Terminally Yours

Terminally Yours is a Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip by Gerry Conway. It is the 18th story in the US Comic Strips series, published in newspapers over a period of 40 days by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. This story depicts events after Captain Kirk's second five-year mission but before. In this story, McCoy contracts a deadly plague and flees the Enterprise to protect its crew.

Summary

 * Captain’s Log, stardate 9620.
 * Yesterday, a thief aboard the Enterprise stole one of our shuttlecraft. The theft remained undetected for hours, because the thief had drugged the duty officer and apparently knew enough about the Enterprise to avoid alerting the rest of the ship. The medical staff has failed to revive the duty officer, so I had Dr. McCoy paged—but he hasn’t responded, and the door to his quarter is sealed shut with a new computer code… so I have no choice but to order a privacy override.

In McCoy’s quarters, security found a sealed message disc with a recording made by the doctor. In the briefing room, staff listened as McCoy recounted events from their mission 12 days prior to the recording, when they responded to a distress call from Circe-Six and beamed down in environmental suits to discover most of the 30,000 colonists were dead from the most virulent outbreak of an epidemic McCoy said he’d ever seen. While checking a corpse, he accidentally cut his hand and exposed himself to the toxin. He was too embarrassed to report the incident, but after returning to the ship and analyzing the cut, he confirmed being infected. He sterilized the medical lab and his quarters, then fled the Enterprise in a two-man shuttlecraft. Kirk and Spock agreed that McCoy had not been thinking rationally, since quarantine could easily have been set up aboard the ship, so they set out to find McCoy and seek a cure for the disease.


 * McCoy’s log, stardate 9623.
 * It’s getting harder to think clearly… the disease I caught on Circe-Six is already well progressed… But I must stay sane… long enough to reach my destination that’s the only only… to keep the Enterprise safe… have to… keep them safe…


 * Science log, stardate 9630.
 * Spock reporting. I have examined samples of Dr. McCoy’s infected blood and I have determined the nature of the disease which destroyed the inhabitants of Circe-Two [sic], and may yet cost McCoy his life…

Spock identified the contagion as the same virus that brought about the Red Plague on Vulcan two centuries earlier. Kirk agreed that Spock should proceed to Vulcan aboard a shuttle and retrieve the cure while the Enterprise continued searching for McCoy’s shuttle.


 * Admiral’s log, stardate 9632.1.
 * Captain Spock has departed the Enterprise to seek a cure of McCoy’s illness on the planet Vulcan…


 * Admiral’s log, stardate 9633.2.
 * Still no sign of Dr McCoy’s shuttle…

Considering where McCoy might go since his shuttle hadn’t been found through conventional searches, Kirk theorized McCoy might have returned to Circe-Two, since it was already contaminated by the virus, so his being there wouldn’t harm anyone else. After returning to Circe-Two, and Kirk, Chapel and Scott prepared to beam down in environmental suits to search for him, leaving Sulu in command.


 * Science log, stardate 9633.3.
 * I saw no need to worry Admiral Kirk with any additional concerns before my departure from the Enterprise, so I have neglected to inform him that there is some small danger involved in attaining the cure for McCoy’s contagion. In any case, the probability that I might die in the attempt is only .57808. An acceptable risk. Spock out.


 * Science log, stardate 9635.2.
 * I have arrived on Vulcan, in desolate out-region known as Kendha-Va—“the Dead Ocean.” It was here, two centuries ago, that the Red Plague killed more than a million of my people—and may today kill Dr. McCoy! Only one thing saved us… the healing nectar of a flowering vegetation known as Shin-Ka-Ti. The question is… after 200 years, do any of these flowers yet remain?

Spock located a living Shin-Ka-Ti plant, and carefully removed it. But at that moment, an enormous Vulcan sand worm popped out of the dry ocean sand and threatened him. Spock fired his phaser at its head, and it collapsed on top of him, forcing him to shoot his way out of the dead animal.


