A 1968 Star Trek: The Original Series novel by Mack Reynolds that has the Enterprise crew going on an adventure from one planet to another with the help of a local named Grang from the planet NGC 434.
This while the crew is dealing with an outbreak of a deadly disease known as Space Cafard, as the crew is particularly vulnerable to due to a prolonged mission and Kirk having to deal with secret orders. McCoy is working to prevent the spread and Sulu's pet rat, Mickey, goes missing and the search for him is on as the rat is seen as a potential carrier for the Bubonic plague.
It is the first original Star Trek novel published and the only novel produced by Whitman.
Tropes for the novel:
- Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Numer Ein's daughter, who has had enough with the planet's Neo-Nazi government and sends out the SOS signal that brings the Federation in. Although, it turns out that the original Numer Ein was a more sympathetic character - the one currently running things is his clone, which is the main reason she has turned against him.
- Original Character:
- Grang, a member of Neolithia's "Wolf Clan" and temporarily given rank of ensign when he helps them explore the planet Bavarya.
- Nummer Ein, Bavaryan Chief of State who is a clone of the real person, who previously died years before the start of the story.
- Sealed Orders: Starfleet command has sent Kirk out with a set, meaning he can't even give a ballpark estimate to a furious McCoy's demands as to when they would be planetside again.
- Shout-Out: The rat is named Mickey, after the Disney character.
- Space Madness: Space Cafard, as described by Spock:Spock: Space Cafard. Compounded of claustrophobia, ennui-boredom, if you will- and the instinctive dread of a species, born on a planet surface, of living outside its native environment. The instinctive fear of deep space. Formerly the fear of being in free fall, though that seldom applies any longer. A mania that evidently is highly contagious. It is said that in the early days of space travel, Cafard could sweep through a ship in a matter of hours, until all on board were raging maniacs.
- Those Wacky Nazis : The ideology of Bavaria, more or less. They were apparently political dissidents who left Earth pretty early on in the space race.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: The Silent Death execution method favored by Neolithia's shaman. Fortunately, Vulcans are not so easily taken in.
- Xanatos Gambit: Desperate to prevent the abovementioned Space Madness, Spock and McCoy resort to thisby claiming Sulu's pet rat Mickey is a carrier for Bubonic Plague and setting the entire crew on a frantic rat hunt, all the while hiding Mickey either in their pockets or in the sickbay. Sulu has taught Mickey to dance to give the appearance of being sick and disoriented. When he's finally caught, they kill him and dispose him in the waste matter converter. It's only later that Kirk realizes Sulu got Mickey on a Federation planet, where the plague doesn't exist; he couldn't possibly have had it. That's right, the whole thing was a setup; Sulu's healthy pet rat was killed just to give the crew something to do. This would never fly today.
