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This week I decided to review Star
Trek: Legacies: Purgatory's Key by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.
The
story opens with a short scene focusing on Visla, member of a
disgraced Klingon family and captain of the IKS Qo'daqh, an antique
battle cruiser kept in service as a dumping ground for such
personnel. The ship her son served on was recently destroyed while
fighting alongside the USS Enterprise to repel a Romulan attempt to
disrupt negotiations between the Klingon Empire and the Federation.
Visla's son was among the Klingon survivors rescued by the Enterprise
but Visla feels this has further disgraced her son and vows revenge.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise is preparing to return to Uslide to rescue
Captain Una, any survivors from the Enterprise crew transported to
the Jatohr universe eighteen years earlier and the various people
sent there by the Romulans including Ambassador Sarek, Councilor
Gorkon of the Klingon High Council, and Joanna McCoy. Kirk orders the
Enterprise to begin the journey despite not having time to fully
repair the ship and having no authorization to enter disputed
territory and a system occupied by Klingons while Spock, Chekov, and
Uhura work on modifying a probe to enter the Jatohr universe and
locate those they seek to rescue.
On Uslide, Klingon scientists
continue efforts to master the technology of the Jatohr but are
eventually forced to retreat after triggering the citadel's security
systems. When the Enterprise arrives it meets the IKS Vron'joQ
commanded by J'Teglyr who agrees to corporate with the Enterprise
rather then risk provoking Organian intervention. However, when the
Qo'daqh arrives it attacks the Enterprise despite orders to the
contrary, leading to the vessel being crippled and the survivors are
rescued by J'Teglyr who then order the crippled warship destroyed in
an effort to punish Visla.
Meanwhile, in the Jatohr universe, Una
eventually regroups with the remaining Enterprise crew members, the
surviving Uslide who were banished there during the Jatohr
occupation of their homeworld, and the members of the diplomatic
party, but the group suffers heavy causalities fighting the Jatohr. Captain Una discovers that she seems to be able to influence reality
around her and she and Sarek soon realize that everything they are
perceiving is a form of shared hallucination.
They then struggle to
pierce the illusion and reactivate the probe sent by Enterprise,
disabled by the natives because it caused them great pain, to use as
a targeting beacon for a rescue attempt. Enterprise sends a landing
party to the citadel to carry out part of the rescue plan but the
citadel launches into space, beginning the next phase of the Jatohr
plan to transform Uslide into a Jatohr colony. While Enterprise
attacks the citadel trying to prevent permanent damage to Uslide. Visla seizes control of the Qo'daqh, leaving the Federation vessel in
a desperate three way battle with little time to retrieve its landing
party, complete the rescue, and disable or destroy the citadel.
I give this book 7 out of 10. While I
enjoyed the story overall and thought the characters created for it
were well written, I felt it had some significant flaws. First, by
having Councilor Gorkon appear to die in combat against the Jatohr, it
decreased the tension of that universe's events greatly for me. After
all, knowing that Gorkon had to survive, why would I worry about the
others who had apparently died there? Also, it suffers from being a
prequel to a much older story in that I find it very odd that the events
of this book are apparently forgotten by all the participants that
appear in The Undiscovered Country which creates a jarring disconnect
for me. Finally, I feel there were some important questions left
unanswered at the end of the story.
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