Synopsis

Act I: TREASON

Scene 1—Spock: "I Stand Before an Abyss..”

The Enterprise arrives at Starbase M-11.

“Space. All before me is void. My past let go, my future…forgotten.” Lieutenant Commander Spock, first officer of the Starship Enterprise, has arrived on M-11, a small medical starbase at the edge of Federation space. He faces a momentous choice: loyalty to his captain and the Federation they serve... or an unnamed crime he might commit, driven by a deeper purpose.

When Captain James Kirk and ship’s doctor Leonard McCoy beam down to join Spock, they are greeted by M-11’s Vulcan commander, Zuna Tor—a flame from Kirk’s past—who asks them the purpose of their visit. Kirk explains that Spock’s former Captain, Christopher Pike, has summoned them, but Tor insists they must be mistaken.

While Spock ponders his dilemma privately, Vina—a mysterious and regal woman—appears to him, mourning a lost love. Perhaps communicating from a remote part of the galaxy, she urges him forward. Spock soon concludes that the greater good lies in the crime he contemplates…an vision he deems “not madness,” but “an excess in clarity.”

 

 

Scene 2—Tor: "I just wanted to prepare you…"

Pike’s hospital room on M-11: Tor explains former Captain Pike’s condition.

Tor insists once again that Captain Pike could not have summoned the Enterprise to M-11. She is surprised to learn that Kirk is unaware of a terrible accident—one that left Pike gravely injured. Before bringing them to Pike’s quarters, Tor tells them the story of Pike’s heroic attempts to save the victims of a reactor explosion aboard an old starship. They enter Pike’s quarters, where his immobile body is supported by advanced life support. Though they are at first shocked by his condition, Tor turns their attention to a large display above his body, which reveals, in complex, beautiful imagery, a highly active brain. As Pike’s neural activity swirls and pulses above them, the voice of Vina calls again for her lost love. She is unheard by Tor and the officers of the Enterprise, but her words—“I try to conjure you in my dreams. The wind scatters my tears into space”—seem to influence Pike’s restless thoughts.

 

 

Scene 3—Spock: “Chris, you know why I’ve come.”

Pike’s hospital room on M-11: Spock meets privately with Pike, and announces a treasonous plan.

As she begins to introduce Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, Tor is surprised by an intense display of negativity flourishing in Pike’s brain image. She explains that Pike has refused to see them. They learn that Pike can communicate only ambiguous signals of affirmation and negation, though his thoughts are certainly more complex. McCoy remarks that Pike’s suppression of some thoughts is reasonable, since the brain-image display is not merely a means of communication but a window into his consciousness.

Spock requests an opportunity to speak with Pike privately. When the two are alone, Spock is frank: “Chris—you know why I’ve come…I’ve never disobeyed you before, but this time, I must. The time for this action is now.” Spock is unfazed when Pike appears to react in horror. He calmly reminds Pike that soon they will begin, and “there will be no going back.”

 

 

Scene 4—A False Entry

Office of Commander Tor / M-11 hospital hallways and transporter rooms: Tor, Kirk, and McCoy ponder inconsistencies in records of their summons there, while Spock kidnaps Pike and commits mutiny.

Kirk, McCoy, and Tor argue about the circumstances of the Enterprise’s summons to M-11. Tor casts doubt on Spock’s integrity and, acting on a hunch, authorizes Kirk to read classified information about the forbidden planet Talos IV. Kirk knows that contact with the planet is now deemed an act of treason, under Federation General Order Four—punishable by death. Opening the document, Kirk learns that the Enterprise, under the command of Pike and with Spock as science officer, is the only earthship to have visited the Talosian system.

Tor and Kirk are jolted from their conversation by a high-alert alarm. Pike is suddenly missing; moments later they learn that the Enterprise has left M-11’s orbit, and refuses attempts at communication. Tor and Kirk board a shuttlecraft in haste, and pursue the Enterprise, which is already accelerating to warp speed.

 

 

Scene 5—Mutiny

The bridge of the Enterprise: doubts are cast about Spock’s command; Spock submits himself for arrest and allows Tor and Kirk aboard. The ship’s computer—refusing all attempts to intervene–has locked navigation on a course for Talos IV.

With the Enterprise under Spock’s unanticipated command, Third Officer Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu grows wary of the vessel’s auto-pilot status. He’s soon joined in his suspicions by McCoy, who demands to know why they’ve left M-11 suddenly, with Pike on board and Kirk absent. When Lieutenant Nyota Uhura announces a beacon signal from an M-11 shuttlecraft pursuing them, Spock further surprises his crew by refusing to open communications. He instead uses the tractor beam to draw the shuttlecraft to dock with the Enterprise, allowing Kirk and Tor aboard. Spock then submits himself to McCoy for arrest, confessing to the charge of mutiny. Kirk and Tor rush to the bridge and press Spock for information, but he refuses to speak except in court. The officers and crew of the Enterprise learn that their communications have been disabled, the ship’s auto-pilot cannot be aborted or interrupted, and that their course is set for the forbidden planet Talos IV.