Lt. Uhura
Lt. Sulu
Dr. McCoy
Lt. Jessica Sowards
Lt. Beamon
Lt. Damrow
The title of this book comes from a line in the 1860 Walt Whitman poem
"Proto-Leaf".
Awakening from unconsciousness, Spock sees a young Vulcan
woman, L'Nel, on page 2, garbed in the ceremonial vestments
of a Mount Seleya priestess. Mount
Seleya was a sacred site on the planet Vulcan. In the
original timeline, Spock was taken there after his
resurrection on the Genesis Planet to have his katra
(stored in Dr. McCoy's mind), the living essense of a
Vulcan's identity, reunited with his body in the
1984
film Star Trek: The Search for Spock.
The character of L'Nel here is revealed in the closing
chapters of the book to actually be Spock's betrothed,
T'Pring, who took the name from a deceased woman (revealed
on page 268).
Possibly the original L'Nel appears in the Star Trek:
Enterprise novel Kobayashi Maru.
On page 4, Spock sees that L'Nel is
holding a katric ark, a product made by the
Kolinahr masters to hold a Vulcan katra. Kolinahr
is a Vulcan process of purging all emotion and embracing
total logic. In the original timeline, Spock was seen to
have failed to attain Kolinahr in Star Trek:
The Motion Picture.
On page 10, Captain Kirk reminisces on driving his
stepfather's vintage
Corvette off a cliff when he was a boy. This incident
occurred in "Parallels".
This novel introduces the non-Federation world Akiron and its
dominant indigenous species, the Kathikar.
A mining consortium called the Lexam Group has mined
dilithium on Akiron. This is the first
appearance of this business partnership.
On page 18, Sarek notes that the Prime Directive applies
only to Starfleet, not to civilian entities of the
Federation.
On page 22, Sarek tells L'Nel that Spock's betrothed was
lost in the destruction of Vulcan. The planet Vulcan was
destroyed by Nero in
"The Vengeance of Nero". Later in the novel, it is
revealed that L'Nel actually is Spock's betrothed, T'Pring,
who escaped the destruction of Vulcan.
On page 24, Sarek and L'Nel exchange the words, "The
needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the
one." This is a callback to a discussion between Kirk and
Spock in the original timeline, in the film
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Sarek thinks of the
phrase as an old homily, so maybe it was actually a
Vulcan aphorism all along?
Spock argues with his father that he is under no obligation
to choose a Vulcan mate, even given the extremely low
population count of living Vulcans after the destruction of
their planet. But a few years later, in
Star Trek Beyond, Spock begins
to question himself on this point.
On page 35, Chief Minister
Vellesh-ka acknowledges the presence of the Enterprise
over his planet with the phrase "greetings and
felicitations". This greeting was also famously used by
the nearly god-like child Trelane in the original series episode
"The Squire of Gothos".
On page 54, Kirk says to Sarek during a disagreement, "The
word must is not used to princes or starship
captains." It seems he is borrowing a quote from the 1998 film
Elizabeth about the life of Queen Elizabeth
(1533-1603), the actual quote in the film being simply,
"The word must is not used to princes."
On page 62, Dr. McCoy says, "I'm a doctor, not a mountain
climber!"
On page 89, Sarek mentions the Council of Antiquities when
he sees L'Nel's ancient katric ark for the first
time. He is presumably referring to a Vulcan
Council of Antiquities. This is the first mention of it.
On page 100,
Gveter-ren sends a communication to the Enterprise
from the planet's surface via UHF. UHF stands for Ultra High
Frequency.
On page 102, Gveter-ren is described
as having one clouded eye and one eye with a focus "as sharp
as a serpent's tooth." The phrase "how sharper than a
serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child" is from
Shakespeare's King Lear. There was also an episode
of the ST animated series titled "How Sharper Than a
Serpent's Tooth".
Gveter-ren is the Venerated Elder of
the Mystic Order of Oernachta.
The Kathikar term for soul or katra is
lihar.
On page 110, Spock remarks on experiments in regressive
hypnosis on the planet Berengaria. The planet is also mentioned
in the ST: DS9 episode "In the Cards".
Scotty has a great-aunt named Deirdre. He also mentions his
grandfather telling him that Great-Aunt Deirdre was rumored
to have had a secret fortune buried somewhere in the
Highlands. In the novelization of the ST:TNG episode "Relics",
Scotty's grandfather is said to be Clifford Scott. "The
Highlands" refers to the Scottish
Highlands of northern Scotland.
In Kirk's second vision, Jilur experiments to prove a dark energy
theory.
