Description[]
- From solicitations
- The third installment of Nero warps ahead with the villain continuing his quest for vengeance against Spock and the Federation!
Summary[]
The Narada arrives at the edge of the Delta Quadrant. Ever since Nero's mind meld with Spock he has been able to sense the Vulcan's presence, but now he senses something more ancient and powerful. As Nero gazes out into space, Ayel reports that the ship's controls are still locked. The ship is heading for an artificial energy source, as large as a small nebula, which is transmitting an unknown signal at an extremely high frequency -- a signal to which the Narada is responding. As though he had not heard Ayel, Nero heads to the bridge, leaping from one platform to another within his vast ship.
Nero has improved his Romulan telepathic abilities while imprisoned on Rura Penthe, and is able to hear whispers from the mysterious entity. He realizes that Spock has encountered this entity before -- not in this timeline, but in the timeline they left behind. Narada's weapons and helm still do not respond, and the energy cloud reflects all sensor scans. Clavell, now at a bridge station, reports that they are nearing the outer edge of the energy field. The ship is slowing. Brooding in his command chair, Nero orders his crew to proceed.
The Narada approaches V'Ger
Narada crosses the edge of the cloud; Ayel reports that there is a solid structure at its center. Nero tells him the entity is speaking to him as well as to the Narada. As the ship approaches the cloud's center, Nero feels closer to Spock. He takes the drug he used on Rura Penthe to open his mind. An energy spike is detected, and with a piercing noise a blindingly bright probe appears on the bridge and plugs itself into various systems. Clavell's console electrocutes him; he seems to age to death, and, as he dies, says the single word "Creator". Nero, ignoring a warning to be careful, steps toward the probe, realizing that it offers him a way to find Spock. He steps into the column of light and vanishes along with it, his bladed staff clattering to the floor. Xander reports that the crew is still locked out of the controls. Ayel takes command.
Nero remembers his entire life: his mother holding him as a baby, playing in the sand as a child, being with his wife, departing in the Narada, and the destruction of Romulus. The entity is experiencing Nero's life, but cannot comprehend his emotions. Nero contacts Ayel telepathically, asking him to follow him inside the entity. A mechanism like a vast iris opens before the Narada, which flies through it and past visions of planets, including Earth, where the entity originated, and a planet of machines. Nero explains to Ayel that, like the Borg and the Narada itself, the entity is a product of the unknown civilization on the machine planet. Narada reaches the center and stops, its controls coming back online. Sensors reveal Nero standing in an amphitheater-like space at the very center of the machine.
Ayel and another crewman join Nero, who explains that when the Narada arrived in this timeline the entity sensed its presence and began journeying to meet it. It was the entity which awakened the Narada. At heart the entity is merely an unmanned spacecraft from Earth. Ayel likens the old space probe before them to those launched from Vulcan in ancient times, but his voice fades from Nero's hearing as the entity fills his mind with numbers and coordinates. Nero uses its intelligence to calculate the time and place of Spock's reappearance. The entity cannot merge with Nero because it cannot assimilate his hatred. As Nero's link with the entity is broken, he loses consciousness. Ayel and the other crewman support him as they are beamed back to the Narada.
On the bridge, Ayel is told that the ship has laid in another course by itself, but he replies that it was Nero who did it. He orders that Nero be taken to his quarters to rest, and that the engines be engaged at maximum warp once Narada is clear of the entity. "There is no time to waste," he says. "Spock is coming."
References[]
Characters[]
- Referenced only
- Spock
Starships and vehicles[]
Locations[]
- Referenced only
- Earth • Milky Way Galaxy • Rura Penthe
Races and cultures[]
Other[]
- mind meld • captain • nebula • psychic • timeline • sensors • Debrune Teral'n • emotions • sentient • evolution • assimilate • warp drive • quarters
Appendices[]
Related media[]
Background[]
- This issue features an extremely authentic depiction of the interior of V'Ger as seen in TOS movie: The Motion Picture, including the use of images from that film as backgrounds.
- "Xander" is spelled thus in this issue, but is "Xandr" in ST comic: "Nero, Number One".
- This story seems to confirm the theory jokingly suggested by Gene Roddenberry (as mentioned in Star Trek Chronology) that V'Ger and the Borg were products of the same machine civilization.
Images[]
Connections[]
Timeline[]
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: Nero, Number Two |
TOS comics Nero |
Next comic: Nero, Number Four |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: Not yet placed |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: Not yet placed |
Publication history[]
- 21 October 2009
- First released by IDW Publishing.
- 10 February 2010
- Collected in the Nero miniseries omnibus.
- 12 March 2010
- Collected in the United Kingdom omnibus release. (Titan Books, ISBN 9781848566644)
- 16 March 2017
- Reprinted in Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 6. (Eaglemoss Collections)
Translations[]
- April 2010
- Collected in the German hardcover and paperback omnibus releases. (Cross Cult: paperback ISBN 978-3-941248-48-9, hardcover ISBN 978-3941248496)
- 1 October 2010
- Collected in the Spanish omnibus release. (Editorial Drakul, ISBN 978-8493534899)
- 4 October 2017
- Reprinted in the Italian release of Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 6. (RCS MediaGroup, ISSN 977228074425770006)
- 5 April 2019
- Collected the Bulgarian omnibus release, Hepoh. (ЛитРес)
External link[]
- Nero, Number Three article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.