Chapter by Chapter> Star Trek: The Vulcan Academy Murders chapters 3 & 4

Chapter By Chapter (usually) features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a 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 a read-along book club.

Yes, two chapters this week because they’re both short, about 8 pages between the two of them. So in the interest of time we’re going to read them both. Will it be worth making two chapters? We’ll find out.

Last time we learned about most of our remaining guest cast (I think there’s still a young couple to be introduced as I remember one being prominent in the sequel) and everybody’s connection to the experimental nerve regeneration process. This book comes out before the transporter was practically turned into a medical device. We did have some accidents that split people in two or sent them to an alternate universe, but it wasn’t until The Next Generation that we would see it restore people afflicted by a rapid aging disease or restore adults from the child form they were put into by the transporter. I’m not even sure why you’d need doctors in their future. Just use the last pattern in the buffer and heal their body. However, the future could also be shown to regrow limbs, though apparently not fix eyes that no longer or never worked.

This is one of the problems with trying to create advanced medicine when you want to invoke a plot involving some medical condition. Why did Worf need experimental spine surgery? You could almost suspect the transporter could put it back, and nanites could fix everything back in place. They have to come up with some reason it can’t be done just to make a medical drama plotline. I think Geordi has normal (or normal looking) eyes by the time of Picard. Luckily they can’t cure the common cold in Kirk’s time, so it’s time to see the early days of a process they may not even need later on.

As if anticipating my intro, the reasons this isn’t the proverbial Fountain Of Youth is spelled out as McCoy talks to Corrigan and Sorel. There are some dangers to the process as the computers need to take over the nervous system, and without the stasis field they will die. Then there’s the problem of bringing the mind out of it. When Corrigan had to be brought out by Sorel, it wasn’t easy. Corrigan saw Sorel in his mind as “the devil himself” despite being colleagues and friends for many years. They’re even worried that when it’s time to bring Amanda back to consciousness that even having Sarek in there with Sorel may be a challenge. Presumably there will be similar issues with Sorel’s wife, who is just going in. Imagine what it will be like for Remington, who doesn’t have anyone close enough to help? My theory is that they’ll get Kirk in there, trusting on his Starfleet training to listen to his captain’s “orders” to wake up. We’ll have a long wait to see if I’m right.

By setting up the dangers, I think they’re also foreshadowing how the titular murders are about to happen. Remember, this is only the second time I’ve read this novel, and the last time was many years ago. I’m playing detective along with any of you reading along for the first time. It’s not just me reading along, right? Because you missed the short scene showing the closer father/son relationship of Sarek and Spock.

On to Chapter Four, which starts off more character based. Sarek brings the three Enterprise crewmen and the two doctors (technically McCoy is both, but you know what I mean) to an Italian restaurant. My kind of host. Being a planet of mostly vegetarians, it’s not a surprise that the plates that have meat don’t here. Otherwise it’s just a group of shared friends relaxing until Sorel senses something is wrong with his wife. Vulcans are limited telepaths and Vulcan marriage includes a form of mental bond, so it does make sense that he could sense her dying, the impact affecting him as well mentally. It’s a good scene all around, relaxing before the mystery begins, at peace just before the chaos happens.

Is this where the murders begin? We’ll find out next time, and it should just be the one chapter.