"And a Child Shall Lead Them" was a comic book story published by Gold Key Comics in 1978. It was the 13th of 22 stories drawn by Alden McWilliams and the 5th of 10 stories written by George Kashdan.
Description
- Unaware of the massive wealth they possessed, the asteroid’s inhabitants were easy prey for those who would lure and exploit them! For their primitive brains could not comprehend they had been tempted into annihilation! It should have ended with the arrival of the USS Enterprise… but, instead, that changed the threat from slow destruction into sudden death!
Summary
- Captain's log, stardate 28:11.5
- Our search for the black marketeers of tri-faxichologenic acid (TFA) has led us to an unexplored sector of the Organian Treaty Zone...
The USS Enterprise approaches an unlogged asteroid able to support life and containing high amounts of TFA, so James T. Kirk, Spock, and Leonard McCoy beam down to explore and search. With his tricorder, Spock detects an impending ambush, and the officers are able to fight off several indigenous humanoids. McCoy finds that the natives are addicted to kurali, a synthetic narcotic.
Climbing a ridge, they spot huge mining vehicles in use, along with humanoids providing hard labor in exchange for doses of kurali. Kirk approaches the leader of the miners — Pete Flamm says there is no law against mining TFA, but Kirk points out kurali distribution is illegal. Flamm tells the officers he won't give up without a fight, so Kirk has the Leonardo shuttlecraft strafe the mining vehicles with phasers.
Suddenly, a huge boulder slams into the Leonardo and it crashes. The boulder was thrown by a teenager from atop a hill.
- Captain's log, stardate 28:11.7
- In the course of apprehending the suspected black marketeers, we seem to have run into opposition by a one-man army ... or rather, a one boy army!
The boy, Klwama, charges the shuttle crew as they disembark. Kirk fires his phaser, but the boy is impervious and crushes the weapon, then demands they talk. He's the adopted leader of the humanoids, and he's permitted the mining for the kurali because it eases the peoples' hardships and suffering. He agrees to visit the Enterprise, where McCoy and Christine Chapel find him to have genius potential and an impressive constitution. The main computer notes the boy could be the child of two explorers who went missing when he was very young. McCoy determines that the natives require TFA to survive. Kirk explains to Klwama that the miners are violating the Prime Directive by interfering with the natural development of the natives, and they're robbing the world of TFA that the natives require for life. McCoy is willing to develop an antidote for the addiction, and Spock says mined TFA can be returned.
Klwama and the landing party transport back down, but meanwhile the miners have been busy. They've overcome the shuttle crew, taken their weapons, and convinced several of the humanoids to help defend them. Kirk leaves his communicator open — Montgomery Scott overhears and quickly sends a security team down to surround Flamm's men. But he won't go easily, and his men overcome the security team, grab their weapons and warn Kirk to stand down or he'll fire. Kirk agrees, but Klwama has sneaked out of sight and grabs one of the miners in a choke hold, and the miners drop their weapons.
Later, Kirk bids farewell to Klwama and the miners board a shuttle to be brought back to the Enterprise.
References
Characters
- Christine Chapel • Pete Flamm • James T. Kirk • Klwama • Leonard McCoy • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Nyota Uhura
Starships and vehicles
- USS Enterprise (Constitution-class) • Leonardo (I) (class F shuttlecraft) • Leonardo (II) (class F shuttlecraft) • mining vehicles
Locations
Races and cultures
States and organizations
Science and technology
- antibiotic • antidote • atmosphere • blood • brain • brainwave • communicator • computer • disease • drug • kurali • lifeform • medical tricorder • microscope • mining • narcotic • phaser • rifle • shuttlecraft • transporter • tricorder • tri-faxichologenic acid
Ranks and titles
- captain • doctor • lieutenant
Other references
- addiction • asteroid • black market • caveman • club • code • crystal • evolution • genius • native • Prime Directive • regulation • sector • trial
Appendices
Related media
- TOS comic: "One of Our Captains Is Missing!" – Exploited indigenous Togota tribesmen rebelled against Mobitans with weapons provided by Klingon agents.
- TOS comic: "Child's Play" – On Ominnus, retreiving medicinal herbs violated taboos of the indigenous cavemen.
- TOS - Legion of Super-Heroes comic: "Issue 6" – Caveman Vandar became immortal after trapping Q.
Background
- The two Leonardo shuttlecraft were named for famed inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci.
- Leonardo was wrecked in the middle of the story, only to be replaced with a brand new Leonardo just a few hours later. Either the engineering department could fabricate shuttles extremely quickly, or a replacement craft was standing by to be christened Leonardo. Both shuttles used the registry NCC-1701/7, the same as Galileo. That was either an oversight, or possibly the name Galileo was not being used as the name of an Enterprise shuttlecraft at that particular time.
- It was not explained why a black market existed for tri-faxichologenic acid, a medicine which showed promise as a universal antibiotic. It was either extremely rare or had other biological effects.
- While referred to as an asteroid, the planetary body in this story was a dwarf planet or planetoid — although that classification did not exist when the story was written in 1978. It was large enough that gravity formed it into a sphere, had its own atmosphere, had relatively normal surface gravity, and supported the evolution of plants and animals in class M conditions. None of these were properties of asteroids.
- Nyota Uhura had one line on the bridge. Christine Chapel was seen working in the Enterprise’s medical lab but had no dialogue.
- Criminal Pete Flamm’s name was on the nose as a deceitful "flim-flam man".
Images
Connections
Timeline
| Published Order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: #51: Destination Annihilation |
TOS comics (Gold Key) | Next comic: #53: What Fools These Mortals Be.. |
| Previous story: Destination Annihilation |
Stories by: George Kashdan |
Next story: What Fools These Mortals Be.. |
| Chronological Order | ||
| Previous adventure: Yeoman Figgs Strange New Worlds V |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: The Conscience of the King |
| Previous comic: Yeoman Figgs Strange New Worlds V |
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), Year Two | Next comic: The Conscience of the King |
Production history
- May 1978
- First published by Gold Key Comics.
- September 2008
- Included on The Complete Comic Book Collection DVD. (Graphic Imaging Technologies)
- 17 January 2019
- Reprinted in Graphic Novel Collection #54. (Eaglemoss Collections)
Translations
- 1978
- Dutch: In Ruimteschip Enterprise Special. (De Vrijbuiter)
- 1978
- German: As "Und ein Kind wird sie führen" in Raumschiff Enterprise Comic Sonderheft (Special Issue) #1. (Condor)
External links
And a Child Shall Lead Them article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
