Page 193 indicates this story takes place the semester
following the events of The Gemini
Agent.
On page 1, Nadja greets the participants of the latest round
of the Assassination Game, saying, "Ladies, gentlemen,
hermaphrodites, cogenitors, and asexual life-forms." A
cogenitor is a third gender in the Vissian species of aliens
first encountered by Starfleet in the ST-Enterprise
episode "Cogenitor".
Also on page 1, Dr. McCoy muses on how Nadja's blue eyes
reminded him of Romulan Ale. Romulan Ale is an illegal
alcoholic beverage in the Federation, but has nevertheless
appeared in several episodes/movies of the Star Trek
universe, and it is, indeed, blue.
Pages 3 and 102 mention a number of alien races: Saurians, Deltans,
Tellarites, Efrosians, Andorians, Orions, Caitians,
Kitarians, Denobulans, Trill, Mazarians, Rigelians, and Varkolaks. These aliens have all appeared in previous
iterations of Star Trek series except for
Varkolaks, who appear here for the first time. The Varkolaks
are a bipedal canine-like species and are quite ferocious.
The name may come from the Hungarian word for "werewolf",
Vérfarkas.
Page 4 may be a nod to the 1983 Ozzy Osbourne album Bark
at the Moon and his song of the same name. The album
cover features Ozzy dressed as a werewolf. A Starfleet cadet
mentions that Varkolaks allegedly howl at the moon. And
another remarks that they've heard the Varkolaks are known
to bite the heads off animals and drink their blood,
possibly a
reference to Ozzy biting the head off a bat on stage in
1982. However, many European werewolf
legends describe them as drinking blood, so the author may
just be applying werewolf and wolf tropes for descriptive
purposes.
Also on page 4, a cadet remarks that promotions on Varkolak
ships are attained by killing the officer ahead of you. This
is similar to a method of advancement allegedly practiced by
the Klingons.
On page 4, Braxim remarks the Varkolaks are interested in
taking Theta Cygni. This is a real star system about 60
light years from Earth. In the original timeline, Theta Cygni XII was one of the
planets devastated by the infestations of neural parasites
before they were stopped at Deneva by the Enterprise
in TOS episode "Operation -- Annihilate!"
Braxim was previously seen in
The Delta Anomaly.
Again on page 4, a cadet remarks on the Federation wanting
the Gavaria Sector, which is currently part of Varkolak
space. According to the 2002 book Star Trek Star Charts:
The Complete Atlas of Star Trek, Gavaria is a trinary
star system also known as Sigma Pegasi near the
aforementioned Theta Cygni. Sigma
Pegasi appears to be a fictional system.
Not liking the Varkolaks, who are currently enemies of the
Federation, Kirk comments, "We have met the enemy, and it is
them." This is a parody of the euphemism "We have met the enemy
and he is us," originally written by cartoonist Walt Kelly
for an Earth Day poster featuring his Pogo comic strip
character in 1970.
Page 5 reveals that Dr. McCoy attended 8 years of medical
school before starting at Starfleet Academy.
On page 6, McCoy compares falling in love to the common
cold, as neither are curable. The resistance of the common
cold to any cure was mentioned a couple of time in episodes
of the TOS.
Page 9 gives us the first written reference in a story to a PADD
(Personal Access Display Device) in the new timeline. These
are the handheld electronic notebooks used throughout the
various Star Trek series.
Admiral Barnett, the Academy commandant, appears for the
first time (chronologically) here. He later appears (played
by Tyler Perry) in
"The Vengeance of Nero".
Page 9 introduces Cadet Leslie. This may be the same officer
Leslie who appeared, in the original
timeline,
in numerous episodes of all three
seasons of TOS. In this novel, it's revealed that Kirk and
Leslie share an Elementary Temporal Mechanics class.
Page 13 mentions an athletic game called Parrises Squares.
This game was first seen, in the
original timeline,
in the TNG episode "11001001".
On page 13, Kirk mentions the bar called Delta Quadrant.
This bar was previously seen in
The Delta Anomaly.
