Sanduy's Comet

Sanduy's Comet was a comet, an astronomical object within the star system containing the planet Nukolee. Its orbit looped past Nukolee every 324 years.

History
In 2265, Sanduy's Comet made its closest approach in recorded history to Nukolee. It triggered meteorite showers in the atmosphere. News reports cited “wisps of pleasantly scented gases.” Shortly afterward, however, random occurrences of temporary madness began to occur among the population.

After spending three years off-world at Furanthy School, hereditary Prince Ravikii returned to the planet in 2267 to assume the throne. Attempts on his life were immediately committed by the head of the Nukolee Customs Health Authority, Doctor Nazino, Raviki’s first teacher Subomar, and even his sister Lulo. One of his guards deliberately steered a vehicle through a wall to plunge into a lake of lava. During a bout of madness two weeks earlier, Lulo had even killed Bando, her pet dog. Before madness took over, subjects first felt a burning sensation in their brains. Searching for an explanation to hundreds of similar incidents that have occurred in the past two years, James T. Kirk came across archived reports of the close passage of Sanduy's Comet.

Leonard McCoy and Montgomery Scott twice entered the tail of Sanduy's Comet in spacesuits to collect gas samples with vacu-lators. McCoy was inadvertently exposed, triggering two bouts of temporary madness. However, he was able to synthesize an antigen.