Mission to Horatius

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Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds (ISBN 0-671-02812-X for the reprint) is the title of a 1968 novel for children based upon the television series Star Trek. It was the first novel of any kind to be based upon the Trek franchise (although the first novel for adult audiences, Spock Must Die!, would not be published until 1970). It was also the only original Trek novel to be published while the series was still in production. It was published in hardcover by Whitman, and was republished in a 1999 facsimile edition by Pocket Books, making it (to date) the only Star Trek book not originating with Pocket Books to be reprinted by that company.

[edit] Plot Synopsis

The U.S.S. Enterprise has been on patrol for such a long period of time that the crew is restless and irritable. Food is running low and the engines need servicing. An order comes to Captain Kirk to head for the far away Horatius system to answer a mysterious distress call from some decidedly anti-Federation colonists. When the crew tries to help, they run into stone-age peoples, drugged fanatics, and oppressed clones. They must determine how to help the Horatians without conflicting with Federation General Order One, the so-called Prime Directive, which mandates noninterference with native cultures. They also must combat space cafard. Mccoy uses Mickey, Sulu's "exotiac pet" rat to make the crew hunt for the rat. As cafard is brought about by boredom the entire crew hunting Mickey to keep their own lives makes cafard impossible.