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Takes place in: 2293, Stardate 9854.1, six months after the events of Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country
Following the events of The Undiscovered Country, the Enterprise-A is due for decommission, and Kirk finds himself on Earth living a life of no purpose, having no ship, no new missions. He checks out a new holographic training device, and then pays a visit his former lover, Carol Marcus. But Kirk finds no contentment in this new life and decides to resign from Starfleet. At a reception held in the Starfleet Headquarters, the Federation President announces the appointment of the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Starfleet, Admiral Androvar Drake, who Kirk recognizes as a fellow officer with whom he has had a professional and personal rivalry with throughout their careers. Kirk also notices a Klingon-Romulan woman at the reception and becomes enchanted by her beauty.
On Earth, Kirk pays one last visit to his family estate before he sells it off. He finds the Klingon-Romulan woman whom he had met at the reception waiting for him in his house. The woman, Teilani, introduces herself, but they were interrupted by an attack by two other Klingon-Romulans. Kirk and Teilani managed to subdue the two attackers, but they appear to have died even though Kirk did not apply lethal force. Teilani then explains that she came from an abandoned joint Klingon-Romulan colony called Chal, a near-paradise planet which apparently bestowed on its inhabitants eternal youth. Teilani wants to recruit Kirk as a protector of her people against another faction called the Anarchists, who want to plunder and exploit the riches of Chal. Kirk finds himself attracted to Teilani.
Kirk tries to recruit Spock and McCoy, but they consider his decision as illogical and that Kirk was only mesmerised by Teilani's beauty. So, without the aid of Spock and McCoy, Kirk decides to resign from Starfleet and leave with Teilani. Teilani surprises Kirk by presenting him the Enterprise-A, which the Chal government had obtained from the Federation to form part of its planetary defense group. Teilani had also recruited Scotty to fix up the starship.
Just as the Enterprise-A leaves Earth, the Excelsior returns. Sulu, Chekov and Uhura report to Admiral Drake that the rouge agent Jade may be pursuing a Klingon doomsday weapon. Drake then brings Spock and McCoy into the room, and briefs the people that he suspects that there is a conspiracy in Starfleet who may want to obtain the Klingon doomsday weapon to discredit the Klingon Empire, and possibly cause a war between the Federation and the Klingons. Drake also suspects that Kirk could be involved, with Teilani possibly manipulating Kirk to transform the Enterprise-A into a delivery system for the weapon, codenamed Chalchaj 'qmey, or "Children of Heaven".
The Excelsior is therefore sent to pursue and locate the Enterprise-A, and gain possession of the doomsday weapon. After the group leaves, Drake meets with Jade, who is revealed to be Drake's daughter Ariadne. Drake is part of the conspiracy, he distrust the Klingons and considers himself the Federation's best hope for security.
After a detour at Prestor V, the Enterprise-A arrives at Chal, which Kirk discovers is truly a paradise, with his energy rejunvenated and Kirk finding himself feeling young again. Not long thereafter, the Anarchists launch their attack. Kirk coordinates with Teilani and her people to successfully attack and defeat the Anarchists. Kirk interrogates a captured Anarchist who tells him that they want to destroy Chal, and that the secret of Chal is hidden in the Armory in the center of the city. Kirk realises that Teilani had been keeping secrets from him, and had manipulated him to come to Chal.
Excelsior follows the trail of Enterprise-A first to Prestor V, then into Klingon territory where she runs into combat with Klingon warships, until Admiral Drake unexpectedly arrives and avert their attack, claiming diplomatic clearance by the Klingon High Council for this mission. Excelsior arrives at Chal with the Klingon warships. Kirk denies them access to the planet to prevent whatever secrets the planet possessed from falling into the wrong hands. The Klingon warships attack the Enterprise-A but were instead destroyed. When Drake orders Excelsior to attack Enterprise-A, Sulu relieves Drake of command, and Excelsior temporary withdraws to hold a General Inquiry into Admiral Drake's actions. Drake instead cancels the inquiry to wait for new orders from Starfleet, and he transports to a Klingon battle cruiser, supposedly to explain the situation to the Klingons.
Kirk and Teilani beam into the Armory and find the secret of Chal. The planet served as a munition dump for the Klingon and Romulan Empires. In case the empire's homeworlds were defeated by the Federation, Chal would supply the weapons needed to continue the fight. Teilani's people, the Children of Heaven, were genetically engineered, created from the Klingons and the Romulans, using tissue transplants from captured Human donors. They were created to survive in the harsh post-war environments. Teilani is shaken by the truth, but Kirk comforts her, saying that she and her people were not responsible for what they were.
