Changes: Furlough to Fury

Revision as of 16:31, 23 February 2018

Furlough to Fury was a comic book story published by Gold Key Comics in 1976. In this story, Leonard McCoy reunited with his estranged daughter Barbara McCoy during a layover on Earth in 2266.

Publisher's description

Cover blurb: A Triangle of peril: an alien beast—McCoy's daughter—and the Enterprise!

Summary

Captain's log, stardate 19:25.9: Instruments indicate a giant cosmic storm approaching. Cannot escape it. Only hope is to minimize casualties and damages! The plan is to reduce the impact of the crash by not opposing the mammoth force.

Hikaru Sulu called it a granddaddy of cosmic storms, which they could not outrun. Kirk reversed course to minimize damage by traveling in the same direction as the storm, but “waves of massed energy” still penetrated shields and cracked the forward secondary hull. Spock led a repair crew outside, driving a mobile laser welder to seal a fissure and secure the ship to travel to the nearest repair base, which was on Earth’s moon.

Leonard McCoy invited James T. Kirk to accompany him to visit his daughter, an assistant professor at Urey University. As the duo headed to the information office wearing dress uniforms, Kirk heard a scream and rushed to help. He saw a woman suspended by a tentacle upside down above the mouth of a giant octopus, and drew his phaser. But the woman demanded he stop, and as she pulled herself clear, she explained that Jobo, a Rykunian octopus, was always excited at meal times. As she fed it, it repeated that screaming sound. McCoy arrived, observing that they met without him. Kirk realized with surprise that the woman must be Barbara McCoy.

Later, over dinner, when Barbara stepped out, Leonard explained a bit of her backstory to Kirk. After he and Barbara’s mother divorced, Barbara was sent to boarding school, for which she has never forgiven him, and she extended that hostility toward all starship officers. Still, she was congenial.

When she returned, she invited them to see a rare, giant vrell being unloaded at her facility. They rode on a speedwalk back to the University, where she explained that the vrell naturally relayed thoughts telepathically, though it didn’t understand them. It looked like a 15-foot-tall horned bear, and it hugged her when she fed it Solithian asparagus, its favorite food. An associate took it to the university ampitheatre for temporary housing. As Kirk walked with her, she heard a stray thought relayed by the animal that he wanted to ask her on a date to the theater, and he heard a stray thought from her that she already had a date with a Mr. Norris. Kirk suggested he could come up with an excuse for Mr. Norris, and they went to see the Xanathian comedy “Bride of Three Worlds.”

Back at the ampitheatre, guard Spencer whipped the vrell. Fellow guard Clagg warned him not to do that. The vrell lashed back, swiped Spencer’s narco-dart gun and broke free. Clagg retreated and called for reinforcements as the sadistic guard was killed. Barbara McCoy was paged at the theater. Kirk, Barbara and Leonard met with Clagg back at the campus, who told them the beast was on Galileo Tower. At the tower, the animal was being fired on by several armed hovercraft. The officer in charge, Colonel Mitchum, recognized Barbara and agreed to relay to his superiors her offer to handle the creature.

Meanwhile, Scotty shared drinks with Jigo at the Engineer's Club, lamenting having gone through three cosmic storms, more than anyone else, Jigo thought. They caught sight of Red Garvin, a former Enterprise crewman assigned to guard the Great Eye of Ara, a large ruby considered holy on Orthoo. It disappeared while he was guarding it, and when he refused a neuro-verity test to prove his innocence, Kirk kicked him off the ship. The ruby remained missing to this day. Disguising himself as a hard-up Starfleet veteran, Scotty overheard Garvin plotting with two friends on the street and realized they intended to sabotage the Enterprise. But as Scotty tried to slip away, Garvin whacked him on the head and dumped him in a disposal center.

With permission from the local authorities, Barbara headed up Galileo Tower to calm the vrell. It recognized her, but panicked when it saw Kirk further down the stairwell. She reached out anxiously, but too far, and fell over the side of the stairs. The vrell leaped and caught her, then carried her back up to Kirk with a final, mortal effort. Weapons fire from the hovercraft had taken its toll, and the animal fell off the railing to its death. In its last few seconds, it relayed a telepathic message to Kirk.

