Death grazes the Enterprise crew when 10,000-year-old mummies come to life! — "The Mummies of Heitius VII" was a Star Trek comic book story published by Gold Key Comics in 1973, the 21st issue of their TOS series. It was the 19th comic drawn by Alberto Giolitti and the first of five written by John Warner.
Description[]
- Space — a great, dark canopy draped silently across the universe, veiling its mysteries! The crew of the starship Enterprise search out these mysteries — but none they'd encountered before was as fearful as the secret of Heitius VII!
Summary[]
- Captain's log, stardate 30:26.5. The Enterprise has been ordered to Heitius VII to transport an alien mummy from the archeological diggings to a Federation Alien Life Studies Institute! Spock, McCoy and security personnel have taken the shuttlecraft Galileo down, since transporting might prove harmful to the mummy!
The mummy had been a king, and after it is safely stored in stasis, Doctor Moria Starr and a security detachment bring it aboard the Galileo and up to the Enterprise.
- Captain's log, supplementary! Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and two security personnel are being conducted about the ancient city on Heitius VII! This planet is a class MZ... depleted, stripped of its resources, it is now only an arid desert!
After the mummy is stowed, it opens its eyes, knocks out two security guards and sneaks briefly into the computer core before returning to its electronic sarcophagus. They assume someone aboard must have been responsible, and Kirk doubles the guard. Suddenly the ship breaks orbit and leaves the star system at high warp, on a course for the Romulan Neutral Zone.
- Captain's log, stardate 30:26.6. Somehow the Enterprise has come under the control of a 10,000-year-old mummy! Its purpose is unknown, but it is plunging the ship into deadly enemy space! Thankfully, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy are safe on Heitius VII!
Back on the planet, an archeologist shows Doctor Stephen Mohr, Spock, Jennings and Williams a new discovery: three more mummies found in a buried research laboratory. These mummies contaid cybernetic components. Williams accidentally leans on a button which reactivates the three mummies. They menacingly approach the team — phasers are ineffective, deflected by personal force fields. Spock tries hailing the ship and realizes it has left orbit. The mummies knock them all unconscious, then splay Jennings on a table to begin converting him into a cyborg.
On the Enterprise, their mummy commandeers engineering. A Romulan patrol ship awaits the starship at the border, its torpedoes fully armed. Starr goes through planetary records and determines that the cyborg king is obeying ancient programming to save his people by taking them to another world, unaware that 10,000 years have passed. Starr interferes with Kirk's efforts to save the ship, protecting the mummy as an invaluable artifact, but Montgomery Scott is able to send a power feedback into the mummy and short-circuit it. He reprograms the cyborg to restore the helm, and at the last moment the ship is diverted from Romulan space.
On Heitius VII, Spock realizes that the three mummies cannot have much energy left in their power cells. He, McCoy, and Williams resume firing their phasers as them. Their force fields begin to drain, they run out of power, and then they deactivate, saving Jennings.
- Captain's log: supplementary! We returned to Heitius VII to pick up Spock, McCoy and the rest, where we learned of their adventures with three other mummies! The mummies were all secured and we finally transported them to the Federation Alien Life Studies Institute!
