Face of the Unknown

Informationen zum Autor Christopher L. Bennett Klappentext Continuing the milestone 50th anniversary celebration of Star Trek, a brand-new novel of The Original Series featuring James T. Kirk, Spock, and the crew of the USS Enterprise!Star Trek: The Original Series: The Face of the Unknown One Captain’s Log, Stardate 5361.7. Two days have now passed since our discovery of the Betelgeusians’ mysterious attackers and their apparent connection to the reclusive civilization calling itself the First Federation. In the interim, we have received reports of similar attacks on a Saurian transport and an Arcturian trading post, both of which were able to repel the assaults—though not without casualties in the latter case. Whoever these beings are, they seem to be targeting races capable of putting up a fight . . . and their own skill seems to be improving. As they draw nearer to Federation space, a confrontation with Starfleet increasingly appears inevitable. The First Federation clearly has knowledge of these beings, but our attempts to contact Lieutenant David Bailey, our unofficial ambassador to the First Federation, have proven unsuccessful. The Enterprise is proceeding toward the First Federation border in hopes of establishing direct contact with their representatives. In the meantime, the office of the Federation diplomatic commissioner has requested a full briefing on the matter. The briefing was at 1900 hours, late by the Enterprise’s clocks, but that allowed Kirk to assemble all the senior officers who had been present for the first encounter with Balok: himself, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Uhura, and Sulu. They met in the largest briefing room, the one with a wall screen in addition to the smaller three-sided viewer in the table, so that Commissioner Gopal could see them all at once. Damayanti Gopal was a strong-featured woman in her mid-forties, only recently promoted to diplomatic commissioner after spending two years as assistant commissioner. Kirk had briefly known her predecessor in that post, Nancy Hedford, and had found her to be a rather prickly and un­diplomatic individual, at least on the surface. So far, Gopal did not seem much different, making Kirk wonder what standards the previous commissioner had employed to select his deputies. “I have, of course, read all the reports on the Enterprise’s initial contact with Commander Balok and the Fesarius,” Gopal said on the viewscreen. “What concerns me is the lack of follow-up. Your Lieutenant Bailey has had three years to learn more about the First Federation, but he hasn’t found the location of their homeworld or even their true name for themselves. We’re forced to call them Fesarians for lack of anything better!” “You must understand, Commissioner,” Spock replied, “that Commander Balok’s people have good reason to be cautious. They are a neotenous species, retaining the size and appearance of small humanoid children well into adulthood. Many hostile cultures would be quick to take advantage of such physically fragile beings.” “Their reactions go beyond caution, Commander Spock. They embrace deception and concealment and use highly aggressive measures to defend their territory. The buoy you first encountered provided no warning, merely clung to you and bathed your ship in lethal radiation until you were forced to destroy it.” “But we were able to destroy it,” Spock pointed out. “With their technology, they could easily have shielded it against our phasers. The buoy was part of a test to assess our—” “Your peaceful intentions, yes.” Gopal turned to Kirk. “I do wonder, Captain, why you thought the best way to demonstrate those was to push forward into the territory they obviously ...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Christopher L Bennett, Christopher L. Bennett
• Editore: Simon & Schuster UK
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 29.12.2016
• EAN: 9781501132421
• ISBN: 978-1-5011-3242-1
• Pagine: 368
• Serie: Star Trek: The Original
• Categorie: Narrativa > Science Fiction, Fantasy; Scienze umane, arte, musica > Arte > Teatro, balletto