Hugo Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Author of WWW:Wake and FlashForward

SFWRITER.COM > Novels > Armada Outline

Star Trek: Armada

Outline

by Robert J. Sawyer

Copyright © 1984 by Robert J. Sawyer
All Rights Reserved.

A note from Rob (2003) [this note appears at the beginning of both the sample chapters and the outline.]:
In 1984, I approached Pocket Books about writing a Star Trek novel. I prepared four sample chapters (the first four chapters of the book), totaling 20,000 words. I also wrote a 1,400-word outline for the entire novel. My title for the book was Armada (this was long before there was a Trek computer game by that name).
The editor liked the submission very much, and asked me to finish it. I was advised by my friend Judith Merril not to do so without a contract, since, of course, there was nowhere else one could sell a Star Trek book. So I asked the editor for a contract. He said he would hand my submission over to Paramount's approval office, and if they gave the go-ahead, he would indeed issue a contract for me to finish the book.
Well, Paramount vetoed the idea. This was long before the movie Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and I was proposing a novel in which Captain Kirk has to try to kill God. Paramount said no discussion of religion was to be allowed in Star Trek books, and that was the end of that.
My Armada predates the last few classic Star Trek movies, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise; much of what follows is contradicted by material presented in those works. Still, I'm very proud of Armada, and offer it here for those who share my fondness for classic Trek.
Attentive readers of my work will recognize in Armada the seeds for the Waldahudin from my Hugo Award-nominated novel Starplex; some of the themes that ultimately ended up in my Hugo Award-nominated Calculating God; and an early version of Chapter 6 (Afsan at the Hunter's Shrine) of my novel Far-Seer. Meanwhile, Trek trivia buffs will recognize that the chapter titles are all lines of dialogue from the original Star Trek television series.
No violation of Paramount's copyright or trademarks is intended. I never signed a contract for this work, and was never paid for it, so I offer this material here as fan fiction.

The galaxy is collapsing in upon itself, becoming a single, giant black hole. Through telepathic contact with many minds on many worlds, a great Being, claiming to be the creator of life, has announced itself as the agent of the galaxy's destruction. It's Judgment Day, according to the Being, the end of the Milky Way. The Federation (including Humans, Vulcans, Tellarites,and Andorians) and the Klingon Empire form an alliance to confront the Being. The starship Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk is selected as flagship of the combined armada.

But even more firepower will be needed and time is running out. The gravitational curve of the galaxy has already deepened enough to make subspace communication impossible. The Enterprise and the Klingon cruiser Devisor storm the Romulan Neutral Zone in order to enlist the Praetor's support. Devisor is crippled in a battle with the Romulans. Klingon captain Koloth and the Klingon survivors are beamed over to the Enterprise, which is then captured. Kirk and Koloth gain an audience with Leestra, the new Praetor. She sees the Being's threat as a great military challenge and pledges her ships to the cause. But she has a score to settle with Koloth who, as Klingon envoy to Romulus, fed them obsolete technology.

Gorns and Tholians join the armada as well. Among the ambassadors negotiating the alliance between races is Spock's father, Sarek of Vulcan. Spock wishes to take Sarek's long-range shuttle Surak to meet the Being prior to the attack by the armada. (The Surak is the only small warp-drive ship available.) He feels his life has lacked purpose since Sarek gave up on the Human/Vulcan crossbreeding experiment that lead to his birth. Spock accepts that the Being may be telling the truth. It may be able to explain what his miserable life was supposed to represent. Sarek does not believe the Being's claims and refuses Spock use of his shuttle.

Kirk is tortured by the magnitude of the decision facing him. If the Being is what it claims to be, if it is Judgment Day, can he in conscience open fire on his creator? Would it do any good if he did? And how could he account for his actions?

Sarek consents to a mindmeld with Spock. He realizes for the first time what Spock has been going through and agrees to let him take his shuttle.

It's the season of blood on Andor, the time when Andorians butcher other sentient races. (Andorians can serve in Starfleet because the bloodlust only arises in large groups.) But, in the first of a series of acts of sabotage, someone deliberately changes the crew schedules, bringing a critical mass of Andorians together, sparking a bloody rampage through the ships of the armada.

Kirk and McCoy try to quell the uprising, but Kirk receives an intense message from the Being, beckoning him. Seeing this as his opportunity to determine what the Being really is, he catches up with Spock who is about to leave in the Surak. The two depart the armada and head off to intercept the Being. But the life-support system aboard the shuttle has been tampered with, making the voyage one of near-death.