 * Captain’s log, stardate 9636.3.
 * Commander Sulu reporting for Admiral Kirk; the admiral has spent several hours on Circe-Two, searching for Dr. McCoy, who is dying from a disease known only as the red plague. So far, the admiral’s found no trace of McCoy, but even if he does find him, there’s little we can…

Rendezvousing with the Enterprise, Spock learned that McCoy was on the surface, so Spock changed course and landed near the search party. They had found McCoy, but he was hidden in a building and shooting at them to keep them away. Spock played a gambit, lying to McCoy that the Vulcan was immune to the virus in order to get close to him. Spock distracted McCoy long enough for Chapel to sneak in and hypo McCoy with an extract from the Shin-Ka-Ti plant. Spock then asked her to inject himself, as Vulcans were more susceptible to the virus than humans.


 * Captain’s log, stardate 9637.02.
 * In the sickbay aboard the USS Enterprise…

Chapel oversaw McCoy and Spock recovering in sickbay. Back to normal, McCoy explained how quickly he became paranoid after being exposed. Spock denied acting heroically to save McCoy’s life, citing the doctor’s value as a Starfleet investment.

Characters

 * James T. Kirk • Spock • Leonard McCoy • Montgomery Scott • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura • Christine Chapel • Unnamed navigator

Starships and vehicles

 * USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) • two-man shuttlecraft

Locations

 * Circe-Six/Circe-Two • Vulcan (Kendh-Ya out-region)

Races and cultures

 * Human • Vulcan

States and organizations

 * Vulcan

Science and technology

 * Environmental suit • message disc • medical distress call • Red Plague • Shin-kat-ti a.k.a. Flower of Mercy • Vulcan sand worm

Ranks and titles

 * Governor

Chronology

 * 21st Century – the Red Plague erupted in a desolate region called Kendha-Va and killed more than a million Vulcans “some two hundred years” prior to the story
 * 13 days prior to stardate 9620 – The Enterprise arrived at Circe-Six in response to a distress call and discovered most of the 30,000 colonists were dead from an epidemic.
 * One day prior to stardate 9620 – McCoy fled the Enterprise in a two-man shuttlecraft.

Background

 * After a revolving door of four artists, Dick Kulpa took over the strip, illustrating its final three stories.


 * The story’s title was created for its reprinting in The Newspaper Comics, Volume 2.


 * This was the third of five stories written by Gerry Conway, famous for co-creating Marvel’s Punisher and scripting the death of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man comic book. Conway wrote the final arc in the strip series, creating a period when Admiral Kirk revisited the Enterprise before the events of.


 * Told over 40 days, this was the third shortest story in the series. Only It's a Living at five weeks and Called Home at six weeks were shorter. The Nogura Regatta was the fourth shortest at 48 days.


 * This story and its flashback followed shortly after the previous one, based on the stardates. The rationale for Gerry Conway’s stories being set in 2279 was presented in the article for.


 * The two-man shuttlecraft design depicted during Gerry Conway's tenure was not seen previously. The wrecked Copernicus in was the only one identified by name. McCoy and Spock each flew shuttles solo in this story, and one was flown in . This particular design may have been of an experimental type, per the testbed status of the Enterprise during this period.


 * The devastated planet was called Circe-Six on July 8, 11, and 16. But without explanation, it was called Circe-Two from July 17 onward.


 * Spock lied to the paranoid McCoy, saying he was immune to the Red Plague, when actually it spread faster in Vulcans.


 * When Kirk said he ordered a privacy override to McCoy’s quarters, which sounded like he had an authorization code to override the lock. Instead, that meant the door had to be cut open by phaser fire.


 * The unnamed navigator is this story resembled Pavel Chekov. But as he was not identified by name and did not speak with an accent, it’s uncertain whether he was meant to be Chekov. Chekov likely would have been serving as first officer aboard the Reliant at this time.

Related stories

 * — McCoy contracted xenopolycythemia, a deadly disease, and left the Enterprise, remaining on Yonada.
 * – Chapel contracted a plaque with similar symptoms of paranoia (the same way as McCoy, by accidentally becoming exposed, then not reporting it) and fled in a small ship.
 * — Spock contracted choriocytosis, deadly to Vulcans.