Page 15 describes Dr. Lartal of the Varkolak as licking his
jagged teeth like a hungry sehlat. A
sehlat is a large, bear-like creature found on Vulcan. Spock
was known to have a pet sehlat as a youth in the original
timeline, as seen in the animated series episode
"Yesteryear". In the Kelvin timeline,
Spock's sehlat is also seen in
"When Worlds Collide".
On seeing a Varkolak in person for the first time, Kirk
thinks, What big eyes you have, Grandmother. This
is, of course, a reference to the fairy tale "Little Red
Riding Hood", in which the Big Bad Wolf disguises itself as a
girl's grandmother in order to catch her and eat her.
The exchange of insults and following brawl that takes place
between humans and Varkolaks in Chapter 2 is an homage to a
scene in the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles". Here,
Lartal compares humans to Regulan bloodworms, just as a
Klingon does in TTWT. He also compares Admiral Barnett to a Denebian
slime devil, as the Klingon does with Kirk in TTWT. Much of
the dialog is even delivered almost word-for-word from the
episode before the fight breaks out.
On page 21, a security officer named Lieutenant Freeman
reports on the brawl that broke out among Kirk and other
cadets against the Varkolak. Possibly this is the same
Lieutenant Freeman of security who served on the
Enterprise in the original timeline in a few episodes of the TOS. He was also
one of the Enterprise crewmen who was involved in
the brawl with the Klingons in the aforementioned "The
Trouble With Tribbles" episode, adding more credence to
the man in this novel being the same character.
On page 23, Admiral Barnett mentions Zefram Cochrane.
Cochrane was the inventor of the warp drive on Earth, as
mentioned in the TOS episode "Metamorphosis" and depicted in
the TNG movie First Contact. On page 107, Nadja mentions Cochrane Hall on campus,
presumably named for Zefram Cochrane.
On page 25, Admiral Barnett states that the Varkolak are the
Federation's most notorious enemies at this time.
Uhura receives a message to meet members of the secret
Graviton Society in Shran Hall. Most likely, Shran Hall is
named after Commander Thy'lek Shran of the Andorian Imperial
Guard, who befriended Captain Jonathan Archer over the
course of a number of episodes of ST-Enterprise.
On page 27, the representative of the Graviton Society
suggests the Society was responsible for the coup that
splintered the Breen Confederacy before an attack on the
Grazer home world. In the original timeline, the Breen appeared in several
episodes of TNG and DS9. The Grazer home world is
mentioned in Star Trek Star
Charts: The Complete Atlas of Star Trek and is the home
world of the Grazerites, who appeared in a few episodes of
DS9.
On page 28, the representative also mentions curing the
Hruffa Bison plague. This appears to be the first
mention of Hruffa Bison, presumably an extraterrestrial herd
animal.
On page 31, McCoy uses a new prototype scanning device
called a phoretic analyzer
in a
test to find a single boridium molecule in a bowl of
minestrone soup. Boridium is a substance used in Federation
technology that has been mentioned in several episodes of
the various ST series, first mentioned in the TOS episode
"Wolf in the Fold". McCoy is upset that the device is
detecting beta-carotene instead (likely from the carrots in
the minestrone). McCoy later tells Nadja the
device was
designed by Dr. Huer; possibly this is a reference to the
character called Dr. Huer in the 1979-1981 TV series
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. In the DS9 episode
"Dramatis Personae", Dr. Bashir suggests to Odo that he make
use of a phoretic analyzer to determine his own biochemical
make-up.
On page 32, Nadja claims that McCoy asked to meet her at the
bar at 2000 hours, when McCoy thought he'd said 2100 hours.
This is an early indication of Nadja's
duplicity since McCoy did, indeed, state
2100 hours on page 7.
On page 34, Kirk laments missing his first date with a
Deltan. Deltans are an extremely sexual humanoid alien
species, whose females have bald heads. The first Deltan
seen in Star Trek (in the original timeline) was Lt. Ilia in Star Trek:
The Motion Picture.
In this novel, Kirk has an ongoing, running battle against
his campus nemesis Jake Finnegan in the Assassination Game.