Ariadne Drake beams in to steal the information from the Armory's computers, but Kirk destroys the computer and all its secrets. Admiral Drake then beams in with three Klingons. Drake gloats at Kirk, saying that Teilani was working for him all along. Teilani explains that she had initially approached Drake for assistance, but Drake said that the Federation could not get involved in a Klingon-Romulan matter, but he had recommended Kirk since he would accept the challenge. Kirk and Teilani beam back to the Enterprise-A before Drake fires his phaser at them.
Spock, Chekov and Uhura were back on the Enterprise-A to assist Kirk. Drake transports to the Klingon battle cruiser and attacks the Enterprise-A. Excelsior arrives, and the Klingon vessel abruptly departs for a slingshot maneuver around the star, attempting to travel back in time to stop Kirk from destroying the Armory's computer. The Enterprise-A pursues Drake's ship, and Sulu beams onboard to operate navigations since he has had prior experience with the slingshot maneuver. The Enterprise-A disables Drake's ship before it achieved time travel.
Drake's ship attacks the Enterprise-A near the star's surface, and the Enterprise-A explodes. However, Kirk and his crew had transported to the Excelsior before the explosion. Kirk offers to rescue Drake and his men from his badly damaged vessel, but Drake declines rescue and destroys the ship, killing himself and everyone onboard.
On Chal, Kirk gives Teilani Enterprise-A's dedication plaque as a parting gift, and he returns to Earth onboard the Excelsior, ready to face his next challenge.
. Chekov once carried out an investigation for Kirk, and he found out that it was Androvar Drake who provided David Marcus with the protomatter used in the Genesis Device. In 2283, Drake was in charge of Starfleet's advanced strategic technology development program. Among the projects Drake headed was one codenamed Rising Star, which studied the feasibility of developing weapons using protomatter. Starfleet eventually abandoned the project, and some of the protomatter already manufactured were provided to David Marcus, although no records of the transfer could be found. Chekov believes that Drake provided David with the protomatter so as to continue the weapons research by proxy. Shortly after the Genesis planet self-destructed, the remaining supply of protomatter were disposed of, so that there was no way to determine if any of it had gone missing. Hence there is no proof of any misconduct on Drake's part.
Therefore, Kirk blames Drake for having caused David's death, although he also believes that David would have made the same decisions on his own.
. Admiral Drake holds a grudge against Kirk. In 2265 or 2266, his wife was on a Starfleet hospital ship which was destroyed by the Klingons, who claimed that the ship was on a spying mission. Drake wanted revenge on the Klingons. However, Kirk involved the Organians into the conflict that led to the Organians imposing the peace treaty on both sides. Drake was denied the chance to punish the Klingons for killing his wife, and Drake was bitter at Kirk for this.
. Androvar Drake and Kirk were once assigned to the USS Farragut, and they were both on Tycho IV when the Farragut's crew were attacked by the dikironium cloud creature. Drake considers Kirk a fraud since Kirk hesitated instead of attacking the cloud creature.
. According to Drake, he and Cartwright were part of conspiracy who were dedicated to keep the Federation free of alien influences. After Cartwright was arrested, there were seven associates left, including Drake. But Cartwright did not know all the associates. Cartwright was aware of Drake's and his daughter's involvement, but he did not name them at his trial.
. The colony of Chal was jointly founded by the Klingons and the Romulans in 2253. Chal served as a munitions dump which, in the event that the Federation had destroyed the Klingon or Romulan homeworlds, Chal would supply the weapons needed to continue the fight. The colonists, known as Chalchaj 'qmey, or "Children of Heaven", were genetically engineered from Klingons and Romulans, using tissues transplants from captured Human donors. They were designed to survive in the harsh post-war environments. Eventually, both the Klingon and Romulan Empires lost interest in the colony, and neither side claimed ownership of the colony.
Chal opted for independence, and is officially unaligned, although it has sent delegates to the Federation.
. The second generation of the people of Chal had come to believe that the planet has the properties of restoring youth and energy in people, and they want to preserve their way of life. However, the first generation, who were the original colonists, were aware of their true nature as hidden weapons of the Klingon and Romulan Empires, and in order to preserve the peace between the Federation, Klingons and Romulans, they believe Chal must be destroyed so that the secret can never be revealed.
. The people of Chal have the ability to stop their heartbeats for about three to four minutes, making it appear as if they were dead.
. The Ashes of Eden is also available as a comic adaptation, which allows us to see how some of the characters look like.
The Ashes of Eden
The Return
Avenger
Spectre
Dark Victory
Preserver
Captain's Peril
Captain's Blood
Captain's Glory
Ex Machina
The Fearful Summons
The Last Roundup
War Dragons
The Captain's Daughter
The Sundered
Dark Mirror
Crossover
Ship of the Line
Dark Passions, Book 1
Dark Passions, Book 2
Vulcan's Soul, Book 1 - Exodus