Author(s):	Lee Correy
Publisher:	Pocket Books
Series:	Pocket TOS #6 Titan Books #25
Published:	1 April 1982
Pages:	207
Stardate:	5064.4 - 5099.5 (2268)
Reference(s):	ISBN 0671832972

The Enterprise is caught between its own survival--and the destruction of an innocent, isolated world!

SummaryEdit

From the book jacket

On the planet Mercan, there are no stars, no moon, no outer space...

The citizens of Mercan cannot conceive of worlds beyond their own. Their sun, Mercaniad, is prone to deadly, radioactive flare-ups, and the Mercans have organized their lives around the need to survive The Ordeal--until a strange visitor appears from out of nowhere...

The USS Enterprise, badly crippled and in desperate need of repairs, must seek help from a people who cannot believe in its existence. Mercaniad is about to blow, and James Kirk faces an impossible choice: to attack the sun itself and save his ship and crew — or let a people live in peace, in the only world they know... the abode of life.

Background InformationEdit

• This is the only Star Trek novel written by Lee Correy.
• Although the cover art depicts Kirk and Spock in Star Trek: The Motion Picture era uniforms, the stardate and the Pocket Books timeline place this adventure in 2268 (in accordance with Rand being portrayed as a yeoman rather than a chief).

CharactersEdit

Canon characters listed below are linked to the main article about them. Non-canon characters are not linked, but those that recurred, appearing or being mentioned in more than one story, are defined further in Pocket TOS characters.

James Kirk 

Enterprise captain.

Spock 

Enterprise exec and science officer.

Leonard McCoy 

Lieutenant Commander.

Montgomery Scott 

Chief Engineer.

Uhura 

Communications officer.

Janice Rand 

Enterprise yeoman.

M'Benga 

Enterprise assistant medical officer.

Kyle 

Lieutentant.

Thallan

Delin

Othol

Orun

Pallar

Lenos

Parna

Aldys

ReferencesEdit

Berthold ray 

Mercaniad emitted Berthold rays during "The Ordeal"

Mercan

Mercaniad

Phoenix 

A scoutship.

solar flare

Starbase 4

External linksEdit

• The Abode of Life at Wikipedia
• The Abode of Life at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works