In the original timeline, a simulacrum of Finnegan appeared on the so-called Shore
Leave Planet in the TOS episode "Shore Leave". Finnegan also
appeared in a few TOS novels and comics, where his first
name was "Sean" instead; perhaps Sean is his
middle name which he normally goes by. Here, Finnegan often refers to
Kirk, mockingly, as "Jimmy boy", just as his simulacrum did
in "Shore Leave". Finnegan
appears again as a commander on Starbase Yorktown in
Star Trek Beyond.
On page 36, Kirk tricks Finnegan into thinking a spilled
mess of laboratory chemicals has mixed into corbomite, which
could destroy everything for kilometers around. This may be
the origin of Kirk's corbomite bluff, which he used to great
effect in the original timeline in the TOS episodes "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "The
Deadly Years".
Reflecting on his current assignment, Kirk mutters about his
broken date with the Deltan Areia, "I could have been getting my
mind blown by a Deltan." Considering the Deltans' renowned
sexual prowess, he might actually be thinking of something
else blown.
On page 37, McCoy and Nadja walk along the Marin Headlands.
The headlands are a hilly part of San Francisco Bay.
Nadja tells McCoy that when her mother was pregnant with
her, her parents decided to move to Vega Colony and she was
born en route. Vega Colony was mentioned as a frontier world
of the Federation in several ST-Enterprise episodes
and was also mentioned in the TOS pilot episode "The Cage".
On page 38, McCoy refers to Nadja as a space boomer. In the
ST-Enterprise episode "Broken Bow", a space boomer is
described as someone who has spent most of their life on
spaceships. Here, though, Nadja merely said she was born on
a spaceship, not that she had spent her life on them. By
McCoy's definition, Kirk is a space boomer as well.
Nadja tells McCoy that after her parents died, she was
raised by her grandparents in Frankfurt. This is presumably
Frankfurt, Germany.
On page 40, the Tellarite doctor,
Daagen, derisively snorts that maybe one day the
Federation will be allies with the Klingons. During the TNG
era of the original timeline (in the 24th Century), the Federation and
Klingon Empire are allies.
On page 41, Daagen remarks that his
homeworld of Tellar Prime was a founding member of the
Federation. This was revealed in the Enterprise
episodes "Demons" and "Zero Hour".
On page 44, Uhura sees the lights of Sausalito across the
bay.
Sausalito is a real city on the
San Francisco Bay. On page 45, Spock looks out at
Fort
Baker, which is an actual historical site bordering
Sausalito. According to the ST-Enterprise
series, some of the buildings of Starfleet Headquarters are
located on the grounds of Fort Baker.
Spock tells Uhura that his full name is unpronounceable for
most humans. Spock-Prime also told this to Leila Kolani in
the TOS episode "This Side of Paradise".
On page 47, Uhura quotes an old African saying, "When
elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers." This is a
real world proverb from the African country of Kenya. Uhura
also quotes some other African proverbs in the novelization
of the 2009 Star Trek movie (see
"The Vengeance of Nero").
Also on page 47, Spock quotes an old Vulcan adage, "The
needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, or the
few." This is a callback to a discussion between Kirk and
Spock in the original timeline, in the film Star Trek:
The Wrath of Khan.
On page 50, Kirk overhears a snippet of conversation by a
trio of cadets, something about a yak and a rubber hose.
There must be a story to this! It's either part of a joke or an
unpleasant animal husbandry procedure.
On page 52, Ard Jarikar sets down the case containing his
ion mallet. An ion mallet is used in the playing of Parrises
Squares.
In this book, McCoy is Kirk's Academy roommate. This was not
indicated in the earlier Starfleet Academy novels.
Page 56 reveals that Varkolak devices run off of kemocite as
a power source. Kemocite is a fictional mineral. It was
mentioned in several episodes of the various ST TV series.
On page 126, McCoy describes kemocite as a radiolytic
compound, meaning its molecules dissociate by ionizing
radiation.
On page 57, Sulu muses on how his helm console in the
simulation lights up like Shibuya at night. This is probably a
reference to the shopping district near
Shibuya Station (a railway station) in Tokyo, Japan.
Several Starfleet starships are mentioned in the course of
the novel: Yorktown, Potemkin, Eagle,
Farragut, Lexington,
Excalibur, Intrepid, Nautilus,
Prester John, Surprise,
and Tennessee. All but the last four ships appeared
in the 23rd Century era of the original timeline. The
Nautilus
appeared in the 24th Century in an episode of DS9.
