Prime Directive (Star Trek novel)
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| Prime Directive | |
| Author | Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Pocket TOS |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Pocket Books |
| Publication date | 1 September 1990 (1st Hardcover edition) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 406 pp (Hardcover 1st edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-671-70772-8 (Hardcover 1st edition) |
Prime Directive is a novel written by Judith and Garfield Reeves Stevens. It is in fact the first Star Trek novel to deal with the Federation's response to single-planet nuclear war, a situation which, based on the number of inhabited, industrialized planets in our quadrant of the galaxy, one might expect the Federation to have faced several times between its foundation in 2161 and Captain Kirk's five-year mission in the 2260s.
[edit] Plot summary
On a local moon of Talin 4 a Federation First contact office is monitoring the events on the planet below with growing confusion and concern. Talin 4, a peaceful world for years and a possible first contact prospect for the Federation, is now a world divided. With the nation states of the planet becoming increasingly paranoid and in a permanent state of alert the threat of a nuclear war lies heavily on the governments of the world. Each nation's security has made the first contact office work so much harder. Furthermore the scientist of the first contact office have recently discovery that Talin's scientists have been researching crystals on the planet that may be capable of sensing the advanced subspace signals used by the galactic community. On discovery of this information the Talin system is locked down by the first contact office so no use of subspace or warp drive are permitted near the planet for fear of detection and breaking the non-interference directive. They were not to know that summoning the Enterprise for help would lead to disaster.
While preparing for their mission, James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy discuss the similar situation prevailing on Earth in the late twentieth century. The revelation that no thermonuclear bombs were used in Earth's World War III was out of sync with the description of World War III a few years later in Star Trek: First Contact, leading to the novel being declared not canon. Kirk and a joint Enterprise/first contact office team beam down to the planet at one point, narrowly escaping detection, and at another manage to avert an accidental war. Ultimately, however, all the planet's nuclear arsenals are fired at their targets at roughly the same time. The Enterprise is crippled when an intercontinental ballistic missile warhead detontates nearby.
Kirk and the other senior officers are blamed for the destruction of Talin civilization, attributed to their supposed violation of Starfleet's Prime Directive (hence the title of the book), and are court-martialed and reduced numerous grades in rank. As Starfleet intended, most of them resign, but they do not give up their private efforts to establish what went wrong at Talin. Spock is most successful, managing to bring to the attention of the Federation High Council two Talin astronauts, one from each of the two superpowers on the planet. Through a quirk in Federation law, these two are in a position to request the Federation's help. Spock, Kirk and the other senior Enterprise officers then rendezvous at the for some reason still operational first contact office on Talin's moon.
In the end it is revealed that the nations were manipulated into attacking each other by scout ships of a planet a few light years away currently hurtling through space. The beings on this planet have fomented nuclear war on an unknown number of other planets for the purpose of creating conditions on the planets' surface conducive to the growth of the algae which is their primary food. Restored to command of the Enterprise, Kirk lands on the surface of the planet with an away team which begins reviving millions of Talin who have survived by going into hibernation.
