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Cover Blurb:
Death Grazes the Enterprise Crew When 10,000-year-old Mummies Come to Life!
Synopsis
Mister Spock, Doctor Leonard McCoy and an Enterprise security
detachment take the shuttlecraft Galileo down to Heitius VII, a class-MZ
planet, to pick up an alien mummy from archaeological diggings. Dr. Moria
Storr, a Federation expert on interstellar archaeology and the security team
take the electronic sarcophagus to the Enterprise via the shuttlecraft, while
Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock stay on he planet with Dr. Stephen Mohr, the head of
the project.
Aboard the Enterprise in orbit of the planet, the mummy
awakens and opens the transparent sarcophagus. After surprising and knocking
out the two crewmembers on guard, the mummy proceeds to the starship's central
computer core. Upon arrival there, it works the control consoles for some
unknown purpose and then returns to its sarcophagus and climbs back into it.
The guards report being attacked from behind, and that they didn't see who it
was. Captain James Kirk doubles the guard on the mummy even though it appears
undisturbed.
Back on Heitius VII, McCoy and Spock accompany Dr. Mohr on a
visit of the ruins of an ancient city. They find a previously undiscovered
underground research laboratory that appears to have something to do with
surgery. Within, they discover three more mummies sealed in sarcophagi and see
the grisly remains of dozens of persons who apparently died when the laboratory
was sealed off long ago. An accidental bumping by a security guard of a control
stud causes the three mummies to revive, and emerge. The cloth-wrapped trio
menace the science team and are resistant to phaser stun due to a force field
they emanate. Spock's call for help to the Enterprise is unheard and he
discovers why, the ship has inexplicably left orbit. Spock, McCoy and the
others in the ancient lab are overpowered by the mummies.
Aboard the Enterprise, Kirk and crew realize that the ship is
locked on a course to a distant uncharted solar system, a course that cuts
across Romulan space! All efforts to wrest control away from the computer fail.
The mummy re-animates once again and after overpowering its guards, enters the
Engineering section of the ship. Scotty tries to prevent it from approaching
the main engine control console, but his phaser barrage has no effect on the
creature's force shield.
The mummy then plugs itself into the console directly
causing the antimatter tubes to open, pushing the starship into dangerous
overdrive speeds. All personnel evacuate from the radiation-filled engine room.
On the planet, Spock, McCoy, Dr. Mohr and the security team
regain consciousness. Spock's tricorder indicates that the mummies are not
robots, but cyborgs - creatures taht are half-human and half-machine. The human
parts of them are long dead, but the robot part has been reactivated. The
mummies are programmed to convert all humans into more cyborgs, and they start
with Crewman Jennings. McCoy and Spock can do nothing but look on as the
mummies prepare Jennings for conversion.
Meanwhile, Kirk calls a conference aboard the Enterprise as
the ship hurtles closer to Romulan space. Doctor Moria Starr has been reading
the records found at the excavation site, and she relates to the others what
she has learned of the mummy and its purpose. Apparently, 10,000 years ago
Heitius VII became a dying world due to its natural resources being "drained by
overpopulation and strangled by unchecked technology." The doomed clutch of
people on the planet outlawed all technology. When the ruling king began to
die, the Science Ministry decided to convert him into a cyborg lest the people
give way to chaos. So without his consent the king was turned into half man
half machine. Hoping to use the new programmable monarch for his own purposes,
the head of the Science Ministry hatched a plan.
The king was instructed to announce to the people his plan to make all of them over into cyborgs, and that eventually the cyborg populace would be lead to the stars, away from their wasteland of a homeworld. "It was the ultimate scheme for a politically
controlled society. Each man would become a robot programmed for a specific
purpose," Dr. Starr told those assembled in the briefing room. The Heitian
leaders and two members of the Science Ministry were cyborgized and programmed
to make all the people into cyborgs in turn. But the people revolted. They
mummified the four cyborgs would-be enslavers and sealed them into cylinders.
Chaos reigned and over time the people died out, but they died as men - not
machines. Dr. Moria Starr finished her account and told Captain Kirk that she
had determined that the mummy aboard the Enterprise is the king, and that he is
acting on a directive given him 10,000 years ago. "It thinks it's taking its
people to the stars!" she said.
Back on Heitius VII, Spock and McCoy act desperately when the
mummies begin to operate on crewman Jennings.
They are finally able to drop the mummies by forcing them to drain their power cells with a continuous barrage of phasers set to full destruct.
In space, a Romulan ship detects the runaway Federation
starship approaching their borders. The vessel's female commander orders that
the Enterprise be destroyed the moment it crosses over - which will occur in
just over 24 minutes.
Aboard the Enterprise, Kirk comes up with an idea to defeat
the king mummy, but Dr. Starr points a phaser at he and Scotty, demanding they
not harm the mummy so that it can eventually be studied by science. Thinking
quickly, Kirk grabs a nearby power cable and zaps her. He then holds her back
while Scotty successfully incapacitates the mummy with a massive power feedback
through its connection to the engineering console. Kirk orders Scotty to
quickly repair and reprogram the cyborg, then heads to the bridge. Scott
succeeds, and the cyborg restores computer control to the ship's crew. Moments
before reaching the Federation-Romulan border, the Enterprise whips into
reverse course at warp 6.
The Starship Enterprise returns to Heitius VII and picks up
their landing party, then drops off the mummies and Dr. Starr at the Federation
Alien Life Studies Institute, a space station built into a massive asteroid.
Kirk forgives Ms. Starr for her rash actions and the Enterprise speeds off to
Centaurus V for a ship overhaul and a well-earned crew rest.
(Summary by Curt Danhauser)
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STAR TREK is a Registered Trademark of Paramount Pictures
Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Gold Key is a registered trademark
of Western Publishing Corp.
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