Prester John, Surprise,
and Tennessee all appear to be first appearances in
the ST universe. As war with the Varkolak looms near the end
of the novel, Spock is assigned to the Intrepid; in
the original timeline, the TOS episode "The Immunity
Syndrome" stated the Intrepid was crewed entirely by Vulcans.
Cadet Tikhonov appears in the Yorktown simulation
in Chapter 6. Tikhonov previously
appeared in The Gemini
Agent.
Page 57 describes the Varkolak space battle strategy as
being one of using small ships to surround and harry
larger enemy ships until it is brought down by the laser
fire of the multiple attackers. This is analogous to the pack-hunting strategy of wolves and other wild canines on Earth
(and also suggestive of the battle of the English fleet
against the Spanish Armada in 1588, in which England's
smaller, faster vessels defeated the large galleons of the
Spanish navy's attempted invasion of England).
On page 60, Chekov refers to Tikhonov as a Cossack. Cossacks
are members of various ethnic groups living in the Great
Eurasian Steppe, mostly within the regions of modern day
southern Russia and the Ukraine.
On page 62, Sulu receives an invitation from the Graviton
Society to meet at Vanderbilt Hall on campus. Most likely,
Vanderbilt Hall gets its name from Thomas Vanderbilt, who
was the first President of the United Federation of Planets
according to an article in the Picard Family Album glimpsed
in the movie set in the original timeline, Star Trek:
Generations. However, the article did not appear on
screen, so the information remains non-canonical at this
point.
As part of his tour duties, Kirk guides Lartal to
Golden
Gate Park. This is a real park in San Francisco, similar in
layout to New York City's Central Park (but larger!).
On pages 65-66, an exhausted Kirk reflects that he must have
led Lartal over 20 kilometers of territory throughout San
Francisco and they weren't flat kilometers. This is a
reference to San Francisco being notoriously hilly, not
"flat", so he had to do a lot of uphill walking.
Page 66 reveals that McCoy's ex-wife is named Jocelyn. This
name was established in several TOS novels previously.
However,
"The Stars Flying By"
states that his ex-wife in the Kelvin Timeline is Pamela
Branch.
On page 73, seeing the Varkolaks on the Academy grounds,
Daagen sarcastically remarks, "I see we're letting the
krogs into the vorsch pit now." This is the
first mention of both krogs
and vorsch in the ST universe
as far as I can tell. As McCoy thinks to himself, it is
probably a Tellarite expression along the lines of "letting
the fox into the henhouse."
On page 74, reporters from the Federation News Service (FNS)
are covering the arrival of the Federation President at the
Academy. In the original timeline the FNS was the news organization that Jake Sisko
worked for in the later episodes of DS9.
Page 74 reveals that the Federation President at this time
is an Andorian woman named Pellan Fel. Possibly, the author
derived her name from a couple of characters in the Expanded
Star Wars universe (before the Disney buy-out
negated the Expanded Universe of the time): naval officer in both the
Republic and the Empire, Gilad Pellaeon; and members of the
Fel dynasty of emperors in parts of the galaxy not
controlled by the New Republic after the fall of the Empire.
Page 84 mentions duranium. Duranium is a fictional alloy
used in the ST universe for the construction of starship
hulls and other high-strength needs. The alloy has been
mentioned throughout the various ST series.
Page 86 reveals that fencing is essentially the only
recreation Sulu allows himself as a break from his
single-minded determination to succeed in Starfleet. Sulu
was shown to be a skilled fencer in the original series
episode "The Naked Time".
Page 92 mentions a game in the student center called dom-jot.
Dom-jot is a game in the ST universe that is sort of a cross
between billiards and pinball. In the original timeline, the TNG episode
"Tapestry" revealed that a dispute with a Nausicaan
over a game of dom-jot caused a young Jean-Luc Picard
to be stabbed through the heart, resulting in his surgery to
receive an artificial one.
On page 92, the bartender of the Warp Core is a Bolian named
Bom. Bolians are a blue-skinned, bifurcated species who
appeared in episodes of the TNG era.
