The Patient Parasites

"The Patient Parasites" was the third short story collected in the TOS anthology The New Voyages 2 in 1978. Written by Russell Bates in script form, it was based on his first story submission for TAS.

Summary

A USS Enterprise landing party is held hostage by a robot probe.

Log entries

Captain's log, stardate 5459.4.: The fifth planet in an uncharted and uninhabited star system has produced a mystery. Our sensor scan detected an intense energy source moving rapidly over the surface. But all efforts to identify it have failed. First Officer Spock has ordered up a landing party to investigate.

Captain's log, stardate 5459.6.: Despite careful and exhaustive analysis, our challenges for Finder remain dangerously few. With most of our time gone, I have reluctantly ordered five planet-wrecker missiles placed on standby, with my First Officer's concurrence. But I refuse to accept Finder's invulnerability.

References

Races and cultures

Human • Tullvan • Vulcan

States and organizations

United Federation of Planets

Science and classification

carrier missile • command chair • communicator • computer • coordinates • cryomemory cube • Feinberger • force field • impulse • machine • medical tricorder • memory bank • phaser • photon torpedo • planet-wrecker missile • robot • tractor beam • transporter • tricorder • viewscreen • warp drive • warp power

Ranks and titles

captain • doctor • ensign • first officer • lieutenant • medical officer

Other references

alloy • atmosphere • auto destruct • beam • bird • bridge • bridge crew • briefing room • captain's log • cat • cosmos • desert • eclipse • electricity • extinction • fly • gravity • helm • hour • ion • jellyfish • kilometer • landing party • light • logic • orbit • rock • second • shore leave • snake • spider • star • suicide • technology • transporter room • universe • vegetation • water • year

Chronology

459: The Tullvan species died out. (Referenced)

Stardate 5459.4: A USS Enterprise landing party encounters an artificial construct that calls itself Finder on a remote planet. Finder wants warp technology for its creators, the Tullvans. (In-story)

Stardate 5459.6: James T. Kirk considers his options against Finder. The ship and crew prepare to free their associates. (In-story)

Stardate 5459.7: Kirk and crew launch an all-out offensive against Finder, but without much progress. Then Spock learns that Finder's masters might have been Tullvans, and that they are extinct. Finder, forced to face that it is an artifact serving no masters, is defeated by information and logic and releases Kirk's crew before destroying itself. (In-story)

Timeline

Publication history

January 1978: First published by Bantam Books. (ISBN 0-553-11392-5)
February 2000: 13th printing by Bantam Spectra. (ISBN 0-553-27933-5)

Appendices

Background

At the end of the story, James T. Kirk quoted a 20th century children's rhyme to flummox Spock. (There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
The author's original draft was rejected for production in TAS partly for not taking advantage of the scope possible in animation. It also featured Dawson Walking Bear, but because script editor D.C. Fontana thought the character seemed interchangeable, Bates replaced him with Hikaru Sulu.

Connections

published order
Previous story: Snake Pit!	The New Voyages 2	Next story: In the Maze
Previous story: How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth	Stories by: Russell Bates	Next story: last story
chronological order
Previous Adventure: The Slaver Weapon	Memory Beta Chronology	Next Adventure: Intersection Point
Previous Adventure: The Slaver Weapon	Pocket	Next Adventure: Intersection Point

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