The Price of the Phoenix

Plot summary

Captain Kirk's body is beamed aboard the Enterprise after his death in a house fire on an unnamed planet. Spock beams down to confront planetary ruler Omne. Omne reveals that he has pioneered the “Phoenix process”, a modification of Transporter technology to create a duplicate of a living person – including a copy of Kirk. Spock is given leave for a brief mind meld, verifying that it is indeed Kirk, he calls this Kirk “James”. Spock accepts Omne’s offer, although Omne makes it plain that his price will in effect require Spock to betray the Federation.

The original Kirk is alive and well, having sustained only minor injuries in the house fire before being beamed to safety. Spock attempts to rescue both Kirk and James, with the assistance of the female Romulan Commander from “The Enterprise Incident”, who is sympathetic enough to Spock and Kirk to switch sides.

Spock fights Omne bare-handed and defeats him. He forces a mind meld on Omne in order to purge him of all memory of his experiences with Kirk; but before this is complete, Omne shoots himself in the head. (One of Omne’s affectations is that every visitor to the planet, barring a few privileged Romulans, may go armed only with locally-manufactured gunpowder weapons after the fashion of the Wild West.) Realizing that Omne would have done this only because he trusted the Phoenix device to resurrect him, Spock, Kirk, James and the Commander retreat to the Enterprise.

There they hastily draw up plans both to establish a new life for James and to deal with Omne’s inevitable reappearance. James is surgically altered to pass for Romulan and is to accompany the Commander back to the Empire. She explains that there are colony worlds where men are “very properly considered the weaker sex and not permitted to fight”, and since earthmen are weak and frail in comparison to Vulcanoids he is to be represented as one of these.

However, before James and the Commander depart, the resurrected Omne transports himself aboard the Enterprise. A short fistfight follows in which Omne beats everyone present and captures James, holding him hostage with a gun at his head. He announces his intention to return to his planet with James, where it will be impossible to pursue him. Kirk chooses this moment to warn Omne to mend his ways, which Omne dismisses with incredulity and scorn. Kirk then gives the signal for Mr. Scott, supposed by Omne to have been unaware of his presence, to transport the weapon out of Omne’s hand, and using this moment of surprise the Commander snatches James away and Kirk, with one of Omne’s own guns, outdraws him.

Killed a second time aboard the Enterprise and supposedly out of range of his Phoenix device, Omne is supposed to be dead; but there is ample room for doubt in view of the technology Omne has already shown. Omne’s planet is impenetrable, and if he revive again, that must be addressed when it arises.

Sequel

The Fate of The Phoenix (ISBN 0553271911), again by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, was published in 1979 by Bantam Books.

In it, Klingons and Romulans are gearing up for war again and the Enterprise must face the threat of Omne. He is a man who cannot die due to having perfected a cloning process of advanced complexity.