Chapter By Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

Part 3: Talin chapter 6

We’re getting close to the end of the book so if our heroes are going to get to Talin IV and solve this mystery they’d best move their butts! Last time Spock hung out with a bunch of activists and this time Chekov and Sulu are still on the sex trafficker’s pirate ship. That makes more sense in context for those of you just joining us without actual access to the book. If that somehow made you want to read it…I don’t know, more power to you I guess.

Like I said, we’re checking in with the helm team and seeing what kind of new craziness they’re getting up to. I skimmed to see where the chapter ends so McCoy at least will be appearing here…somehow. Let’s get to reading and find out how together. Unless you’re just reading the review in which case you’ll find out through me I guess. I don’t know, I’m rambling for the homepage at this point.

I’m getting a bit ahead but it’s nice to see the crew finally starting to come back together, especially as we start to run out of time. So, Krulmadden is meeting with the famed pirate Black Ire, a pirate so good that nobody’s heard of him. I’m not sure if Krulmadden is hiding the fact that he suspects something even from his own crew (which includes his cousin) but he doesn’t come off as being as bright as he is clever. There’s a reason one of my favorite Powerpuff Girls narrator lines is “being a genius doesn’t make you a smart guy”. That might be a paraphrase but you get the point. For all the security measures and sneaky tricks he has, and we see a few here as Krully and Black Ire are just trying to negotiate how they’re going to meet up (like Chekov says, it’s a wonder pirates even do business together when they can’t trust each other this much), he’s not the sharpest knife in the pouch. Oh, I meant stabbing blades, not making dinner.

However, Chekov sees an opening and goes to work, taking down Krulmadden and his cousin…but did the writers forget that there’s a third Orion or did he land the shuttle before Chekov’s game with the gravity? Which was totally planned no matter how much the narration says otherwise. He told us himself. It may have been spur of the moment and didn’t go quite as planned but it worked, essentially using gravity to knock the baddies out…speaking of being clever.

Of course there’s what to do about Black Ire and the veiled woman that is his mate. What confuses me is was this part of the plan Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu planned, with McCoy being a last-minute addition the boys didn’t know about. Is that why they were confused when they saw McCoy was Black Ire in disguise and the veiled woman was Uhura? I mean, I know we the readers need to stay in the dark for the big reveal but it seems odd that we see Sulu and Chekov’s thoughts and they don’t realize what’s going on. Maybe it was the addition of McCoy (I wonder if they told him they suspected he was Klingon?) but it would seem at some point before the unmasking they at least suspected Uhura got help. At least now we know how they planned to swipe the ship, though we don’t know how the meeting with “Black Ire” and Krulmadden was set up. How did our other heroes know where the first heroes were. This does explain why we haven’t come back them like we have the others.

Final question: If McCoy could just buy another ship, was this mission even necessary? Do they suspect it would be easier to get to the planet with this hunk of junk versus the hunk of junk with scan barriers they already had? This was more fun to read, sure, but if they pooled their resources they might have had a better chance with a ship that could still avoid detection than go through all this. Oh well, at least this batch of slave girls have a better chance now.

Next time it’s back to Spock to see what he’s planning to do. This may not be pretty, if only because I’m wagering the Prime Directive debate starts next chapter.