Chapter By Chapter> Star Trek> The IDIC Epidemic chapter 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.

Last time the Enterprise got their marching orders: head back to Vulcan with the exiles you were taking from them, pick up some people at least one member has a bad history with if he’s in this story, and take them to a plague planet. Starfleet doesn’t always have the brightest people. McCoy’s experience with interspecies offspring is limited to one half-Vulcan, and while they may be the closest ship (as usual) you know these guys are going to be trouble.

I liked this story as a kid enough to get the book it was a sequel to, so I’m pretty sure I’ll like this again in what’s now my second ever read. On the other hand I’m an adult who has spent at least the last decade or so going over stories with a more critical eye, so I have to ask if the Followers Of T’Vet are even needed in this story. I can understand getting Sorel and Daniel Corrigan, plus her take on Dr. M’Benga (again, this is way before Strange New Worlds gave him more presence). She’s familiar with those characters and their medical expertise. On the other hand we’ve already seen they’re going to be trouble because they land somewhere between Vulcans and Romulans, not exactly evil but ones that still believe in the old ways before Surak led them out of the dangerous past to pursue logic over emotion. We’re know they’re going to be a threat one way or another.

I’m assuming this is to fill the Star Trek action quota, but we already had a perfectly good set-up with the Orions. Borth already sees the potential to sell this off as a bioweapon but without a cure for at least his own people it’s useless in the long term. Just make them the antagonists instead of making Starfleet look like idiot for their own illogic in choosing a ship with potentially dangerous “guests” about to cause an issue. I know it’s a pickup/dropoff mission but I still see this ending poorly. Get the Vulcan Academy doctors over there and join them with McCoy once they drop off the Followers on their new home. That’s not what happened, so we’ll see how badly this goes, though not right away. It’s only the fourth chapter, so let’s get a move on.

On the surface this chapter almost feels unnecessary, but it would have cost us a fun scene and another chance for author Jean Lorrah to play with Vulcan culture. She seems to be really into building on it, unofficial and non-canon as the book is. Remember, we got the occasional movie and that was it officially. The comics and novels were otherwise it until video games evolved enough to make storytelling a stronger part of the experience. The whole chapter is one scene at the Vulcan Academy Of Sciences as we see Sorel paged. In his office, he’s told about the plague and that both he and Daniel would be needed, as well as T’Mir. Meaning Daniel won’t have to run out on his bride so soon after their marriage.

By now the two characters from The Vulcan Academy Murders has continued their relationship and are now sealed, bonded, wed, whatever term you prefer. The problem is they’re in Seclusion, or as the commodore from Starfleet who called termed it, their honeymoon. The commodore is more worried about the plague than tradition but a protocol officer off-screen is trying to convince them that even though Daniel is human, T’Mir is Vulcan and some rituals come with side effects on their physiognomy. Remember the pon farr and what going through that almost did to Spock, though it’s not clear if they know anything about it. Vulcan weddings are as much a psychic bond as a spiritual one, though this not being a fantasy series (usually) means the psychic connection might as well be spiritual.

As it turns out, not that Sorel is going to tell the jerk commodore, that’s not an issue. He just doesn’t want to disturb their time together until he sees the numbers. He promised to give Daniel and T’Mir a call and they can be ready when the Enterprise arrives in a couple of days. I’m guessing the commodore goes to call M’Benga since he’s also supposed to be part of this, plus the assistants and some others from the Nisus colony that happen to be there. So more characters are presumably coming.

It’s a nice bit of levity in what’s about to become a very serious situation, with the protocol officer trying to get the commodore to realize what he’s asking. On the one hand he’s right. Under normal human circumstances curing this plague would take priority. People are dying. On the other hand, the protocol officer points out that it could have a mental effect on the Vulcan female, and while we don’t know what she was saying when she pulls him offscreen (apparently they’ve forgotten to install a “mute” button), he’s rather embarrassed about the whole thing. To quote a popular meme from YouTube commentators, he’s out of line, but he’s right. The story doesn’t choose a side, though. Daniel and T’Mir earned their bond time after the events of the previous book, and earned it hard given what was stacked against them and how it acted as a red herring to the murders going on around them.

We’re going back to the colony in the next chapter, but this was a nice chapter to add in. Whether it was padding or Lorrah wanting to play more with Vulcan culture, it might feel unnecessary but it does the intended job, refreshing our connection Sorel if you read the first book (remember that a few novels by other writers had time to drop in between the two books) or introducing us if this was the one you came in on like I did. We’ll see where that takes us in the next chapter.