by Diane Duane
“As if you could chop a mind in half, like an apple. He’s one whole being—a Spock—and the sooner you armchair shrinks get that through your heads, the better you’ll be able to deal with him.”—McCoy, regarding the behavior of Spock’s Human and Vulcan ‘halves.’
Romulan commander Ael i-Mhiessan t’Rllaillieu discovers her government is kidnapping Vulcans so they can harness their mind power through genetic experimentation and developing galactic WMDs. Ael decides mnhei’sahe—honor—demands she cannot support her Empire’s actions. She enlists Kirk and crew to put a stop to it. Together they must destroy the research laboratory and free the captive Vulcans. However, in order to get into the Romulan Empire, Kirk must allow Enterprise to be ‘captured.’
Greg Price, at goodreads says: “This book (the entire “Bloodwing” series, really) is IMO the definitive EU examination of the Romulans. Written before TNG, the early books draw their cues from the depiction of the Romulans in the classic series episode “Balance of Terror”. Both the honorable and worthy Romulus of old and the scheming, power-hungry “new Romulus” (that would come to dominate in TNG) draw their origins from this ep.”
Random Thoughts Written Down as I Read:
The Romulan homeworlds are ch’Rihan and ch’Havran The star is Eisn. They call themselves Rihannsu.
My spellcheck detests the prior sentence.
Yay! We’re back in Lt. Harb Tanzer’s rec deck! And here’s Mr. Tanzer himself!
Chapel is in the middle of her doctoral dissertation.
Uhura anticipates Kirk’s commands because she knows him so well and has things prepared for him before he asks for them.
The Vulcan race is the parent of the Rihannsu one.
Rihannsu ships are HEs.
Words and names are very important to the Rihannsu.
Ensign Naraht is a Horta, the son of the one we met in “The Devil in the Dark.” They mature very quickly and he’s already an adult, a biomathematican in Starfleet, assigned to Enterprise.
Ael is tiny. She’s me-sized. She is worried not only for the honor of the Rihannsu Empire, but its survival.
The Rihannsu left Vulcan in generation ships centuries before. The Empire as a whole is rather poor and very xenophobic.
Ael’s son betrays her and attempts to take over Enterprise after she, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to the research station. No worries though: Cmdr Scott is still aboard and NOBODY messes with his girl!
The assault on the research station is nails-biting exciting! The following starship battle, ditto!
I want to know what ‘Jim’ means in Rihannsu!
etc:
“Hate has a reason for everything. But love is unreasonable.”
And even the Atheist Trekkies stand up and say “Thank you, Thank you, Lord Almighty! We’re at the great stuff, FINALLY!” :-)
My next post is dedicated to YOU, idiosynchronic. If I ever finish writing it…
Aw, I’m blushing!