On page 93, Finnegan refers to the bartender as "Garçon". This
is a French word for a young, male waiter, though it is
considered rude to refer to a waiter in that manner.
On page 95, Spock watches the Earth sunset over the Pacific
Ocean, imagining 40 Eridani A setting over the Voroth Sea on
Vulcan. 40 Eridani A has been
established by many sources, including Gene Roddenberry, as
the star of the planet Vulcan. 40 Eridani A is about 16.5
light years from Earth. The Voroth Sea was mentioned in the Voyager episode "Innocence".
On page 104, McCoy is called to meet Nadja at Cavallo Point,
described as "a public area out past the marina on San
Francisco Bay." In our current times, Cavallo Point appears
to be a lodge and conference center on National Park land.
As mentioned on page 105, Sommerville Road leads up to
Cavallo Point.
On page 110, Sulu reflects on Uhura's workout of the
previous day, a Suus Mahna session against a rofarla
dummy that took quite a beating. "Rofarla" is an unknown
term, but is probably a Vulcan word since
Suus Mahna is a Vulcan martial art, first featured in the
Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Marauders". Uhura
also uses a Po grat ma defense against Sulu in a
practice session; this is presumably also a Vulcan defense
form.
Page 111 mentions the planet Zakdorn.
Zakdorn is a Federation member world whose native
inhabitants appeared in a few episodes of TNG.
On page 117, Sulu comments on a high frequency signal that
the Graviton Society is allegedly going to broadcast over
the Academy grounds to annoy the Varkolak, remarking,
"Admiral Archer's beagle will probably be howling for
days..." On ST: Enterprise, Captain Archer had a
pet Beagle named Porthos. In
"The Vengeance of Nero", Scotty reveals that
he performed an interplanetary transporter
test on Admiral Archer's Beagle that caused the dog to
disappear and not rematerialize (though it was presumably a
different Beagle than Porthos since it's now almost 100
years later from Porthos' time). Whether the Beagle Sulu speaks
of is the one Scotty will later dematerialize or a replacement
for that one is unknown.
In Chapter 11, Kirk and Lartal play a game of Velocity. This
is a competitive sport involving dodging a disk that the
players must also shoot with a phaser. The game was first
seen in episodes of ST-Voyager. Page 118 seems to
suggest that the trademark duck-and-roll gun fighting style
of Kirk seen in episodes of TOS was learned and perfected
while he played Velocity at Starfleet Academy.
Page 124 mentions a drug called cortalin that is apparently
a stimulant. This appears to be a fictional drug and not
previously named in Star Trek.
Page 125 mentions the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. This
division is based on the real world U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, both taking on specialized problems from an
engineering standpoint. The Starfleet
Corps of Engineers was first mentioned in
1982's Star Trek:
The Wrath of Khan, as the designers of the underground
complex of the Genesis Project in the asteroid orbited by
space station Regula I.
On page 137, Nadja mentions Madame Tussauds in Hollywood.
Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London, England, with
branches in several other cities around the world, including
Hollywood.
As the Potemkin's transporter chief, Lt. Nguyen, beams McCoy
and Nadja to their next stop, he says, "Abra...cadabra."
"Abracadabra" is a word of alleged magic power used by
magicians and healers dating at least as far back the 2nd
Century AD.
| For his
date with Nadja, McCoy has the Argos
Telescope pointed at the Pillars of
Creation in the Eagle Nebula, with
the image appearing on the Argos
station's viewscreen. The Pillars of
Creation is an actual astronomical
formation in the Eagle Nebula. The
famous photograph to the right, taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope, has appeared
in a number of space and science
documentaries and science-fiction
programs, including ST-Voyager. |
 |
On page 141, Kirk pours McCoy and Nadja champagne made by
Chateau Picard. Do I really have to tell you that Chateau
Picard is a vineyard run by the family of Jean-Luc Picard in
France?
Page 144 mentions a Bajoran rug in a meeting room on campus.
The Bajorans, of course, played a
major role in ST-DS9.
Page 149 mentions a statue of Yuri Gagarin on the campus.
Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut who was the first human to
journey into space, in April 1961.
As McCoy is spying on Daagen on page 154 and he tells Nadja
to be quiet, she playfully asks him, "Are we hunting wabbits?"
This is a reference to the Looney Toons cartoon character
Elmer Fudd, who was known to frequently be hunting Bugs
Bunny and would tell the audience, "Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm
hunting wabbits."
On page 157, one of the hooded Graviton Society members
remarks, "Let us not forget the P'Jem incident." This is a
reference to an Andorian attack on a Vulcan monastery on the
planet P'Jem in the ST-Enterprise episode "The
Andorian Incident".
On page 159, Nadja calls McCoy her hero, "Charging in here,
like Archer against the Xindi." Captain Archer and the
Enterprise NX-01 faced off against the Xindi in a
number of episodes of ST-Enterprise.
On page 161, Kirk thinks of a game that buzzes when you try
to take out the funny bone. This is a reference to the
electronic board game
Operation, currently made by Hasbro, which has been in
production since 1965. The game scenario is a humorous version
of a doctor operating on a patient.
Page 161 mentions a J'naii doctor at the medical conference.
The J'naii are an androgynous species who are members of the
Federation. They appeared in the TNG episode, "The Outcast".
On page 163, one of the Starfleet security men searching for
Lartal with Kirk is named Johnson. "Johnson" is a common
English name, so it may be a coincidence, but there was a
member of security on the Enterprise in the
original timeline in the TOS episode "Day of the Dove".
After Kirk is caught in an explosion, McCoy uses a number of
drugs and medical devices to treat him on pages 168-169. All
of the drugs and devices mentioned by him have appeared in
episodes of the various ST TV series and used for pretty
much the same purposes as stated here.
On page 185, McCoy realizes his alibi on the night before
the bomb was planted on the President's shuttlecraft is "as
full of holes as a Bolian sponge worm." This appears to be
the first mention of a Bolian sponge
worm in Star Trek.
Also on page 189, McCoy mentions Daagen acting "smug as a
Tarkanian pig." This also appears to
be the first mention of this creature, though Tarkanians are
a known race to the Federation. McCoy probably used the pig
reference because Daagen is a Tellarite, who have facial
features reminiscent of a pig.
On page 186, McCoy reveals he has a case of Saurian brandy
hidden in the closet of his and Kirk's dorm room. Saurian
brandy was mentioned and used in numerous episodes of the
various Star Trek TV series and movies.
Page 189 reveals that Earth is located in what the
Federation refers to as Sector 001. This terminology has
been used many times in the various
Star Trek TV series and movies. Here, it also seems
to be referred to as the Sol Sector (Sol being the name of
our sun). According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia,
a sector is approximately 20 light years across.
Page 189 also has the FNS reporting that a Varkolak fleet is
massing near Theta Draconis. This is a real star, about 68.6
light years from Earth, in the constellation Draco.
On page 190, Uhura muses that Theta Draconis is right on the
border of the Theta Cygni and Tznekethi sectors. Theta Cygni
we've already discussed earlier in this study. "Tznekethi"
is probably meant to be Tzenkethi instead, a space-faring
civilization known to the Federation that has been mentioned
in a couple episodes of ST-DS9 and several ST novels.
On page 192, Kirk reflects briefly on his knowledge of a
Tholian incursion into Federation space a hundred years ago.
This is likely a reference to events in the ST-Enterprise
episode "Future Tense".
Page 192 reveals that Nimitz Hall is where Chekov's dorm
room is located.
On page 193, Kirk reflects on how he nearly drowned Chekov
in the kid's own room while under the spell of a neural code
infection. This is a reference to the events of The Gemini
Agent.
On page 195, Kirk asks Chekov to uncover the real voice
behind a communicator message that sounds like an artificial
Nadja voice, asking if the boy can "back-mask it, or
whatever..." Actually, back-masking is the process of
recording an audio message backwards so that the published
recording must be played backward to hear the actual
message.
Also on page 195, Chekov picks up a hyperspanner. A
hyperspanner is a handheld engineering tool that has been
seen or referred to in a number of episodes of the various
ST TV series.
In Chapter 20, Kirk and Nadja follow Daagen into
Chinatown.
