In today’s episode, yet another relative of Spock’s we’ve never met before has a date with a unique destiny. But a stop along the way and some freewheeling new friends have him worrying that she might abandon the track before she ever gets on it. How hard is it in-universe for civilians to keep up with Kirk’s rank? Is sex work illegal in the Federation? And will Spock get his king jumped? All this and more in Mind Meld, the book that believes in the heart of the ca—er, numbers.

Mind Meld
Author: John Vornholt
Pages: 274
Published: June 1997
Timeline: Shortly after The Undiscovered Country
Prerequisites: “Unification” (TNG 5×07/08)—Pardek appears, and the viability of the movement hinges on the success of the events of Mind Meld

In order to prove the viability of Vulcan/Romulan reunification, Sarek and a Romulan named Wislok are enlisting two of their younger relatives for an experiment. Wislok is submitting his son Hasmek, and Sarek is putting up his great-niece Teska. The experiment is to have the two children go through the koon-ut-la ritual, wait twenty years or so, and see if they experience the plak tow and the pon farr and the whatnot. The Enterprise’s senior officers are given the task of chauffeuring Teska from Earth, where she’s been raised by her grandfather Sopeg, to Vulcan. With no other living or able-bodied relatives to act as her pele-ut-la, or chaperone, Spock takes on the role, and to keep the highly controversial mission inconspicuous, they couch it in an assignment to return a delegation of Rigelians to their home planet of Rigel V.

The Rigelians look like Vulcans, but that’s where the similarities end. They’re kind of the Cousin Eddie of Vulcans—”superstitious, emotional, and deeply rooted to an agrarian lifestyle and precious-metals economy,” according to Spock, and they’re also big on sex (especially for restorative purposes) and numerology. This particular bunch the Enterprise is taking home are pretty salty about their trade negotiations falling through on account of the Federation taking issue with some of their society’s practices, like organized prostitution, trading in animal skins, and selling children into group marriages. Two of them, Madame Vitra and Ambassador Denker, are especially at odds over things like the modernization of Rigel V and how quickly Denker should finish his report.

At Rigel V, while the adults have some refreshments at a rustic lodge, Teska is given directions to a place where she can play with some other children. On her way there, Ambassador Denker tumbles down the steps with a dagger in his throat. Teska tries to cal for help, but none arrives, and with Denker desperate to communicate what happened before he dies, she puts aside her discipline, mind-melds with him, and sees Madame Vitra’s bodyguard Mondral doing the deed to keep him from revealing her illegal activities in his report, which he was taking so long to finish because he refused to falsify it. As a witness to the murder (sort of), Teska has to be detained for an inquest, which Spock is afraid will delay the rendezvous for the koon-ut-la, but the Romulans have some difficulties of their own that require Kirk to go pick them up in the Enterprise, leaving Spock and Teska alone on Rigel V. Even though the inquest doesn’t proceed as logically as Spock would hope (a verdict of “assailants unknown” is handed down), that doesn’t mean he and Teska are in the clear—because now that Madame Vitra knows that Teska knows her secrets, there’s no way she’s letting Spock or Teska leave Rigel V alive.

I confess I had somewhat low expectations for Mind Meld. The prospect of Spock having yet another surprise relative seemed like a surefire eye-roller, and that relative being a precocious child to boot gave me the feeling I was about to strap in for a real drag. I’m very relieved that that’s not how it turned out at all. Teska is actually a really well-written character who carries the burden of her destiny in ways that are consistent with both a Vulcan and a child. She’s very bold and resourceful, and one wrinkle I thought was especially fascinating was how her less refined emotional control (due to her age) made her a little more merciless in dispatching threats than Spock might choose to be.

