Stardate 2344.2: The Cayuga assists human settlers on Parnassus Beta just outside Federation space. Christine Chapel, who is in the team too, is about to beam back to the ship. Captain Batel is just talking to Captain Pike when contact is lost. The Enterprise receives a distress call from Batel, who speaks of a Gorn attack. As the ship arrives in orbit of Parnassus Beta, the Cayuga has been destroyed. No communication, scans or transport is possible because of an interference field that the Gorn have erected. They send a map with a demarcation line that Pike is not allowed to cross, as he would otherwise trigger a war. Pike assembles volunteers and shows them newly developed equipment to detect and kill the Gorn. Disguised as a piece of debris, Ortegas maneuvers a shuttle with Pike, La'an, Sam Kirk and M'Benga to the surface of the planet in the hope to find survivors. The landing party discovers a structure that likely generates the interference field. They follow human lifesigns and run into a trap that an engineer named Montgomery Scott actually set up for the Gorn. When his ship was attacked by the aliens, he escaped in a shuttle, only to end up on the planet that was their main target. Several more survivors are hiding from the creatures, including Captain Batel. In the meantime on the Enterprise, Uhura and Pelia have pinpointed the field generator and plan to destroy it by letting the saucer of the Cayuga crash into it. Spock takes a spacesuit and places rockets on the hull of the wreck. He has just finished the setup when he encounters Christine Chapel on the bridge. But the two are not alone. They unite forces, kill the Gorn and narrowly escape as the saucer enters the atmosphere. Pike, Batel and Scott have made it to Scott's shuttle to salvage the equipment he used to build a Gorn transponder and pose as one of their vessels. When a Gorn ambushes them, the creature doesn't harm Batel. She shows Pike that she has been infected with Gorn eggs. Batel proposes to fly the shuttle into the field generator, so everyone else on the planet can be saved. There is no need for this suicide mission any more as the saucer destroys the structure. The three are beamed up, as are Spock and Chapel. But the Enterprise can't get a lock on the rest of the officers and colonists. They were captured by the Gorn. Pike receives orders from Admiral April to withdraw immediately...

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