This is a real world district in San Francisco. The Dragon
Gate is also referred to, one of the entrances to Chinatown
(at Bush Street and Grant Avenue).
While in Chinatown, Kirk remarks to Uhura that he thinks
it's the year of the rat. In the Chinese 12-year cycle, each
year is represented by one of twelve animals, one of which
is the rat. However, Kirk is wrong about the year of this
story being the year of the rat (unless the Chinese cycle
has drastically changed in the centuries leading up to the
23rd).
Kirk started at Starfleet Academy in 2255 in
The Edge. And The Gemini
Agent is stated to take place at the end of his
first year at the Academy, making it 2256.
Since this story is said to take place the semester after the
events of The Gemini
Agent, it must be either 2256 still or 2257,
neither of which is a year of the rat. 2256 is monkey and
2257 rooster. One might presume it is 2257 and Kirk just got
his "R" animals mixed up, it being the year of the rooster.
The closest year of the rat would be 2260.
On page 203, Admiral Barnett reveals that he has a long list
of students who have filed complaints regarding the bullying
behavior of Finnegan.
Also on page 203, Admiral Barnett comments that when
Finnegan graduates, he could be assigned to a duty where the
only person he would be able to pick on would be his own
transporter echo, mentioning an ice planet near Vulcan where
he'd be lucky to see a supply ship once a year. The ice
planet is a reference to the world called Delta Vega on
which Spock will strand Kirk in
"The Vengeance of Nero", and where Scotty had
already been exiled for his error in using Admiral Archer's
prize Beagle in a transporter experiment.
On page 206, Barnett warns Kirk and Finnegan he could have
them on a shuttle back to whatever cornfield they came from
faster than they could say "converter coil". I've not been
able to find a reference to converter coils in the ST
universe, but they are part of the Star Wars
universe, as components of landspeeders and small
starfighters.
Page 207 features the first chronological appearance of
Spock's 3-D chess set and Vulcan lute, next seen in
"Operation
Annihilate" Part 2. They also appeared in the original
timeline in episodes of TOS.
On page 214, Spock seems to make a disparaging remark about
the Pakleds. Pakleds are an alien species not known for
their high intelligence. They appeared in several episodes
of ST-TNG and ST-DS9.
Doing detective work in his bid to clear McCoy of the
charges of the shuttlecraft bombing, Kirk runs into two
Tarsians. These may be the alien species responsible for
half of the Tarsian War with the Angosians in the TNG
episode "The Hunted". The Angosians' Tarsian opponents in the
war were never seen. Here, they are described only as
nocturnal, with enormous black eyes the size of grapefruits.
On page 226, McCoy shuttles to McKinley Station before
continuing on to the Argos Telescope station. In the
original timeline,
McKinley Station was the docking and repair station orbiting
Earth which was used to refit the Enterprise-D in
the ST-TNG episode "Family", after it was badly damaged in
battle against the Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds" Part 2.
On page 228, Nadja claims to have been working on a faulty
ODN relay in the Jefferies tube on the Argos Telescope
station. ODN stands of Optical Data Network. ODN relays are
components of the computer networks of Federation
technology. This seems to be the first mention of ODNs prior
to the 24th Century. Jefferies tubes are small service
access tunnels on Starfleet ships and space stations; they
are named for Matt Jefferies, production designer of the
original Star Trek TV series.
Page 236 introduces a Starfleet Academy faculty member named
Professor Usarn, an Illyrian. The Illyrian species
previously appeared in the ST-Enterprise episode
"Damage".
Page 247 reveals that the captain of the Potemkin
at this time is a Captain Mitchell and the chief medical
officer is Dr. Thomas Arnet. These are references to the
real world IRC role-playing game USS Potemkin,
hosted by the
Starfleet
Legacy Alliance. The game's CO is referred to as Admiral
James "Warp" Mitchell and one of the ship's medical
personnel is Dr. Thomas Anthony Arnet.
On page 249, McCoy mentions a drug called anesthezine. This,
as its name suggests, is an anesthetic in the Star Trek
universe. It was used or mentioned in a number of TNG, DS9,
and Voyager episodes.