References[]
Characters[]
- James T. Kirk • Spock • Leonard McCoy • Montgomery Scott • Hikaru Sulu • Manning • Moria Starr • Stephen Mohr • Asherman • Levitz • Williams • Jennings • Romulan commander with eyepatch • unnamed Romulans • unnamed USS Enterprise personnel • unnamed Heitians
- Referenced only
- Pavel Chekov
Starships and vehicles[]
Locations[]
- Federation Alien Life Studies Institute • Heitius VII • Romulan Neutral Zone
- Referenced only
- Centaurus V • Earth
Races and cultures[]
States and organizations[]
- United Federation of Planets
- Referenced only
- Klingon Empire • Science Ministry
Science and technology[]
- communicator • computer • computer core • cybernetics • cyborg • drug • electronic sarcophagus • force field • laboratory • machine • microfilm • phaser • photon torpedo • power cell • robot • science • sector • technology • tricorder
Ranks and titles[]
- archeologist • captain • doctor • engineer • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • guard • king • lieutenant • science minister • science officer • security officer • Starfleet ranks
Other references[]
- antimatter • archeology • bridge • briefing room • city • Class MZ • communications • cosmic ray • crew • desert • ecology • egg • emotion • engineering • guinea pig • hangar deck • helm • heresy • hull • hyperspeed • impulse • library • logic • minute • mummy • orbit • palace • pyramid • revolt • security • skeleton • solar system • star • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • starship • statue • suicide • surgery • universe • warp factor • warp six • year
Appendices[]
Related media[]
- TOS episode: "Balance of Terror" – Starfleet's first encounter with Romulan Commander Keras in the 23rd century, at the Romulan Neutral Zone by the Enterprise.
- TOS episode: "The Enterprise Incident" – Encounter with Romulan Commander Liviana Charvanek at the Romulan border.
- TOS comic: "We Are Dying, Egypt, Dying!"
Background[]
- The mummies in this particular story are, in a number of ways, similar to the Borg.
- Spock appears on the cover of this issue inexplicably wearing an operations division redshirt, rather than his normal blue sciences division shirt.
- Chekov is referred to as "security officer" in this story, foreshadowing a role he would later assume in canon productions. Although paged by name to the briefing room, he neither appears nor has any dialogue in this issue.
- The crewman shown being attacked on the cover is wearing a red shirt, however, the only person in the story to be attacked in that manner was Jennings, who wore a command division yellow shirt.
- An identical Romulan vessel drifted across the path of the Enterprise in the UK comic strips story "The Perithees Alliance". Kirk didn't recognize it, implying that the other story might have taken place prior to this one. That ship brought Pavel Chekov and Ambassador Sork to the nearest Romulan-occupied planet.
- The reprint in Star Trek Annual 1975 omitted the teaser page, adding the story's title to the first panel of page 2.
- This story has been released seven times in English and has been translated into Dutch, Finnish, German and Italian.
Images[]
Connections[]
Timeline[]
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: #20: A World Gone Mad |
TOS comics (Gold Key) | Next comic: #22: Siege in Superspace |
| Previous story: first Star Trek story |
Stories by: John Warner |
Next story: The Perfect Dream |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: Shore Leave |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: Heart of the Sun |
| Previous comic: Shore Leave |
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), Year Two | Next comic: Heart of the Sun |
Production history[]
- November 1973
- First published by Gold Key Comics
- 1974 August
- Printed in hardcover in Star Trek Annual 1975 (World Distributors Limited)
- 1976 August
- Printed in the omnibus The Enterprise Logs, Volume 3 (Golden Press)
- 2004 June
- Printed in the omnibus The Key Collection, Volume 3 (Checker Book Publishing Group)
- September 2008
- Included on The Complete Comic Book Collection DVD (Graphic Imaging Technologies)
- 2014 August
- Remastered in hardcover in the omnibus Gold Key Archives, Volume 4 (IDW)
- 7 December 2017
- Remastered in hardcover in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #25 (Eaglemoss)
Translations[]
- 1974
- Finnish: As "n Muumiot" in Avaruusmatka Star Trek #5 (Apulehti)
- 1975
- Dutch: As "De Mummies van Heitus VII" in b/w in Star Trek #9 (De Vrijbuiter)
- 1976
- German: Abridged as "Das Geheimnis der Fremden Planeten" in the omnibus Zack Comic Box #21: Enterprise (Koralle-Verlag)
- 2006
- Italian: In the omnibus The Gold Key Collection, Volume 6 (Free Books)
External links[]
- The Mummies of Heitius VII article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- No Pointy Sideburns discussion at Literary Treks Podcast.