Dark energy is an energy postulated to exist by cosmological
scientists; the prevalent theory surmises that about 68%
of the energy in the universe is a dark energy that
is spread uniformly throughout the universe and which is causing
the accelerating expansion of the universe. After his
vision, Kirk also relates dark energy to dark matter and
zero-point energy.
Dark matter is thought by
astrophysicists to make up about 85% of the matter in the
universe; it is not directly observable by current science,
but its existence is implied by observations of its effects
on the universe. Zero-point energy is the lowest
amount of energy that can be had in a quantum mechanical
system.
This story deals with the concept
of quark changelets, subatomic particles that can penetrate
into other dimensions, in this case from a form of dilithium
called gray dilithium.
Changelets appear to be fictitious. Dilithium is a
fictitious element which, in its crystal form, is used to
power many forms of warp drive in the Star Trek
universe.
L'Nel's contact Tokor is on the planet Deneva. This world is
seen in
"Operation Annihilate" parts
1 and
2.
On pages 146-147, L'Nel and Tokor discuss the fal-tor-pan
ritual, allegedly once used to bond the katra of Surak to
that of Syrran. This is an ancient, rarely performed Vulcan ritual
designed to transfer a katra from one living being
to another. Spock and McCoy underwent this ritual in the
original timeline when McCoy held Spock's katra in his mind
(due Spock's impending death in Star Trek: The Wrath of
Khan) and it was transferred back into Spock's
regenerated body in Star Trek: The Search for Spock.
Surak was the founder of Vulcan's culture and society based
on logic around 2000 years before the events of Star
Trek. Syrran was a Vulcan of the 22nd Century who began
a movement to re-enforce the ways of Surak in the modern
Vulcan society that had begun to slip away from Surak's
pacifist teachings, as told in several episodes of ST:
Enterprise.
When Spock and Scotty developed a plan to
cross-circuit and destroy the Kathikar dark energy weapon,
Kirk asks for an estimate on how long it will take and
Scotty says four minutes, while Spock simultaneously says
sixty seconds. This prompts Kirk to respond to Scotty that
he'll pretend not to notice he's been inflating his repair
estimates. This is a callback to the original timeline when,
in Star Trek: The Search for Spock,
Scotty tells Kirk it would take 8 weeks to have the damaged
Enterprise refitted, "But ye don't have eight
weeks, so I'll do it for ye in two," and Kirk asks,
"Mr. Scott. Have you always multiplied your repair estimates
by a factor of four?", prompting Scotty to respond,
"Certainly, sir. How else can I keep my reputation as a
miracle worker?"
At the beginning of Chapter 24, Scotty laments his
task of trying to work out how to apply the subspace
pulse
that saved the Enterprise from the wights to the
entire under-siege planet of Akiron, thinking, What does
the captain think I am? A miracle worker?
In The Unsettling
Stars, when Sulu takes command of the
Enterprise
for the first time, he instinctively felt that if given the
chance, he could get used to the position. This was an
obvious nod to Sulu's later command of Excelsior in
the original timeline. Here in our current novel, Sulu
reflects, I hate being in charge. I hope I never get
promoted to command, obviously a play on what we know
of him in the original timeline.
Page 187 states that Keenser's homeworld had numerous deadly
land-based predators, which caused Keenser's people to
develop an instinctual desire to seek out the highest
possible vantage point in any environment. Keenser's
homeworld is revealed to be Royla in
"The Only Place I Fit".
On page 187, Scotty assists Dr. McCoy by yelling at Keenser
to get down from his high perch in sickbay, saying, "He's
got enough problems wi'out you nabbin' a hudgie on his
gizmos like some bloody numptie!" "Nabbin'
a hudgie" is Scottish slang for getting a ride in the back
of a truck. "Numptie" is Scottish slang for a confused,
stupid, or ineffectual person.
On page 198, the contraption that Spock, Scotty, and McCoy
have cobbled together to analyze
Gveter-ren's staff and crystal is referred to as a
"Frankenstein's monster of a device."
This refers,
of course, to Mary Shelley's 1818 novel
Frankenstein,
about a (possibly insane) scientist who brings to life an
artificial man from the stitched-together body parts of
human corpses.
On
page 200, Spock names three other Federation species who
have psionic talents on the same frequency lengths as Gveter-ren:
the Dopterians, the M'Lik, and the Szenhai. A Dopterian
appeared in the ST: DS9 episode "The Forsaken"; they look
somewhat like Ferengi. This novel is the first mention of
the M'Lik and Szenhai.
