Logs Five and Six

SPACE. THE FINAL FRONTIER . . . These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Celebrate Star Trek's thirtieth anniversary with the original mission logs chronicling some of the crew's most bizarre missions and strangest encounters with alien races across the galaxy . . . where no man has gone before. THE AMBERGRIS ELEMENT Spock and Kirk seemingly meet a watery grave on the planet Argo. But the crew learns that the two have been turned into water-breathers by a mysterious race--and the consequences could cost them their lives. THE PIRATES OF ORION An epidemic lethal to Vulcans strikes the Enterprise. But an Orion ship steals the cure and disappears into a explosive asteroid belt. If Spock doesn't receive the antidote, he has only three days to live. THE JIHAD When a priceless religious object--the "Soul of Skorr"--is stolen from the Vedala asteroid, Kirk and Spock join the rescue party to help stave off a galaxy-wide holy war. ALBATROSS On the planet Draymia, where justice is swift, Dr. McCoy is charged with the wanton slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians nineteen years ago. But before Kirk can save his friend, he must first find out if the hideous charges are true. THE PRACTICAL JOKER To escape Romulan warships, the Enterprise sails into a gaseous energy field. But Kirk soon discovers that this cloud has a "mind" of its own--and a very wicked sense of play. HOW SHARPER THAN A SERPENT'S TOOTH Tracing a mysterious probe, the Enterprise encounters mighty Kukulkan, the ancient winged serpent of Mayan-Aztec legend, who challenges them to solve a Sphinx-like puzzle . . . or die.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Science Fiction, Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.