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Book : Star Trek: The Captain's Table - #1 War Dragons Takes place in: 2293 (Main setting), after Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Takes place in: 2265 (Kirk story), 2290 Stardate 8730.1 (Sulu story), Shortly after Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Kirk has retired from Starfleet, and he brings Sulu to Mars, where there is a bar called "The Captain's Table". Kirk and Sulu exchange greetings with the other captains in the bar, who invite the two to share their experiences as captains to them. Kirk decides to tell the story of his encounter with a reptilian race while onboard the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 in 2265, while Sulu speaks of his first mission as the Captain of the USS Excelsior NCC-2000 in 2290.

In 2265, some time has passed since the events of TOS "Where No Man Has Gone Before". The Enterprise detects a disabled ship which does not respond to the Enterprise's hails. Arriving at the ship, several survivors were detected and beamed aboard the Enterprise. The survivors were of a reptilian species who refered to themselves as the Anjiri and the Nykkus. The Nykkus appeared to be domesticated guards of the Anjiri, and were held in low regard by the Anjiri. Kirk offers to transport the Anjiri and Nykkus back to their own people, but an Anjiri, Vissith, gives a course which brings Enterprise to an Orion station. After the Orion commander warns Enterprise to stay away, Vissith converses with the Orion commander, which somehow convinces the Orion to allow the aliens onto the station. Shortly after Enterprise leaves, the Enterprise was attacked by four Orion vessels, which complain that the Anjiri and Nykkus had just stolen an Orion yacht and their precious metals stores. Kirk promises to bring the yacht back, and the Enterprise tracks the Orion yacht into an asteroid belt. Enterprise arrives at a planetoid which was encrusted with a variety of vessels, which are used as living quarters by the aliens. Enterprise is then held by two tractor beams, and the Anjiri demand that Kirk present himself to them or else they will tear the Enterprise apart. Kirk and his landing party arrive at the planetoid in a shuttlecraft, and they meet with the alien leaders, who were the female Anjiri. The Anjiri accuse Kirk of trying to rob their vessels, but Kirk explained that he had rescued the group of Anjiri and Nykkus and was trying to return them home. Instead, they had stolen a vessel from the Orions. Although the aliens use the stolen vessels as living quarters, Kirk explains to them that it is wrong to steal things from others, and he threatens to take back every item that the aliens had stolen. But as a gesture of goodwill, Kirk decides not to reclaim the stolen items, explaining that the Federation wants peaceful relations with the aliens, and has no interest in harming the aliens, provided that they do not steal Federation starships and properties. Uhura suggests that the Anjiri establish trade relations with other species instead of stealing from them, and the Anjiri agree to consider this. In 2290, Captain Hikaru Sulu was about to embark on his first mission as the Captain of the USS Excelsior. His mission was to deliver 12 FL-70 Falcon reconnaissance ships from Deep Space Three to Elaphe Vulpina 9. While Sulu and his First Officer, Commander Chekov, were on Deep Space Three, four ships suddenly attack the station, and intruders take Chekov and the Excelsior's resupply team as hostages. The pirates manage to escape with the hostages, having been prevented from stealing the Falcons by the Excelsior. One hostage who escaped, Cadet Tuvok, was able to identify the intruders as a reptilian species, and he heard that the intruders wanted to use the Falcons to take over the Federation outpost at Elaphe Vulpina. Excelsior tracks the pirate fleet, which abruptly change direction and head into the Klingon neutral zone. The pirates also attack a Klingon vessel, killing 94 Klingons. The body of one of the pirates was recovered, and Sulu recognises it as a member of the reptilian species that the Enterprise had encountered before in 2265. Sulu then requests from Starfleet the records of the previous encounter. He also requests for a conference with Captain Kirk . Excelsior then comes across a Klingon life-pod which contained the hostages except for Chekov. When Excelsior attempted to beam aboard the hostages, a group of the reptilian aliens was beamed up instead, who then transported themselves into the main shuttlebay, where they commandeered the Falcons, which then blast their way out of the shuttlebay and join in the attack on the Excelsior with the rest of the pirate fleet. The Excelsior's warp engines were severely damaged, and the starship was unable to continue follow the pirate fleet. The USS Enterprise-A arrives to offer assistance to the Excelsior. An autopsy of the Nykkus body reveal that it is a male with unusually high hormonal features which could explain their aggressive behaviour. It is suspected that the Nykkus may attempt to attack a Klingon research station at Kreth, therefore Sulu and his crew would proceed to the Anjiri homeworld on the cargo shuttle Jocelyn Bell, while the Enterprise-A would first tow the Excelsior to a safe distance before heading to Kreth. The Enterprise-A detects an adrift Falcon, and rescues Chekov who was onboard. Chekov blames himself for the attack on the Excelsior, although Kirk reassures him that he was not responsible. Chekov reveals that the Nykkus believed that the Federation research facility at Elaphe Vulpina was working on replication technology, and the Nykkus wanted to replicate themselves into an army. Chekov mislead the Nykkus to pursue replication technology from the Klingons instead, hoping that the heavily-armed Klingon station at Kreth would easily destroy the pirate fleet. However, the Nykkus were able to raid the Excelsior and steal the Falcons, and they would use the Falcons to attack the Klingon station, which may lead the Klingons to blame the Federation for the attack. The Jocelyn Bell arrives at the Anjiri homeworld, and Sulu meets with the female Nykkus, who are in charge now. Sulu then learns from a surviving female Anjiri that the Anjiri and Nykkus were actually of the same species, and an accident had resulted in the creation of hostile male Nykkus, who have now taken over control of the species. Both races now face extinction unless the pirate Nykkus return to the homeworld. Enterprise-A arrives at Kreth and successfully defends the station from the Nykkus. The pirate Nykkus were taken into custody, while Kirk explains to the surviving Klingons that the Federation were not responsible for the attack. Captain Koloth arrives and demands that Kirk hand over the Nykkus who attacked the station. The Jocelyn Bell arrives with Nykkus leaders, who execute the Nykkus pirate ringleaders, which satisfies Koloth. The other Nykkus pirates were then allowed to return to their homeworld. Sulu then learns that Chekov would continue working on the Enterprise-A for now, since the entire incident had placed great stress on him and made him doubt himself, given Chekov's previous traumatic experience as First Officer on the Reliant. But Sulu tells Kirk that the position of Excelsior's Executive Officer is always available to Chekov. The story then ends with Kirk and Sulu leaving the Captain's Table, with Sulu meeting his new second-in-command, Commander Chekov.

