Dilithium Is a Girl's Best Friend

"Dilithium Is a Girl's Best Friend" is a TOS short story from the Strange New Worlds 2016 anthology. In the story, Harry Mudd asks Eve McHuron to help him in another criminal act he has planned.

Summary[]

Mudd wants McHuron to sell Project Genesis to a client. As head of the profitable mining firm Childress Drilling, she'd met with Carol Marcus about her search for lifeless worlds and had in fact managed to acquire a copy from Starfleet Command years earlier. Mudd was contacted by someone who hoped to fix the process and use it to save his world, which was at risk from a nova, and suspected that McHuron had it. He manages to convince McHuron that his buyer is genuine, and despite the risk of the death penalty she agrees to sell the data, so long as she accompanies him.

En route aboard his beaten-down freighter Stella Signata, Mudd panics and flees at the sight of the Federation starship USS Excelsior. But he strains his warp engines past the limit, and McHuron is forced to respond to Captain Hikaru Sulu's hail and bluff her way through explaining Mudd's piloting and their lack of a flight plan.

After landing on Phocis Harju V, they encounter Mudd's buyer, who is named Portal 57. At her urging to know what he intends to do with Genesis, Portal shows them a lab complex in a cavern centered around an enormous hologram of a green-colored star. She acquiesces and hands over the data. Portal agrees to send payment once he's confirmed that the data is genuine. But by the time they've walked back to Mudd's freighter, she's realized that a logo in the lab belonged to the Tkon Empire. She thinks Portal is going to save the ancient Tkon civilization from extinction 600,000 years in the past by using time travel, which could rewrite history, wiping out the Federation and their very lives. Mudd asks her to make sure Portal pays first, before she acts.

McHuron slips back into the lab, but Portal prevents her from taking back her data crystal, insisting that his Empire is not dead. Ruth Bonaventure appears and disarms McHuron. While Portal solves functionality issues with Genesis, Bonaventure explains how she ended up there, and that she was the one who told Portal about Genesis, as she and Herm Gossett had also been contacted by Marcus years earlier. She'd decided that the Federation was not worth saving, claiming that its utopia is built on the backs of dilithium miners. Mudd knocks out Bonaventure with a tranquilizer and gives McHuron back her phaser.

She sets it to overload in the lab. Portal tells her to look at the hologram and readouts. The Genesis device has been sent via a slingshot maneuver back in time, but Tkon's star wasn't dead, it was perfectly healthy. Portal has accepted that his empire fell, and is ensuring that it does by using Genesis to cause the star to go supernova. McHuron deactivates the phaser overload. Portal asks only to be left alone to sleep again, and she agrees to keep that promise.

References[]

Characters[]

Ruth Bonaventure • Eve McHuron • Harry Mudd • Portal 57 • Hikaru Sulu
Referenced only: Ben Childress • Herm Gossett • James T. Kirk • Magda Kovacs • Carol Marcus • David Marcus • Stella Mudd • Khan Noonien Singh • Spock • Leo Walsh

Starships and vehicles[]

USS Excelsior • shuttle • Stella Signata • workbee
Referenced only: USS Enterprise

Locations[]

Beta Quadrant • the galaxy • Phocis Harju V
Referenced only: Earth • Ophiucus III • Rigel XII • Rura Penthe • Talos IV • Tkon system

Races and cultures[]

Human • Tkon
Referenced only: Breen • Irish • Klingon • Kreetassan • Tellarite

States and organizations[]

Childress Drilling • Federation • Federation Ministry of Civil Spaceflight • Kreetassan Assembly • Starfleet • Starfleet Command • Tkon Empire

Appendices[]

Related media[]

TOS episode & Mudd's Angels novelization: Mudd's Women – Introduction of Eve McHuron, Ben Childress, Ruth Bonaventure, and Harry Mudd.
TOS episode & Star Trek 4 novelization: The Menagerie – The short story mentioned the death penalty being suspended for the Enterprise crew returning to Talos IV.
TOS movie, novelization & comic adaptations: The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock – The Genesis Device, death of David Marcus, and collapse of the Genesis Planet were cited in the story.
TOS movie, novelization & comic adaptation: The Voyage Home – McHuron mentioned that Kirk was demoted in the aftermath of Genesis.
TNG episode: "The Last Outpost" – Established Portals and Tkon Empire.

Background[]

The Tkon Empire's logo in Portal's facility looked like stylized green-colored fire, consistent with its nickname "Empire of the Endless Flame".

Connections[]

Media featuring Harry Mudd
Episodes	"Mudd's Women" • "I, Mudd" • "Mudd's Passion" • "Choose Your Pain" • "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" • "The Escape Artist"
Novels and collections	Mudd's Angels • Mudd's Enterprise • Mudd in Your Eye • The Light Fantastic
Short stories	"The Business, As Usual, During Altercations" • "Dilithium Is a Girl's Best Friend" • "A Sucker Born"
RPGs and games	The Adventure Game • 25th Anniversary • 25th Anniversary (NES) • The Badgey Directive • Starfleet Academy • Through a Glass, Darkly ^m • Trexels • Timelines • Fleet Command
Comics	"Operation Con Game" • "It's a Living" • "Made Out of Mudd" • "The Survival Equation" • Discovery - Succession, Issue 1 ^m • "Vote Mudd!" (Year Five, Issue 15 • Issue 16)
	The Return of Mudd	"When You Wish Upon a Star...!" • "Mudd's Magic!"
	The Return of Harry Mudd	"Mission: Muddled" • "The Sky Above...The Mudd Below" • "Target: Mudd!"
^m : Mirror universe

