Spock arranges a decoy ship full of robots to lure the crooks out in the open. Soon, Uhura reports that the decoy ship has come under attack. The Enterprise speeds to the location and makes short work of subduing the Romulan pirate ship. The five Romulan crewmembers are captured by Frank Tanka and are placed in the Enterprise's brig. Scotty accesses the pirate ship's navigation computers and determines the vessel's destination. The robots were to be taken to a secret Romulan stronghold just outside of Federation territory.

   Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Chekov and Tanka disguise themselves as Romulan pirates and pilot the pirate ship to the secret stronghold. Scotty programs the robots not to fight against the Federation. Some time later, the pirate ship arrives at a small moon just outside of Federation space. The pirate ship, whose name was Romulus Two, is hailed by the Romulan moonbase, and the vessel is given clearance to land.

   The Federation men garbed as pirates are greeted by Pragmar leader of the robot army. Scotty presents the robots to Pragmar, and he introduces the large leader robot as Mastero. Pragmar tells them that all of his robot army are prepared to attack the Federation immediately. Pragmar leaves for a moment, and Scotty and Kirk lament that the reprogramming to pacify their robots may not have been completely successful. Pragmar returns with his robot army who are armed with large laser rifles.

   Pragmar speaks to his fellow Romulans and the robot army. He announces that they will soon be the out from under the oppression of the Federation and that they will be the victors after they completely destroy Federation Starbase 10. The attack is to be lead by Mastero. Mastero tells his robots to destroy the Federation utterly, and they march off.

   Just when the situation seems the darkest for Kirk and his men, Pragmar steps up and captures them, explaining that he knew they were Federation spies, because every Romulan warrior knows the face of Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. Then Pragmar orders Mastero to kill Kirk and his men. Mastero motions towards the Starfleet men but turns on the Romulans, ordering the other robots to attack them instead. Before the Romulans can be killed, Scotty orders Mastero to just capture them. Back aboard the Enterprise, Scotty introduces Mastero to Spock.

Watch a YouTube video of this story:

This story appeared in the following packages:

Record 15

Record 21

Record 22

Notes:

• This story was sometimes accompanied by a 20 Page Read-Along Comic Book.
• The read-along comic depicted the gray Starfleet uniforms and Enterprise as they appeared in STAR TREK: The Motion Picture.
• This story featured a narrator for some parts.
• This story establishes that robots have been going missing over the previous year.
• This story features the character of Commodore Decker, who had appeared in the original series episode "The Doomsday Machine." His first name is incorrectly given as Steve instead of Mathew. This also establishes that this this story takes place before "The Doomsday Machine," since Commodore Decker died in that episode.
• The comic incorrectly depicted Romulans with green skin and dark green hair.
• This story feature the character of security officer Frank Tanka.
• Romulans were incorrectly referred to as living just outside the known galaxy.
• This story makes a passing reference to Klingons.
• Starbase 10 is mentioned as being located in the Vega system.
• There was an error in this story: When they see that the Romulan stronghold moon is so close to Federation space, Chekov exclaims that "Only the Klingons would have the gall to make a robot attack army under our very noses." He should have said Romulans.
• Another odd mistake: Pragmar says that Mastero is so lifelike. But the illustration in the read-along comic book (shown above) shows that Mastero looks just like an iron robot, not lifelike at all.

STAR TREK is a Registered Trademark of Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved. The STAR TREK story records were produced by Peter Pan Records, and Power Records a Division of Peter Pan Industries.

Email: cdanhauser@yahoo.com