Advertisement

    Kirk and Spock face their greatest crisis in a bold new adventure!

    Black Fire is a Pocket TOS novel – #8 in the numbered series – written by Sonni Cooper. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in January 1983. Spock is declared a traitor and James T. Kirk must choose to side with his friend or his duty as a Starfleet officer.

    Summary

    From the book jacket
    When sabotage strikes the Enterprise, Spock's investigation leads him into an alliance with the Romulan and Klingon empires against the Tomarii, a bloodthirsty race for whom war is life itself. Spock is declared a traitor and sentenced to the Federation's highest-security prison, and Kirk must choose between friendship and duty, with dire consequences for himself, Spock, and the entire Federation if he's wrong.



    Memorable quotes

    "Captain, it's impossible"
    "To find out if something is impossible – try it!"

    - Heath Douglas and James T. Kirk, about flying the Enterprise between two stars


    "I'm a doctor, not an actuary."

    - Leonard McCoy, about calculating the odds of Spock's injury

    Background information

    • This is the only Star Trek novel written by Sonni Cooper.
    • It features an introduction by Theodore Sturgeon.
    • The Romulan commander played by actress Joanne Linville in TOS: "The Enterprise Incident" makes a cameo appearance. Spock asks if he may call her by name. She prefers that he forget she exists.
    • Based on Chekov having just been promoted to lieutenant according to dialogue in the book, this story must take place some time between the original series and the first movie.
    • A limited edition hardcover version was printed by Gregg Press in 1986.

    Cover gallery

    Characters

    Canon characters listed below are linked to the main article about them. Non-canon characters are not linked, but those that recurred, appearing or being mentioned in more than one story, are defined further in Pocket TOS characters.

    Canon characters

    Pavel Chekov
    Lieutenant, Navigator, USS Enterprise
    James T. Kirk
    Captain, Commanding Officer, USS Enterprise
    Jabilo M'Benga
    Doctor, USS Enterprise
    Leonard McCoy
    Lieutenant Commander, Chief Medical Officer, USS Enterprise
    Janice Rand
    Nurse, USS Enterprise
    Montgomery Scott
    Lieutenant Commander, Chief Engineering Officer, USS Enterprise
    Spock
    Commander, Executive Officer and Science Officer, USS Enterprise
    Hikaru Sulu
    Lieutenant , Helmsman, USS Enterprise
    Nyota Uhura
    Lieutenant, Communications Officer, USS Enterprise
    Romulan commander

    Non-canon characters

    Astro
    Desus
    Heath Douglas
    Lieutenant Commander, temporary chief engineer, USS Enterprise
    Iisa
    Julina
    Leonidas
    Thorin Martin
    Lieutenant Commander, temporary science officer, USS Enterprise

    References

    Romulan Neutral Zone; Romulan Star Empire; Romulus

    Advertisement
    Community content is available under the CC-BY-NC license unless otherwise noted.