Analysis . The Anjiri and Nykkus are a reptilian species whose genders are determined by the incubation temperatures of their eggs. Originally, the females Anjiri were in charge of both races. However, after hostile male Nykkus were accidentally created, they took over control of the species, and killed many of the female Anjiri. The hostile male Nykkus eventually left their homeworld, hoping to replicate themselves into an army. As there was no further breeding, the Anjiri and Nykkus both faced extinction. . Deep Space Three orbits around a massive red giant.

Notes . According to War Dragons, all of the Reliant's over 200 crewmen were killed by Khan during Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Chekov blamed himself for being unable to do anything about it, since he was under Khan's mind control. . Cadet Tuvok served onboard the USS Excelsior in 2290, before he was assigned to the vessel following his graduation from Starfleet Academy in 2293. . When Sulu assumed captaincy of the USS Excelsior in 2290, Chekov was also assigned to the Excelsior as FIrst Officer. But following the events of War Dragons, Chekov was reassigned to the Enterprise-A. This explains why Chekov was onboard the Enterprise-A in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. . The Captain's Table sequence in War Dragons takes place after the main story in The Last Roundup, since Chekov was said to be considering the position of the Excelsior's First Officer near the end of The Last Roundup, and Chekov has already accepted the First Officer position by the end of War Dragons. . The cargo shuttle Jocelyn Bell is named after the astronomer Jocelyn Bell.

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