User:TravellerDMT-07/Temp

My Enemy, My Ally

Author	Diane Duane
Language	English
Series	Star Trek, No 18/Rihannsu Book 1
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Simon & Schuster Inc/POCKET BOOKS
Publication date	July 1984
Publication place	USA
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	309
ISBN	0-7434-0369-X

My Enemy, My Ally is a science fiction novel by Diane Duane, set in the fictional Star Trek universe.

Plot summary

Commander-General Ael i-Mhiessan t'Rllaillieu of the Romulan Empire had been sent off to the Neutral Zone because her political enemies hoped to order her to attack the Federation and die in the resulting battle, or commit ritual suicide rather than do so. After much soul-searching, she took her personal single-seat scout to examine other ships assigned to her, dispatched a courier drone to her old ship Bloodwing with a message that the time for decisive action had come. Returning to her new command, she sabotaged its systems and prepared to leave.

Meanwhile, Captain James Kirk of the Federation was losing a game of 4D chess to his first officer Spock until his Medical officer Leonard McCoy demonstrated that it sometimes takes only a new way of seeing things to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They receive an assignment to patrol the Federation side of the Neutral Zone with three other ships. This scene, as well as several others, is set in a Recreation Room, it includes interactions between a number of Federation species, all living, working, and playing together in a highly functional manner.

During the patrol (which includes three other Federation craft), two Romulan ships enter the Neutral Zone, one in pursuit of the other. They are identified as the Klingon-made, Romulan-owned Ehhak, and the Romulan warship Bloodwing. The former is summarily destroyed by the latter, and when communications are established, the Romulans wish to have a conference.

Commander Ael and her Subcommander Tafv (Ael's son) arrive and paint a grim situational picture: The Romulan Empire has been researching genetic manipulation that would allow Romulans to have many of the Vulcans' unusual abilities (e.g., touch telepathy, mind-melding, healing trance, panic strength, et. al.) all raised to significantly greater levels, from a neural tissue graft procedure. This process requires Vulcan source tissue, and Spock mentions that the number of Vulcans that have been going missing in the area near the Romulan research is disproportionately greater than that of other species.

Ael has risked her ship, crew, and career to bring them this information, and asks Kirk to join her in destroying the research station (Levaeri V) before the work being done there can be used. After verifying to his satisfaction that Ael's information is accurate, and in closed conference, Kirk decides against doing so until one of the ships on patrol with them, Intrepid, goes missing. It is a Vulcan ship, and Ael realizes that it is only because the technology is ready to be employed that the Empire would make a move of such temerity. If they are to act, it must be now.

Reluctantly, Kirk agrees. Ael's plan to get Enterprise to Levaeri V involves giving the appearance that her ship has bested Enterprise in battle. A Romulan prize crew must also be trained. Various secondary characters are fleshed out as the two crews are introduced to each other, including a Horta (Star Trek) named Naraht.

Enterprise is rigged to appear to have been captured after a battle. Ael's crew are trained to operate the ship, and the Enterprise line officers are staged in the brig at appropriate times to further this deception. They are not a moment too soon in doing so; the Romulan ship Javelin arrives to provide escort assistance earlier than expected. The mixed crews put on a good show, and the ruse continues to hold.

Communications jamming buoys are built in case of need...

[This article is yet to be completed]