James T. Kirk is given command of the starship Enterprise after recovering from wounds received in a heroic rescue of a fellow officer and close friend who would have died if Kirk had not been there.
Of course, he doesn't know the crew of the Enterprise except for his old friend, Dr. McCoy. All the others are strangers who have to get to know their new leader and vice versa, including Mr. Scott, the engineer and Mr. Spock, the science officer. Both men are reserving judgment on their new commander.
The first mission under Kirk is to take a vaudeville show on a tour of worlds where they will put on their shows. It consists of the manager who is also a magician, Lindy, and her winged horse (oddly the horse is not part of the show, it's basically Lindy's pet) There are also tap dancers, a mime, a shakespearean actor and a troop of performing poodles. A juggler joins the show too, a Vulcan who goes by the name of Stephen.
Not surprisingly, Kirk isn't thrilled being a taxi service for the vaudevillians. And there are the problems of miscommunication with the crew to whom he is a stranger. And the food replicators are pumping out food that is definitely subpar. Kirk finds the vaudeville's manager Lindy quite attractive but is shut down when she reveals she has a crush on the mime.
But all that doesn't really matter when the Enterprise encounters a spaceship that is so massive they call it a worldship. Once contact is established, it is quickly apparent that the winged denizens of the worldship are not looking for a fight and Kirk invites a few of them onto the Enterprise where the aliens seem quite charmed by the Enterprise, which is like a toy in size compared to their massive worldship. Once communication is established, thanks to Spock and his famous mind meld, it becomes quite clear that the aliens are operating from a much different perspective than any culture humans have ever encountered. And then the Klingons show up, worried that the humans are trying to make an alliance with the worldship people to the detriment of the Klingon empire.
This was an ok read. It really never got my interest very much and I found the whole winged horse story completely ridiculous. According to the story these horses can't actually fly but they desperately want to. But they are not aerodynamic. So they try and try to fly but fail. They eventually go crazy. What is the point of creating a winged horse that gets depressed and goes crazy when it can't attain its fondest dream? I just never understood the point of adding a non-flying winged horse to the story. It really contributes nothing to the plot other than being crazily unlikely.
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