and his daughter Joanna.
Final Thoughts:
I found Purgatory’s Key to be fairly bland, a middle-of-the-road conclusion to the Legacies trilogy. I loved the first two books in the series, but unfortunately nothing is particularly outstanding or surprising in Purgatory’s Key. Whereas the previous two books in the series brought back some lesser explored legacy characters like Una (“Number One”) and Joanna McCoy (Dr. McCoy’s daughter), in Purgatory’s Key, the only major new character introduced is the vengeful Klingon named Visla, and unfortunately her character arc is not particularly memorable. And I’m a bit befuddled as to the rules of the illusory, uncanny Jahtor universe and how everyone is able to fully transfer back to the correct universe (it felt a bit too convenient). Still, Purgatory’s Key is an entertaining, safe, albeit predictable conclusion to an otherwise gripping Star Trek trilogy. Legacies was published in honor of Trek’s 50th anniversary (10 years ago!) and I thought it would be fitting to read it this year on the 60th anniversary of the franchise. My favorite book in the trilogy is easily Greg Cox’s Captain to Captain followed closely by David Mack’s Best Defense, both excellent Star Trek books, but I think this trilogy would likely have been better suited if it had been condensed into either a single novel or perhaps a duology.
Ward, Dayton and Kevin Dilmore. Purgatory’s Key. Pocket Books, New York, New York, 2016.