Vulcan/Romulan reunification might be serious business, but the current that carries Mind Meld along is one of levity. There’s a lot of good humor in this one, with my favorite running bit being the way Spock would find himself easily slipping into making sure events would fall into Rigelian numerological harmony before catching himself abandoning logic and shaking it off. Another strong character who adds to the fun is Hanua, a member of a Rigelian family called the Heart Clan. Hanua has such strong chemistry with Spock and is such an effective foil for him that I was actually disappointed that they didn’t have sex!1And it’s not for lack of trying on her part. Sometimes it threatens to get a little too goofy, like when the adjusted destination for the Enterprise to pick up Pardek and Hasmek turns out to be an Orion nursing home, but even parts like that have enough of the right kind of laughs.

The weakest element of Mind Meld, which thankfully doesn’t have much of an impact on the broader story, is a sort of reckless conflation of sex work and sex trafficking, but I’m going to chalk that up to it being 1997 and give Vornholt the benefit of the doubt by assuming he or anyone else would handle that better if it was written today. Outside of that, this is a solid prequel to “Unification” that delivers big-time as both a vehicle for laughs and the product of a very good question about reunification (namely, are Vulcans and Romulans even still, uh, compatible after all this time). Don’t worry about the red flags that some of the basic facts of the story might toss up; it’s well worth your time.

Ten Forward Toast

Pour out some trijelian tea this week for Hemopar, one of the members of the Heart Clan. His false testimony at the inquest is a big part of what gets Mondral off the hook. When Spock grills him but good about it, he promises to redeem himself by fighting for change on Rigel V, and to his credit, he’s genuine. Too bad he gets a hole in the head before he can make good on that.

MVP & LVP

• My MVP for this one, believe it or not, is Teska. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed her brand of problem-solving. She saves Spock’s life more than he saves hers, and I really connected to her struggles with fulfilling a destiny she didn’t choose and valuing her attachment to her new Rigelian friends. As a seven-year-old with a foot in three different cultures, Teska’s is an especially heavy cross to bear, and I think the way she comports herself in light of that is plausible and admirable.
• This week I’m giving the LVP to Madame Vitra. She leaned a bit too far into the cartoonish side of villainy for my taste, and I wish the book would have delved more into her past—specifically, the psychological aspect of being sold into prostitution when she was ten, which she blows off when it comes up at dinner on the Enterprise and no one ever talks about again. But Mondral does most of the heavy lifting; she’s more about behind-the-scenes bad stuff.

Stray Bits

• Coming right off the heels of Avenger, it’s refreshing how the Kirk of Mind Meld and others show far more reverence for his connection with Vulcan traditions. Sometimes, though, it goes a little too far; the ending, for example, after a couple hundred pages of the arduous journey of Spock and Teska, immediately proceeds to inexplicably and inappropriately focus on Kirk.
• Sopeg, when Captain Kirk introduces himself: “‘Curious,’ said Sopeg. ‘I thought you were promoted to admiral.'” How hard do you think it is for civilians to keep up with all of Kirk’s rank changes? His Wikipedia talk page is probably a mess. (p. 23)
• Sopeg mentions attending a hockey game. “Very enlightening.” I’m imagining a Vulcan with a front-row seat watching a dude get bodied up against the glass right in front of him and just cocking a single eyebrow and saying “Fascinating.” A+ visual. Incidentally, Klingons would obviously love hockey, right? (ibid.)
• A dark spin on an old chestnut: “Teska took a deep breath and tried hard to ignore Vulcan teachings against desecrating the dead. As far as she was concerned, the good of the living outweighed the good of the dead.” (p. 159)
• Pardek got an ugly laugh out of me with this one: “It is just so amazing to me that something we did twenty-one years ago is coming to fruition today! It makes you believe in long-term planning.” (p. 270)

Final Assessment

Excellent. In truth, it’s probably not quite the stone-cold classic I would consider a lot of other books I give that designation to, but since I would recommend it with the same enthusiasm I would one of those, there you go. Mind Meld is a fun yet solid prequel to an important episode. It’s breezy and for the most elicits the right kinds of laughs. If the prospect of discovering yet another branch of Spock’s family tree gives you pause, I will say I don’t think you’re wrong to be skeptical. But trust me, you don’t have anything to worry about. John Vornholt did real good with this one.

NEXT TIME: Jake and Nog enroll in Space Camp