xhausted and short on supplies, the crew of the Federation starship Enterprise learns that their much-needed shore leave has been set aside for a secret mission. They are to respond to a distress call sent in an Earth language but broadcast from a distant system far beyond any Earth colony.
With no information to work from, Captain Kirk and his crew must visit each of the three habitable planets in the Horatius system, the source of the signal. He's shocked to learn that each planet has been settled by refugees from Earth who, for different reasons, dropped out of Federation society.
On Neolithia, the first planet, the landing party is attacked by Grang, a young buck whose tribe fled Earth for a simpler life--and so has no technology with which to send a signal. Having at first assumed the Enterprises's officers were raiders like the ones that have driven his proud people into the caves, Grang eventually befriends the visitors and vouches for them to his elders at the risk of his own life.
Back aboard the Enterprise, Kirk must step up his mission because of two distressing discoveries: Cafard, a space disorder caused by too long a tour of duty, is threatening his ship; and Lieutenant Sulu smuggled Grang aboard to prevent his being executed for helping Kirk. They move quickly to the second planet, Mythra, a theocracy in which everyone but the priests are in a zombie-like daze. Kirk decides the Mythrans didn't send the call either, but he has to sabotage the priests' chemical hold over the populace in order to escape.
The third planet, Bavarya, is the source of both the raiders and the distress call. The signal was sent by a young princess trying to stop her dictator father, Nummer Ein, who is creating a master race of elite warrior clones. Faced with a threat to the Federation itself, Kirk, his first officer Spock and Grang find themselves fighting for their lives against an endless supply of doppelgangers, while above them the crew of the Enterprise goes mad.
For the story is hollow...
Those unacquainted (or out of sympathy) with the five-year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise will find little to interest them in Horatius, a baldly written narrative of one of Captain Kirk's less-gripping adventures. Fans of Trek fiction, too, may be disappointed, since there is none of the deep examination of these well-known characters that can be found in the countless novels written in recent years.
Horatius was the first Trek novel, preceding James Blish's Spock Must Die by two years. Originally part of a series of juvenile books based on popular TV series, it was out of print for 30 years before being "rescued" by Pocket Books in a collector's edition that closely reproduces the original. Just as the typography reflects this book as it existed in 1968, so the story reflects Star Trek at that time--and therein lies its interest. Star Trek is shown young but in the first stages of evolution, adding dimension to its universe. For example, Horatius explores what it would be like to serve on the cramped original Enterprise--below decks as well as among the officers on the bridge--as the missions blur together.
More intriguingly, in Horatius can be found the seeds of a Star Trek dispute that lasted decades. Gene Roddenberry decreed that in his idealized future everyone would get along, forcing the creation of evil races like the Klingons to provide conflict. Later, wiser heads realized that this picture was both impossible and dull; but not until Roddenberry had lost control of his franchise could the diversity and divisiveness of human nature be more fully explored. In Horatius, however, humans have chosen to leave Earth's advanced civilization, and there is respect for the brave tribes of Neolithia.
While Horatius tells readers precious little about Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise's famous officers, it provides a diverting, quick read, and returns readers to Star Trek in its infancy. For completists, that may be enough.
