A Merchant's Loyalty

A Merchant’s Loyalty is a Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip. It is the 14th story in the US Comic Strips series, published daily in newspapers over a period of seven weeks by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. The story depicts events from Captain Kirk's second five-year mission aboard the refurbished USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). In this story, scrap merchants conspire to destroy the Enterprise and sell it as salvage.

Summary

 * Captain's Log: Stardate 8123.2.
 * We must pass through the Deltan 300 graveyard sector to make the meeting with the Komar ambassador on time. An unpleasant shortcut…

Approaching a pair of merchant ships shooting at each other, the Enterprise was suddenly fired on. Chekov disabled one of the ships, then restrained both with tractor beams.


 * Ship’s Log: Supplemental. : We have captured the two merchant ships, in hopes of resolving their conflict quickly.
 * Ship’s Log: Supplemental. : The leaders of the battling merchant ships have beamed aboard—but their battle rages on.

Beamed aboard were Merchant Captain Krieger of the Latimor Recycling Plant and his opponents, Merchant Captain Kro-Regas and Merchant Lieutenant Zaia from a competing salvage operation. The salvagers recycled and sold large amounts of scrap in the sector left over from the Delta Wars, but thanks to Federation peace missions, the scrap was running out and their livelihood was endangered.

Unknown to the crew, the merchants’ rivalry was a ploy. While “feisty” Zaia distracted Kirk, Spock and Scotty, Regas planted a bomb to the wall of the transporter room. En route to the conference room, while Zaia and Kreiger tussled in the hall, Regas planted a second bomb to a wall near the ship’s main circuits. But Zaia dropped a bracelet during the fight, which Kirk kept. Sulu alerted Kirk to a large debris cloud approaching, and as Kirk gave the merchants a tour of the bridge, Regas hid a third bomb on the bridge’s life support panel. Done with their sabotage, Regas signaled for beam-up as the first bomb exploded, but minus her bracelet, Zaia did not beam away with the others, Kirk did.
 * Ship’s Log: Supplemental. : A feisty merchant lieutenant has agreed to give up her weapon. Hopefully there will be no further delay in resolving this conflict.

Sensors revealed that the debris cloud hid more than 100 of Krieger’s salvage ships. The second bomb detonated, leaving the ship defenseless. But Regas implored Krieger not to destroy the Enterprise, because Zaia was aboard and she was secretly his daughter. Krieger ignored him, locking Kirk in a storage room. Regas hid a bomb on Krieger’s ship, then flew himself and Kirk in an escape pod back to the Enterprise. Spock diffused the bomb on the Enterprise while Krieger’s detonated. Seeing their leader’s ship damaged, the rest of the Latimor Recycling Plant merchant ships fled. Regas said “A merchant’s loyalty extends only as far as his purse strings.”
 * Ship’s Log: Supplemental. : Admiral Kirk has been captured by the merchant captains while Zaia has unfolded the plot to the crew of the Enterprise.

Uhura reported that Deltan authorities had arrived to take Regas and Zaia. Kirk ordered the ship to Manark V.

Characters

 * USS ‘’Enterprise’’ crew
 * James T. Kirk • Spock • Leonard McCoy • Montgomery Scott • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura • Pavel Chekov DeCorte


 * Other characters
 * Krieger (Merchant) • Zaia • Kro-Regas Komar ambassador

Starships and vehicles

 * USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) • Latimor Recycling Plant ship • Regas’s Merchant ship

Locations

 * Deltan 300 graveyard sector Regula • Ziba • Manark V

Races and cultures

 * Human • Merchant Deltan • Klingon

States and organizations

 * Latimor Recycling Plant • Kro-Regas Merchant Fleet Deltan authorities

Science and technology

 * Merchant escape pod • Merchant hand weapon • phaser • tractor beam • transporter

Other references

 * Deltan flogging • Delta Wars • Scitilli duck • Simian slime worm • Deltan credits

Related stories

 * - Described the starship refit, crew ranks, and technology seen in this story.
 * - Depicted crew uniforms seen in this story.

Information

 * This is the 14th of 20 newspaper story arcs. It is the first of seven stories where the crew wear maroon uniforms. This story was set between and  aboard the refurbished USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).


 * This story was not printed with a title. Rich Handley chose the new title for the 14th arc's reprinting (http://www.hassleinbooks.com/pdfs/TrekComics.pdf).


 * This story contained the series’ final Sunday segment on 10/24/82. Subsequently stories unfolded only on Monday through Saturday in black and white.


 * Based on the uniforms alone, this story was set either in 2277 or 2278. The uniforms were white and gray in 2276's . Maroon uniforms were worn when the second five-year mission ended in 2278's . According to Starfleet uniform (2278-2350s): “At James T. Kirk's personal request, the new Starfleet uniform issue was instated early as the ship's uniform of the USS Enterprise, replacing the white and grey uniforms. By 2278, the new uniforms come into in widespread use on other vessels, such as the USS Bozeman. .


 * Considering the further evidence of Chekov's rank, this story was set in 2277. In the 15th comic strip arc, which takes place immediately after this one, Chekov is a lieutenant (1/29/83). That would place both comic strip stories prior to the events of TOS anthology: Star Trek II Short Stories, set in 2277 (Pocket Books Timeline), where Chekov was a lieutenant commander (page 124), and prior to the events of TOS YA novel: Distress Call, where Chekov was also a lieutenant commander (pages 2, 10, 67, 78).
 * “Firing at a Federation starship is a criminal offense,” Kirk told the merchants. Spock said the penalty was “hard labor on Ziba.”


 * At the end of the story (10/30/82), Kirk’s reason for having to be in the dangerous Deltan graveyard—to meet with the Komar ambassador—was ignored in favor of sending the ship to the location where the next story began (11/1/82), Manark V.
 * Writer artist Shigetani was dissatisfied with his work on story arcs 14 and 15. (He wrote arc 14, Martin Pasko wrote arc 15. Shigetani was the artist for both arcs.) He said syndicates usually had three months of strips in reserve, but they'd run out on Star Trek, and he was asked to produce material in "as little as a day! It killed me!" (“Forgotten Frontiers,” by Rich Handley, Star Trek Communicator #121 Feb/Mar 1999)