Star Trek: Starfleet Academy #14
Marvel/Paramount Comics (January, 1998)
“T’Prell Revealed” part 1: “Betrayal”
WRITER: Chris Cooper
PENCILER: Chris Renaud
INKER: Andy Lanning
COLORIST: Kevin Somers
LETTERER: Jim Novak
EDITOR: Bobbie Chase
Alerted to her deception being uncovered, T’Prell–or rather the Romulan sleeper agent Selke, manages to take out Omega Squadron based on her knowledge of their weaknesses. Pava surprises her and gets a message to Yoshi, whose team is joining in the training operation, that something is wrong just as Selke fakes their deaths with a runabout explosion. The group minus Edam awakens in a temple where they find the in-stasis body of the real T’Prell and learn of Selke’s deception as they’re left to the wild animals of the sealed temple. Meanwhile, Yoshi contacts Nog on DS9 because he knows the group isn’t really dead…partly because Nog was told by a voice he swears was Kamilah’s!
What they got right: I get the feeling that Cooper’s been wanting to tell this story all along but realized he needed to build T’Prell up. He’s been hinting to this with all the subtlety of a warp core explosion so finally we get this plot going. Watching Selke use her knowledge to take down the group one by one is fascinating to watch, as is T’Prell’s personality (or I’m assuming her katra given this is Vulcans and their Romulan cousins we’re talking about) fights to stop her the best she can. Plus we get Nog back in the comic.
What they got wrong: Do we need Kamilah as another mystery? I thought she was taken out way too soon but we don’t need that many revelations, do we?
What I think overall: A good start to a storyline that Cooper seems to have been begging himself to tell. Let’s just hope it was worth it.