An epic new Star Trek saga by New York Times bestselling author Greg Cox set during the original five-year mission! The planet Vok is holding its first free elections after years of oppressive military rule. Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise have been dispatched by Starfleet to serve as impartial observers, but remaining neutral proves a challenge, as Kirk confronts a tangled web of scandal, conspiracy, and assassination plotswith the stability of an entire sector at stake. To make matters worse, Dr. Leonard Mc Coy has vanished while on a mission of mercy to Braco, a nearby planet only a system away. With Kirk unable to abandon his vital mission on Vok to hunt for his friend, it’s up to First Officer Spock and Christine Chapel to lead a team in search of the missing doctor, even if it means risking whatever fate befell Mc Coy. Unknown to his friends and crewmates, however, Mc Coy has been spirited away to another world, Ozalor, where he’s expected to find a cure for a mysterious ailment plaguing a member of the planet’s ruling family. Torn between his Hippocratic oath and his desire to escape, Mc Coy finds himself at the center of deadly palace intriguesand a struggle for power that may ultimately consume all three worlds!