The IDIC Epidemic by Jean Lorrah (Star Trek #38, February 1988).

Transporting a group of Vulcan revolutionaries to a colony planet (the antagonists from Lorrah's earlier novel, "The Vulcan Academy Murders") the Enterprise is quickly called back to Vulcan for a mercy mission. They must take some Vulcan medical specialists to the planet Nisus, a colony designed to be infinite diversity in infinite combinations set to practice. Scientists have gathered from all over the galaxy to work and live there among many species, both of the Federation and from other places, including a Klingon and some Orions.

The plague on Nisus is an agressive virus, which is even more dangerous because it seems to mutate every time it infects someone of mixed race. And there are a lot of beings of mixed race on Nisus, a true "melting pot." Spock's parents Spock and Amanda are on board as well, on their way to a conference but halted by the disease-ridden world. Care is taken on the beamdown of personnel, but the Enterprise is exposed, and Amanda is infected. Spock must go into isolation to prevent further mutation of the virus. McCoy is down on the planet and hard at work. Then, the renegade Vulcans seize engineering. And on top of it all, the dam that provides the reservoir for the planet's community is about to burst under the spring thaw.

Lorrah writes a very eventful book that keeps the pages turning with brief chapters (about 5-7 pages each) and dense plotting. This book has far more plot and less character development than her first effort. Lorrah makes great use of the characters she has honed from years of writing fan fiction, including Vulcan healer Sorel, his human partner Daniel Corrigan, and their circle of friends and colleagues. These characters are picked up directly from V.A.Murders and placed here, mere seconds after the end of the other book.

Lorrah also takes time to develop the Klingon Korsal, an engineer and not a fighter. He has two sons by a Starfleet officer, who left Nisus to go back into space. Korsal has remarried an Orion woman on Nisus and continued his residence. Korsal faces a crisis when it is found that he and his sons are immune to the plague, due to their Klingon blood. Should this be reported back to the Empire, for possible use as a weapon?

The action is fast, and your interest will be held by this volume. ST fans will see that Lorrah spends almost no time on the series' supporting characters (Sulu and Chekov get one bit of business, near the book's beginning) and more focus on the author's own characters. This would be part of the reason for the upcoming directive to focus the novels more on the original series characters.

This book was also part of the upswing in sales, brought about in no small part by the presence of the Next Generation series, in its first season. The character of Worf and John M. Ford's depictions of Klingons in his novels appear to have equal infulence in the creation of Korsal. This is a good book set in the Star Trek universe, but not focused directly on the seven main characters.