The Trellisane Confrontation by David Dvorkin (Star Trek #14, 1984)

The Enterprise is sent to a colony world to pick up a set of prisoners. While there Captain Kirk receives word of a distress communication from the world of Trellisane near the point where the Federation, the Romulan Empire, and the Klingon Empire all border. Concerned about the implications of the message, Kirk sets off for Trellisane before dropping off the prisoners at a starbase. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to the planet after the crew fends off an attack from the Sealons, natives of another planet in the same solar system. In short order, the Sealons renew their attack, which Sulu miscalculates and ends up taking damage from the lesser weapons, allowing the prisoners to escape and take the bridge. The fugitives head the ship out of the system and toward the Romulan Neutral Zone leaving the most senior officers stranded on the planet with the Sealons invading. It soon becomes obvious the Klingons have helped arm the Sealons and are providing military advisors. While Kirk, Spock and McCoy deal with the Klingons and the Sealons, Scotty must come up with a way to retake the Enterprise, and Nurse Chapel tries to aid a unique alien life-form mortally wounded on the ship.

This is the first of Dvorkin’s Star Trek novels and it reads pretty well. He has sufficient goings-on to keep things interesting, does a creditable job with the characters, and has a good handle on the regular characters. Sulu is probably more competent than is shown here, but his strategic error helps set the plot in motion, and can be excused. It’s all right for the crew to make mistakes once in a while. There are some coincidences here, but no more than enough to stretch things a bit, not completely out of shape.

Dvorkin sets up some interesting alien races, including the Trellisanians and the Sealons, as well as an Onctilliian, a race with four gender that join symbiotically. The impassive Trellisanians, reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain, contrast with the warlike Klingons and Sealons, an ocean-based race. The science fiction is well-handled here, with just a few rough spots but nothing glaring.

Dvorkin has also since written novel #40, Timetrap, as well as a Next Generation novel.