Back on the ship, Spock reviewed a new branch of antimatter physics which proposed the possibility inter-dimensional travel. Meanwhile, Red Garvin and his two accomplices sneaked into his old cabin, now Sulu’s, and retrieved the stolen ruby, which had been hidden behind a ventilation grid. He planted a bomb that he said would blow a 40-foot hole in the ship. As they disembarked, Kirk and Leonard McCoy arrived. The officers were able to capture Garvin and his two accomplices, recover the ruby, and disable the bomb thanks to the vrell's telepathic message.

References

Science and technology

animal • antimatter • antimatter physics • bone • cosmic storm • dart gun • dimension • energy • inch • ion • laser welder • narco-dart • narco-dart gun • neuro-verity test • phaser • physics • radio energy • repair base • rocket • sensor • sonar • speedwalk • star system • thrust engine • volcano • X terrestrial animal research

Other references

ampitheatre • ant • beverage • Bride of Three Worlds • bridge • coconut • credit • Engineer's Club • Great Eye of Ara • holiday • hull • iron • knife • milk • moon • Murvonian coconut punch • music • opera • paradise • punch • ruby • Rykunian octopus • seafood • Solithian asparagus • steak • technology • telepathy • vrell • year

Appendices

Connections

previous comic: #39: Prophet of Peace	Star Trek: The Original Series Gold Key	next comic: #41: The Evictors

Background

This story was reprinted in Star Trek Annual 1979, Star Trek Annual 1986 and in the omnibus The Key Collection, Volume 5.
Written in 1976, this was the third time a Star Trek comic had been set on 23rd-century Earth. It was implied that TOS comic: "The Trial of Captain Kirk" took place in San Francisco, although the location wasn't named. The previous story, TOS comic: "Prophet of Peace", was also set on 23rd-century Earth.

Urey University was probably named after Harold Clayton Urey. Urey won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering deuterium. He was also known for the Miller-Urey experiment, a test that researched the origins of life on Earth. In the test, when early Earth atmospheric gases were subjected to early planetary conditions, the gases formed complex amino acids, building blocks for life.
Urey University’s location was not specified, but all of the local signage was in English.
After being damaged by the cosmic storm, the Enterprise traveled slowly for at least two days. “With each day, the moon looms larger” sounded like a long, slow trip.
“Radio waves” as well as X-rays penetrated the ship's shields, so the cosmic storm must have significantly overloaded the shields.
The Lunar repair facility in this story predates the establishment of drydock facilities and Spacedock in Earth orbit.
Some outdated tech was seen in the story. A “sonar” scan was used to assess hull damage after the storm. A laser welder sealed hull fissures.

Images

External links

Furlough to Fury article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.

@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 {{end box}}
 ===Background===
+* This story was reprinted in [[Star Trek Annual 1979]], [[Star Trek Annual 1986]] and in the omnibus [[The Key Collection, Volume 5]].
-* This story, written in 1976, was the third time a ''Star Trek'' comic was set on 23rd-century Earth. It was implied that {{c|TOS|The Trial of Captain Kirk}} took place in [[San Francisco]], although the location wasn't named. The previous story, {{c|TOS|Prophet of Peace}}, was also set on 23rd-century Earth.
+* Written in 1976, this was the third time a ''Star Trek'' comic had been set on [[23rd century|23rd-century]] [[Earth]]. It was implied that {{c|TOS|The Trial of Captain Kirk}} took place in [[San Francisco]], although the location wasn't named. The previous story, {{c|TOS|Prophet of Peace}}, was also set on 23rd-century Earth.
 * Urey University was probably named after [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Urey Harold Clayton Urey]. Urey won the [[Nobel Prize]] in Chemistry for discovering [[deuterium]]. He was also known for the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment Miller-Urey experiment], a test that researched the origins of life on Earth. In the test, when early Earth atmospheric gases were subjected to early planetary conditions, the gases formed complex amino acids, building blocks for life.

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

Changes: Furlough to Fury

Revision as of 16:31, 23 February 2018

Contents

Publisher's description

Summary

References

Characters

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