Media featuring the USS Excelsior (NCC-2000) under Captain Hikaru Sulu
episodes/movies	The Undiscovered Country • Flashback
novels	The Undiscovered Country • The Fearful Summons • The Captain's Daughter • The Ashes of Eden • Starfleet Academy • The Captain's Table: War Dragons • The Lost Era: The Sundered • Excelsior: Forged in Fire • Flashback • The Lost Era: One Constant Star • Burning Dreams
short stories	"Dilithium Is a Girl's Best Friend" • "Housewarming"
comics	Tests of Courage (The Tabukan Syndrome) • A Wolf in Cheap Clothing (1 • 2 • 3 • 4) • Captain's Log: Sulu • The Undiscovered Country • The Veteran
Captain Sulu Adventures (audiobooks)	Cacophony • Envoy • Transformations
games	Shattered Universe
characters	Hikaru Sulu • Pavel Chekov • Janice Rand • Dmitri Valtane • Leonard James Akaar • Lojur • Tuvok • Altos Viger

Star Trek: The Original Series collected short stories, novellas and short novels
The New Voyages	The New Voyages ("Ni Var" • "Intersection Point" • "The Enchanted Pool" • "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" • "The Face on the Barroom Floor" • "The Hunting" • "The Winged Dreamers" • "Mind-Sifter" • "Sonnet from the Vulcan: Omicron Ceti Three") • The New Voyages 2 ("Surprise!" • "Snake Pit!" • "The Patient Parasites" • "In the Maze" • "Cave-In" • "Marginal Existence" • "The Procrustean Petard" • "The Sleeping God" • "Elegy for Charlie" • "Soliloquy")
Star Trek II & III Short Stories	Star Trek II Short Stories ("The Blaze of Glory" • "Under Twin Moons" • "Wild Card" • "The Secret Empire" • "Intelligence Test" • "To Wherever") • Star Trek III Short Stories ("The Azphari Enigma" • "The Jungles of Memory" • "A Vulcan, A Klingon, and an Angel" • "World's End" • "As Old as Forever")
Strange New Worlds	I ("A Private Anecdote" • "The Lights in the Sky" • "The Last Tribble" • "Reflections") • II ("Triptych" • "The Quick and the Dead" • "The First Law of Metaphysics" • "The Hero of My Own Life" • "Doctors Three") • III ("If I Lose Thee..." • "The Aliens Are Coming!" • "Family Matters") • IV ("A Little More Action" • "Prodigal Father" • "Missed" • "Tears for Eternity" • "Countdown" • "First Star I See Tonight" • "Scotty's Song" • "The Name of the Cat") • V ("Disappearance on 21st Street" • "The Trouble with Borg Tribbles" • "Legal Action" • "Yeoman Figgs" • "The Shoulders of Giants") • VI ("Bum Radish: Five Spins on a Turquoise Reindeer" • "One Last Adventure" • "Whales Weep Not" • "A Piece of the Pie" • "Marking Time" • "Ancient History") • VII ("A Test of Character" • "Indomitable" • "Project Blue Book" • "The Trouble With Tribals" • "All Fall Down" • "A Sucker Born" • "Obligations Discharged") • 8 ("Shanghaied" • "Assignment: One" • "Demon" • "Don't Call Me Tiny") • 9 ("Gone Native" • "A Bad Day for Koloth" • "Book of Fulfillment" • "The Smallest Choices") • 10 ("The Smell of Dead Roses" • "The Doomsday Gambit" • "Empty") • 2016 ("Dilithium Is a Girl's Best Friend")
Constellations	"First, Do No Harm" • "The Landing Party" • "Official Record" • "Fracture" • "Chaotic Response" • "As Others See Us" • "See No Evil" • "The Leader" • "Ambition" • "Devices and Desires" • "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" • "Make-Believe"
Star Trek: Explorer	"All That Most Maddens and Torments" • "The Way to Exile" • "Cumulative Damage" • "Explorers of the Storm" • "The Guardian" • "The Trouble with Jones" • "Sundering" • "A Dish Served Cold" • "Forewarned and Three-Armed" • "Working Miracles" • "Cat and Mouse" • "Housewarming" • "Memoriam"• "Chekov's Challenge" • "My Name is Mudd" • "The Lost Noel"
Misc. short stories	"Though Hell Should Bar the Way" • "Conflicting Natures" • "The Avenger" • "Night Whispers" • "Just Another Little Training Cruise" • "Safe Harbors" • "Ill Winds" • "The Greater Good"
Misc. novellas & short novels	"The Business, As Usual, During Altercations" • "The Badlands, Part I" • "One Giant Leap" • "The First Artifact" • "The Sorrows of Empire" • "A Less Perfect Union" • "The Chimes at Midnight"

Timeline[]

published order
Previous story: first story	Strange New Worlds 2016	Next story: A Christmas Qarol
Previous story: Empty	TOS stories	Next story: All That Most Maddens and Torments
Previous story: First Star Trek story	Stories by: Neil Bryant	Next story: Most recent work
chronological order
Previous adventure: Cast No Shadow Chapter 11	Memory Beta Chronology	Next adventure: Acceptable Risk
Previous story: Target: Mudd!	Adventures of Harry Mudd	Next story: The Light Fantastic
Previous story: Showdown! The Tabukan Syndrome	Voyages of the USS Excelsior	Next story: War Dragons