In The Name Of Honor by Dayton Ward - 2002
Have you ever wondered what the Klingons thought about all
those tribbles that Scotty beamed into the Klingon ship’s engineering section
in the Trouble with Tribbles episode of the original series? How about why later Klingons all have
forehead ridges later, but not in the original series? In his first Star Trek novel, author Dayton
Ward explores the answers to these questions and explains many other aspects of
Klingon culture, especially the concept of honor.
Dayton’s story is set between the events of the original
series movies, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country. The story opens
with an incident in which the USS Gagarin, a Federation starship is brutally
attacked by a Klingon ship several years prior to the events in the novel. Prisoners are taken and sent to mine
dilithium on the planet Pao’la, apparently one of many mining colonies where
slave-labor obtains resources needed for the empire.
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| Gorkon |
Flash forward. While delicate peace negotiations between the
Federation and The Klingon Empire, it is discovered by the then Councilor
Gorkon of the Klingon High Council the existence of the Pao’la mining colony
and that there are Starfleet personnel being held there. In fear that the discovery of the
incarceration of members of the Federation might derail the negotiations and
actually lead to an all-out war, Gorkon dispatches Koloth to bring information
to Captain Kirk of the prisoners, as well as to aid him in their rescue. Koloth is reluctant to follow his orders
because as you might recall, he was the commander of the incident in Trouble
with Tribbles. However, as an honorable
Klingon, Koloth follows his orders.
Kirk, also reluctant to work with Koloth, leaves the Enterprise in the
hands of Spock, who is charged with watching over the peace negotiations.
 |
| TOS Koloth, Koloth with forehead ridges, and Kirk, Koloth, and Korax (villan in the novel). |
The Empire has split into two factions, those who do follow
the teachings of Kahless, and those who do not.
Those who do not are determined to disrupt the peace overtures, and the
Enterprise crew has to investigate and stop incidents that would end any
possibility of peace. Kirk and Koloth
gain a mutual respect for one another while they face their own trials to
rescue the prisoners on Pao’la.
I have always been fascinated with Klingon lore and culture
and I found this story very satisfying.
So, the answers to the questions at the opening of this post; well
Trekkies/Trekkers who are familiar with original series can only imagine what
the reaction of the Klingons would be with thousands of tribbles screaming away
on their ship. Dayton explores the why,
but not the how of why later Klingon’s sport their forehead ridges. Read the book, it’s worth the time. This one is a real page-turner; the action is
non-stop with numerous references to episodes from the original series and the
films. There is no downside to In The
Name Of Honor.
Well, there it is…
Q’aplaH!
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