Welcome to part three of #TMPRead. Today will see a few more familiar faces join the crew and the Enterprise's launch.
The live broadcast of the Epsilon 9 station was frightening enough to make 31 crew members request reassignment. So Star Fleet lets you bow out of a critical mission a few hours from launch? #TMPRead
Kirk appreciates his new seatbelt, or " emergency motion restraints" the moment he first sits down in the center chair. They are sensor controlled. #TMPRead
The restraints are closed when he first tries to sit, making him embarrassed that he doesn't know how to open them. #TMPRead
Uhura is ethnically "Bantu". #TMPRead
Every male on the bridge gets antsy hearing Ilia is a Deltan and on her way up to join them. #TMPRead
Deltans give off strong "pheromones" that overwhelm the opposite sex. Gene italicizes the term and explains it, making me wonder if it was a new concept at the time the book was written. #TMPRead
Do these pheromones work on everyone of the opposite sex? Can a Deltan woman smell a gay man straight? #TMPRead
Ilia presents an "aura of sensuality" when she enters the bridge. Kirk somehow perceives her as "naked". #TMPRead
Kirk boner update: He can't get out of his seat to greet her because of the effect she's having on him. #TMPRead
Kirk notices Decker and Ilia are familiar, but guesses it wasn't romantic because if they had "consummated... Decker would not be here." Does Deltan sex kill humans? #TMPRead
The deleted scene of Sulu falling over to help Ilia acquaint herself with her station is presented here. And, yes, he's sporting a boner too. #TMPRead
The pheromones are only secreted (ew!) near people Deltans haven't met before. Decker is not having the same reaction because of his and Ilia's familiarity. #TMPRead
Ilia tells Decker he can assure Kirk via personal experience that she would never take advantage of a "sexually immature species". Way to tell the whole bridge they've never boned! #TMPRead
The "scrambling our molecules" deleted scene is present. #TMPRead
McCoy had been spending his away time working with the Fabrini. #TMPRead
The reader is reassured that McCoy was not "drafted" as that ability no long exists. Nogura had done nothing but apply some moral persuasion. Kirk guesses the doctor is there mostly out of curiosity. #TMPRead
Kirk considers McCoy, and chief medical officers in general, to be a check on his power as captain and is grateful for it. #TMPRead
It's a bit confusing that Kirk takes responsibility for McCoy being "forced" back into service since he was just made captain a few hours ago. How long is the trip from Fabrini to Earth anyway? #TMPRead
Chapter 10. Kirk is still guilty over screwing Decker out of command. He convinces himself that Decker will have a launch moment of his own one day. #TMPRead
Decker is more impressed with Kirk and less bitter than he thought he'd be. I mean, it's Kirk. If someone's going to screw you, why not him? #TMPRead
Gene refers to the ship's "saucer section" during launch. I don't know if this is the first time this term is employed. In TOS I only recall "main section" and possibly "engineering section" being used. #TMPRead
The dockyard is said to be "old". Could this then be the same dry dock the Enterprise was initially built in? #TMPRead
Chapter 11: McCoy greets Chapel in sickbay still bearded. Chapel volunteered to be on the Enterprise 7 years ago. That means she joined Kirk's 5 year mission one year in. So the fist full production episodes of TOS take place one year after launch. #TMPRead
He spends a lot of time making sure Chapel knows she's a subordinate. He also immediately wants to see Kirk's medical report. #TMPRead
The "biorythm" device the crew all wears on their midsection is called a "perscan device" and allows all vital signs to be constantly read by sickbay. #TMPRead
He thinks Kirk is stressed out based on his perscan readings.He goes over how he and a number of medical professionals didn't want Kirk promoted based on his psychological profile. #TMPRead
All this concern about Kirk being made a wreck by desk duty doesn't add up, frankly. How many years should someone face the constant treat of death out on the frontier before they settle down? #TMPRead
Earth is (physically?) connected to the sun by a chain of energy collectors. Makes you wonder why the Gibraltar damn is still in use. #TMPRead
Jupiter's mass has been used to create "planettes", which seem to be small, inhabited planets in the solar system. #TMPRead
Earth's moon had been used as a staging area for unknown aliens that had scanned and conducted experiments on Earth's gene pool millions of years before humans existed. This sounds like the progenitors in TNG's "The Chase". #TMPRead
Warp drive was invented nearly a hundred years before this story takes place. Warp drive warps the universe, making it smaller and points within it closer together. #TMPRead
This sort of explains why what the Enterprise is caught in is called a "worm hole". The Enterprise literally cut a hole in space and the universe is "spiraling down a cosmic sink drain." #TMPRead
And that is the end of part 3. Tomorrow I'll be busy at the usual time so we'll start an hour later. I'll be sure to post reminders here and on Facebook. See you then! #TMPRead