In Kirk's absence, Koloth seizes command of the Enterprise under the terms of the alliance. His soldiers wipe out the bulk of the Andorians, leaving so few alive that the bloodlust subsides. A mutiny ensues. Many members of the crew see religious significance in the Being and refuse to be party to an attempt to destroy it. Scotty is severely injured because of sabotage in the Engineering section. McCoy, senior Federation officer, is thrown into conflict with Koloth to try to restore peace aboard Enterprise.

Sulu, who has been experimenting with the group-mind techniques of New Humans, is revealed as the saboteur. New Humanity, it develops, is a puppet religion of the hive-mind Tholians, who wish to subsume the Being's consciousness into their own.

Kirk and Spock are overdue for their return. Koloth orders the armada to head toward the Being. Leestra, wishing to be battle commander, now exacts her revenge. Through nerve-pinches and mindmelds, she leaves Koloth appearing dead to the Klingons. In a cannibalistic funeral ritual, Koloth's raw body is devoured. But Koloth is conscious, feeling every sensation.

Kirk and Spock arrive at their destination, a giant creature living in free space. Spock sets up a three-way mindmeld between himself, Kirk, and the Being. Kirk learns that the Being did, in fact, guide the evolution of life in the Milky Way. But it wants to die — and is unable to commit suicide. So it has turned its children against itself. An attempt seven billion years before involving a giant Dyson sphere weapon failed. Fighting back on an instinctive level, the Being had wiped out all life in the galaxy and had to start anew. This time the Being has developed a galaxy full of warriors to kill it. (Through interludes on Tellar and Andor, during the Andorian rampage, and in encounters with Gorns and Tholians while the armada was being assembled, we've seen the diverse mechanisms the Being used to craft creatures of violence.) Is the Being a god? It doesn't know. Did a greater force create the Being and start life in the galaxy? After pondering the question for billions of years, the Being has concluded the only way to find out is to pass out of this existence, to die and meet its maker ... if there is one.

The Being has erected an energy barrier around the galaxy to keep the poison of the violent races it created from infecting the rest of the universe. Kirk returns to the armada, now grown to ten thousand starships. They attack the Being, which instinctively defends itself. In a battle royale, depending as much on Kirk's cunning as on brute strength, the Being is defeated and finally dies.

But there is hope for the life forms of our galaxy. Humans, Andorians, Tellarites, Klingons, Romulans, Tholians and Gorns, all of whom joined in the armada, are still savage, violent races. But Vulcans have found a way to overcome their genetic predisposition to violence and Spock, as a Human/Vulcan hybrid, has shown that it's possible for Humans, too. In the epilogue, providing a bridge between the TV episodes and the first Star Trek movie, Kirk, broken by the weight of killing a god, accepts an admiral's desk job. Spock, still tortured by a need to understand himself, returns with Sarek to Vulcan to undergo the Kolinahr, a purging of all remaining emotion. McCoy, having had his fill of death, returns to private practice in Georgia.

REFERENCES

CHARACTERS

Klingon Captian Koloth is introduced in "The Trouble with Tribbles." His ship is referred to as the Devisor in the animated episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles."
Sarek of Vulcan appears in "Journey to Babel," in the animated episode "Yesteryear," in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Ambassador Robert Fox (who appears in the sample chapters) was introduced in "A Taste of Armageddon."

ALIENS

Tellarites appear in "Journey to Babel," "Whom Gods Destroy," "The Lights of Zetar," in the animated episode "Time Trap," and, briefly, in the fourth Star Trek movie.
Andorians appear in "Journey to Babel," "Whom Gods Destroy," and "The Gamesters of Triskelion," in the animated episodes "Yesteryear" and "Time Trap," and, briefly, in the first and fourth Star Trek movies.
Gorns appear in "Arena" and "Time Trap."
Tholians appear in "The Tholian Web."

MISCELLANEOUS

The long-range shuttle Surak is used by Spock in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
New Humans are discussed in Gene Roddenberry's novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and developed in the original Pocket Books novel Triangle by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath.
The Energy Barrier Around the Galaxy is introduced in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and also figures prominently in "By Any Other Name."

Home	Novels	About Rob	For Book Clubs	Blog
Search	Short Stories	Press Kit	How to Write	Facebook
Buy Books	Nonfiction	E-mail Rob	Canadian SF	Twitter

Hugo Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer ROBERT J. SAWYER Author of WWW:Wake and FlashForward