On page 215, Scotty reflects on the time he
was attacked by a hengrauggi while repairing an outdoor
communications antenna on Delta Vega. This must have been
after the time a hengrauggi came after
him and Keenser when they went for a walk shortly after
Scotty arrived at Delta Vega in
"The Only Place I Fit". A hengrauggi also chased Kirk
into a cave on Delta Vega in
"The Vengeance of Nero".
On page 227, McCoy uses an osteofuser to
repair a bone in a woman's nearly-severed arm. Similar
medical devices called osteo-regenerators, bone regenerators,
and bone-knitting lasers have been used in stories set in
the original timeline.
On page 229, Keenser speaks in clicks and
gestures that Scotty learned to understand when they
were stationed together on Delta Vega. In
"The Only Place I Fit",
Keenser seems able to speak in single English words (or
Federation Standard) when he was still on Delta Vega. It
could be argued that the English words used in the comic
were translated for the reader and he was actually
speaking in clicks and gestures as mentioned here.
On page 234, as he lies dying,
Gveter-ren whispers to Kirk, "You were not born...to live an
ordinary life," and Kirk is reminded of similar words said
to him by Christopher Pike that spurred him to enlist in
Starfleet. Those words were, "You can settle for a less than
ordinary life, or do you feel like you were meant for
something better?", spoken in
"Parallels".
On page 237, Scotty thinks of his task of
trying to work out how to apply the subspace pulse that
saved the Enterprise from the wights to the entire
under-siege planet of Akiron as a Gordian knot. The Gordian
knot is a legend associated with Alexander the Great of a
knot on an ox cart made up of a tightly-wound bundle of
other knots that was so complex it was impossible to tell
where to start in order to untie it. Alexander's solution
was simply
to bypass the untying of the knot by either (depending on
different versions of the legend) pulling the
linchpin from the yoke, thus freeing the cart from the ox, or
just cutting through the knot with his sword. The moral is that there are
often ways to work around a problem that make the problem
itself moot.
On page 263, L'Nel mentions Spock's refusal
to attend the Vulcan Science Academy. This occurred in
"Parallels".
On page 264, L'Nel, now
revealed as T'Pring, tells Sarek of her desire to be with a
man called Stonn instead of her betrothed, Spock. Stonn is
dead now in the Kelvin timeline, his katra
stored in the katric ark T'Pring has in her
possession. She intends to use the fal-tor-pan
ritual to remove Spock's katra from his body and
replace it with Stonn's so they can be together. It's
revealed here that Stonn was terminally injured as the
planet Vulcan was crumbling, but T'Pring was able to fetch
him a katric ark to hold his katra. In the
original timeline, Stonn was still alive to challenge
Spock for T'Pring's hand in the year 2267 in the original
series episode "Amok Time".
Also on page 268,
T'Pring uses incense of kisek, n'tai,
j'pem, and yela as she prepares herself to
instigate the fal-tor-pan
ritual. This appears to be the first mention of these Vulcan
fragrances.
In T'Pring's memory of
Stonn's death, they were near the Halls of Ancient Thought
at Mount Seleya when the planetary destruction occurred. The
Halls of Ancient Thought are where Vulcan katras
are stored. The temple housing the halls was glimpsed in Star Trek: The Search for Spock.
At the beginning of Chapter 31, Kirk reflects
on a phrase that his stepfather had been prone to utter,
"The last mile is always the longest." His stepfather was
named Frank in the novelization of the 2009 Star Trek
movie (see
"Parallels"). However,
"Operation
Annihilate" Part 1 later refers to Frank as Winona
Kirk's big brother, not second husband, making him James
Kirk's uncle.
When the pulse bomb's display screen shows
only gibberish as Kirk prepares to activate it, he asks
Scotty if there's any way to fix it and the engineer
suggests if he has a dynospanner handy...which Kirk does
not. The dynospanner was previously mentioned in the
Star Trek: Vanguard novel Harbinger by our
current author, David Mack, and later in the ST:
Enterprise novel The Good That Men Do by Andy
Mangels & Michael A. Martin. On his
website, David Mack has annotations for the
Harbinger
novel, one of which states, "The dynosPanner is me screwing up an
attempt to reference the dynosCanner from Star Trek II:
The Wrath of Khan. I probably got it mixed up with the
hydrospanner from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire
Strikes Back." I guess he decided to go with it though
when he used the term again here!
T'Pring is incarcerated on Calidan III for her actions and
is provided with psionic therapy. In the
earlier-written-but-later-in-continuity story
"After Darkness" Part 1,
T'Pring is revealed to be alive and well on New Vulcan (with
no mention of the events of this novel, of course). It
could be argued that her therapy was successful and she has
fully recovered and become a functional, stable member of
Vulcan society.
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