Star Trek: The Original Series: Lost to Eternity
Written by Una McCormack
Published by Pocket Books
“Una?” [asked Pike.]
“Cadet Una Chin-Riley.” Pelia smiled, rather wolfishly. “Oh, you’ll see. I imagine that Una will make herself known to you very quickly.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re setting me up?”
“A man takes me to a bar with fiddle music,” said Pelia darkly, “he’s gonna pay a price.”
Little has been said in canon about the Starfleet Academy careers of Una Chin-Riley (a.k.a. “Number One,” a.k.a. “Numero Una” “Don’t call her that. No one called her that.”) and Captain Christopher Pike. In the Strange New Worlds episode “Ad Astra per Aspera” we learn that Una’s admission to the Academy was sponsored by Captain Robert April, and that she first met Christopher Pike when she challenged his facts following an inspiring speech he gave at the Academy. We also know (from “Lost in Translation”) that one of her Academy instructors was Pelia, who gave her a “well-deserved” C on her final paper for Starship Maintenance 307. We also know that by the time she was at the Academy, Una had already been long accustomed to hiding her background as an Illyrian, lying to April, Pike, and all of Starfleet, out of fear of being arrested and drummed out of the Fleet for violating the Federation’s laws against genetic modifications.
In the new novel by Una McCormack, after whom the character was named, we follow Una both as a Senior Cadet in the Academy (in 2233) and as the Executive Officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise (2260). Twenty-seven years ago, as a cadet, Una had volunteered with a refugee resettlement organization, assisting a family of sentient felinoids fleeing persecution on their homeworld as they sought asylum on Earth. Now, as Pike’s First Officer, her task is to help host a delegation of sentient felinoids as they negotiate a treaty with Federation diplomats. It quickly becomes clear that, though these two felinoid peoples describe themselves very differently, they are very closely related, and Una’s experience with the refugees while she was in the Academy now has the potential to either destroy the negotiations before they start or bring about a peace that no one had thought possible.
Asylum is another excellent novel by my favorite Trek novelist, and though it focuses on diplomacy rather than explosions and phaser fire, it is no less gripping. McCormack takes the reader deep into two felinoid cultures, both of which are terrifically alien and well-realized. The book’s central mystery, of how these two cultures are related, requires deft peeling of the story’s “onion,” digging down layer upon layer, to find the truth. Along the way, Una comes face to face with her shame and discomfort at having lied to gain entry into Starfleet. Having to hide her true identity with everyone she meets, having to maintain a perfect façade to prevent anyone from getting any suspicions, weighs on her, especially as she begins building a new friendship with Ensign Christopher Pike.
Pike is a go-getter of a Starfleet Officer, not long out of the Academy himself, who is back at his alma mater nursing an injury and awaiting an inquiry about a mission gone wrong, due in large part to officers over him who were unable to consider the possibility of a no-win scenario. Guest-lecturing at the Academy as he awaits his turn to give testimony, he meets Una, another go-getter who for reasons of her own cannot allow herself to lose. Through it all, they are nudged along by Pelia, who in her own quirky way can peer through any problem and find a nontraditional way of solving it.
How Una, Pike, Pelia, and these two felinoid alien peoples eventually fit together is one of the novel’s delights, and I will not spoil the plot here. Suffice it to say that the Federation’s principle of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations meets a strenuous test here, and the question of whether the UFP can ally with a people who don’t have the same values is squarely faced. Are all refugees innocent victims? Is everyone labelled a “terrorist” deserving of that charge? How far can a society bend before it is transformed beyond all recognition? And how can those who help others in need do so without taking away people’s agency? This novel probes deep questions that have startling relevance for life on Earth of 2024, as much as on the final frontier.
If what you’re looking for in a Star Trek novel is ships hurtling through space and blowing up other ships, this may not be the novel for you. But if you like your Trek on the hopeful intellectual side, and if delving into new civilizations is your thing, Asylum will satisfy. It gives us keen insights into characters that we have grown to love, while also introducing us to new people from new species that are fascinating to investigate.
Available Now
Una McCormack’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Asylum was released by Pocket Books on November 5. You can order it on Amazon in hardcover and Kindle e-book.
Asylum is also available as an audiobook on Audible. Listen to a clip of the audio book below…
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Número Una?
It’s a nickname Commander Ransom gave her in the episode Those 0ld Scientists.
Thanks! Somehow I missed that!