Originally, I had written a direct sequel to The Search for Spock. I had seen that film in the theater in July of 1984, was very upset by the destruction of the Enterprise, and wanted to do something about it. By the end of August, I had pounded out a 39-page single-spaced story that was a treatment rather than a full-fledged script. I was 17 at the time and quite idealistic. I tried to float the story around, but kept hearing the same thing from everyone....the studio did not accept input from fans. By the time I approached Bob Greenberger, The Voyage Home was in the can and just waiting to come out from under wraps. I thought perhaps my story could be re-worked a bit to work in the comics. But when Bob dropped the 'big hint' about what was coming in TVH, I let the whole thing go because it just wouldn't work out. With the 'Enterprise' back again, there would be no real point in bringing back the original.
The story....
Sarek could not repay Kirk for bringing Spock back by bringing Kirk's son David back. But what about Kirk's lost ship, the Enterprise? The Genesis team was not the only group doing experiments out on the edge. The Vulcans were working on a concept for atomic reassembly of matter....the reclamation of destroyed objects. Based on the idea that matter is neither created nor destroyed but only changed. (What I didn't realize at the time was that I was basically using the theory of nanotechnology. When I read about that nine years later, I was quite surprised.) Sarek convinced the Vulcan high council that there was no better, more worthy test than the Enterprise. All of her atoms were still floating around in the Mutara sector, just waiting for a reassembly test.
There was another factor, however. The Vulcans believed that to reconstitute any object that had been closely associated with living beings for quite some time, without their involvement, would be unethical. It would be like a ship without a soul. A zombie, if you will.
Enter the 'Emotional Enhancement Matrix'. Many years ago, before the Romulans split away and while the Vulcans were still very emotional, this device was invented, supposedly tested once, and then locked away. It supposedly had the ability to greatly enhance emotion, by direct neural stimulation, but its limits were unknown and it was deemed to be too dangerous for use. The modern thinking was that in a very closely-controlled and monitored situation it might have benefits. Kirk and crew, with the exception of Spock, were all human and emotional and might even be the perfect guinea pigs for a test.
Everyone boards a Vulcan science vessel for the trip to the Mutara sector. Upon arrival, they are hooked up to equipment and instructed to think back to their good thoughts about the Enterprise. For Kirk, that includes his first flyby of the completed refit when Scotty took him for a tour. (Existing footage from TMP could have been used.)
The test works and the Enterprise is reassembled from her atoms, but there is a surprise waiting for later.
Meanwhile, there are a couple of other story arcs in the mix. Another Klingon commander and crew, loyal to Kruge and very pissed off about what happened to him, set off in a cloaked ship with the intention of attacking Earth. It's not just a Bird of Prey. It's a new, top-of-the-line prototype D-10. Almost like a Klingon version of the Vengeance.
Starfleet manages to get information about the approaching threat, but as usual they are short-handed. They are forced to scurry into action to get the mothballed USS Lexington, still damaged from the M-5, into some kind of shape to meet the threat.
Kirk and crew hear about this and race back to Earth just as soon as Spock and Scotty are able to verify the integrity of the Enterprise's newly-reconstituted engines. When they arrive on the scene, the Klingons and the Lexington are in the middle of a very one-sided battle. Everyone is extremely surprised to see the Enterprise, especially the Klingons. They know that she was destroyed. It's like seeing a ghost and they don't know what to make of it. They decide to head for home, not out of cowardice but to be cagey and seek out more intelligence from spies about the matter. They have honor; fools who rush in with inadequate information do not.
The threat is ended. The surprise? Will Decker and Ilia (not V'Ger's probe version) are found to be aboard the Enterprise. They have no memory of how they got there and no one has an explanation for it. The Vulcans decide to return the EEM to permanent deep storage along with the atomic reassembly equipment. Their own Genesis-like results, with Decker and Ilia, have been much too unsettling for them to want to use the equipment again.
Quite hokey and fanboyish, I know, but what can I say....I was 17.
It had its moments. This was a bit from McCoy and Kirk:
