"Heaven help me! I've just murdered my patient! — Dr. Boyce... Killer!" — "Immortal Wounds" is a TOS comic published by Marvel-Paramount Comics in 1997, the eighth issue in the Star Trek: Early Voyages series, set during Christopher Pike's captaincy of the USS Enterprise.
Description[]
- Dr. Boyce is sent to the planet of Neyda Prime to help contain a deadly plague, but instead sends one of his patients to his grave... on purpose! And it's on videotape! What's the terrifying secret that made the good doctor turn his back on the Hippocratic oath?
Summary[]
- Captain's log, stardate 360.3.
- The Enterprise is continuing in its mission to provide medical support to the Federation world of Neyda Prime, where an outbreak of the virulent Crain's disease has struck the population. However, our work here has been overshadowed by an alarming turn of events.
Magistrate Holan confronts Dr. Boyce and arrests him for the first-degree murder of a Neydan. Boyce thinks it's a joke until he hears the victim's name, Narten Drexler, and then he quietly acquiesces. He confesses to Pike that he did it, and Holan shows Pike a damning video of Boyce injecting the victim with a lethal dose of metrazene. The magistrate introduces Pike to Ambassador Toluk, a Vulcan who agrees to act as Boyce's defense attorney.
- Captain's log, supplemental.
- Doctor Boyce's pre-trial hearing commences tomorrow. Ambassador Toluk has built the best defense he can but I think we both know it's a lost cause. Then again, aren't they the only ones worth fighting for?
Privately, Gabrielle Carlotti and Mia Colt realize they've both seen Boyce arguing with himself, wondering if that means he's become psychologically unfit. Toluk tells Pike that proving mental instability as a defense is difficult in court. Meanwhile, in his holding cell, Boyce begins talking to mysterious voices only he can hear. Guards open the door to check on him, and he springs on them, grabbing a weapon and subduing them all. He flees and finds his way to Toluk.
Holan alerts Pike that Boyce has escaped, critically wounding two guards, and will be shot on sight. Pike offers to use sensors aboard the Enterprise to locate him, but Holan refuses to allow it. Holan and his guards converge on Toluk's embassy quarters, but Pike, Spock and Carlotti beam directly there and intercede, having gotten a message from Toluk to come.
Following a struggle, Toluk explains he has performed a mind meld on Boyce, and learned that the doctor is being controlled by the minds of three Julthans. Decades earlier, Boyce came to the rescue of a crashed shuttle on a remote outpost, but was unable to save three dying passengers who'd fled a raid on their colony world. Before they died, the Julthans telepathically transferred their living spirits, similar to Vulcan katras, to Boyce. They sought the leader of the raiders, and discovered it to have been Drexler, and they murdered him as revenge.
During the meld, Toluk extracted the Julthans into living neurocrystals, pledging to bring them back to their homeworld. The charges against Boyce were subsequently dropped.
- Captain's log, stardate 360.5.
- Neyda Prime is behind us. The Crain's disease outbreak has been halted, and Doctor Boyce exonerated. Everyone aboard is breathing one huge collective sigh of relief... some more than others.
References[]
Characters[]
- Phillip Boyce • Gabrielle Carlotti • Mia Colt • Narten Drexler • Holan • Christopher Pike • Spock • Toluk • José Tyler
- Referenced only
- Sarek
Starships and vehicles[]
Locations[]
- Neyda Prime (Central Judiciary Bureau)
- Referenced only
- New Milan
Races and cultures[]
States and organizations[]
- Federation • Julthan Free Worlds • Neyda Prime Judicial Bureau • Orion Syndicate • Starfleet • Vulcan Science Academy
Science and classification[]
- autopsy • biobed • communicator • hypospray • medicine • medkit • neural suppressor • psychology • scanner • staff • transporter • weapon
Ranks and titles[]
- ambassador • businessman • captain • custodian • doctor • magistrate • medic • nurse • officer • physician • yeoman
Other references[]
- alcohol • animal • assignment patch • blood • captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2254 • colony • court of law • Crain's disease • crew • day • Federation Starfleet ranks (2240s-2260s) • ghost • headache • Hippocratic oath • hospital • Julthan prayer gem • katra • kolinahr • log entry • medical • mess hall • metrazene • mind meld • moon • neurocrystal • outpost • peace • penny • plague • quarters • ship's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) • sira • sleep • Starfleet uniform (2240s-2265) • trial • year
Appendices[]
Related media[]
- EV comic: "Our Dearest Blood" – Gabrielle Carlotti saw Boyce arguing with himself in this story.
- EV comic: "Nor Iron Bars a Cage" – Mia Colt saw Boyce's strange behavior in this story.
- TOS movie: The Search for Spock – Introduction of the Vulcan katra.
Background[]
- The last log entry is in fact said to be on Stardate 860.5, however that is a great deal of time past the events of the rest of the comic and indeed the rest of the entire Early Voyages series. So one might assume it is a typo and the correct date is more likely Stardate 360.5.
Images[]
Connections[]
Timeline[]
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous story: The Flat, Gold Forever |
EV comics | Next story: One of a Kind |
| Previous story: The Flat, Gold Forever |
Stories by: Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton |
Next story: Star Trek Unlimited As Flies to Wanton Boys |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: The Flat, Gold Forever |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: One of a Kind |
| Previous story: The Flat, Gold Forever |
The Early Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) | Next story: One of a Kind |
Production history[]
- September 1997
- First published by Marvel Comics.
- September 2008
- Re-released on The Complete Comic Book Collection DVD. (Graphic Imaging Technologies)
- May 2009
- Reprinted in Star Trek Omnibus, Volume 2. (IDW Publishing)
- 15 April 2014
- Reprinted in The Stardate Collection's Volume 2 omnibus. (IDW Publishing)
- 31 August 2017
- Collected in the Graphic Novel Collection's Volume 18 omnibus. (Eaglemoss Collections)
Translations[]
- 27 December 2017
- Italian: Collected in the Italian release of Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 18: Primi Viaggi - Seconda Parte. (RCS MediaGroup, ISSN 977228074425770018)
External links[]
- Immortal Wounds article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Immortal Wounds article at the bw media spotlight blog.
- Immortal Wounds article at Siskoid's Blog of Geekery.