On page 253, Uhura wishes she had an emotion chip in her
head that could be deactivated at any time. This is sort of
an in-joke to the emotion chip that was installed in the
android Data in the movie Star Trek: Generations and
which he had learned to turn on and off at will by the time
of the follow-up film Star Trek: First Contact.
On page 258, Kirk reflects back on the night in Iowa when
Captain Pike had talked him into signing up for Starfleet.
This is a reference to events in
"Parallels".
On page 259, Nadja tells her little cairn terrier, Mrs.
Penelope, "greif an!" This is German for "attack",
and the dog does, indeed, latch onto McCoy's pant leg.
Also on page 259, Nadja steals the Class F shuttle Davy
Crockett from the Academy grounds. Class F shuttles are
the type that were carried on the Enterprise in episodes of
the original series, as seen in the TOS episode "The
Galileo Seven". Presumably the Davy Crockett
would be like the Galileo shuttlecraft seen in the new timeline
storyline of
"The Galileo
Seven" parts 1 and
2.
Chapter 27 is titled "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Starfleet".
This is a reference to the book series The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
On page 264, Chekov recites pi in his head to focus himself.
"Pi" is the name assigned to the ratio of a circle's
circumference to its diameter. Pi has an infinite number of
digits in its decimal representation and the series of
numbers shown on this page are accurate as far as they go.
On page 267, Chekov mentions Jupiter Station. This is a
Starfleet facility in orbit around Jupiter seen or mentioned
in numerous episodes of the various ST TV series.
Page 276 indicates that a Captain Prax is the commander of
the USS Excalibur at this time.
When Cadet Sulu speaks up on the bridge of the Excalibur
about Spock's message on page 277, the senior officers are
said to look at him as if he had suddenly sprouted white fur
and grown a rhinoceros horn on his head. This is an in-joke
to the mugato, a large bipedal carnivore that appeared in
the TOS episode "A Private Little War".
Page 279 indicates that blue beams from a Federation phaser
indicate a "stun" setting and red beams indicate "kill".
On page 280, Kirk mentions to Nadja the Federation attack on
Chi Herculis, presumably in relation to past Starfleet
attacks against the Varkolak. Chi
Herculis is a real star seen in the Hercules constellation,
about 52 light years away from Earth.
Discussing Nadja's plan for vengeance against the
Varkolak
for the death of her parents, Kirk remarks that the death of
his father has not made him spend his life trying to figure
out a way to kill off his father's killer's entire race. This may be
a dual reference to Nero's desire (as revealed in
"The Vengeance of Nero") to destroy Vulcan and
the Federation itself, and, in the original timeline, Kirk's
own bitter comment to Spock regarding the Klingons in
Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, considering a
Klingon killed Kirk's son (in Star Trek: The Search for
Spock), "Let them die!"
When Spock tells Admiral Barnett that he is unable to comply
with his order on page 294, Barnett is described as looking
at Spock as if he had just confessed to being an undercover
Romulan. This is probably an in-joke to the TOS episode
"Balance of Terror", in which Lt. Stiles intimates that
Spock may be a Romulan spy.
On page 301, Kirk and Lartal visit Portsmouth Square. This
is a real world park in Chinatown.
Also on page 301, Andorians are practicing ushaan-to
alongside Chinese San Franciscans practicing tai chi. "Ushaan-to"
may be a reference to the Andorian weapon/tool ushaan-tor
seen in the ST-Enterprise episode "United" as part of a
code-of-honor death duel. Tai chi is a reference to
tai chi
chuan, a type of Chinese martial art.
Page 302 mentions the Goddess of Democracy statue in
Portsmouth Square. This is a real world bronze statue, a
replica of the foam and papier-mâché statue created by
artists during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in
China. The original was destroyed by Chinese Army soldiers
on June 4, 1989, as they forced protestors out of Tiananmen
Square.
Observing that Lartal and Gren are engaged in romantic
foreplay on page 303, Kirk begins to feel that he and McCoy
are a third nacelle. This is obviously a play on the
euphemism "a third wheel". However, a number of Starfleet
ships have had a third nacelle, just as a number of ground
vehicles have had third wheels.
On page 303, Gren reveals she has booked a room for her and
Lartal at the
Huntington Hotel. This is a real luxury hotel in San
Francisco.
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