star trek my enemy my ally

My Enemy, My Ally

• View history

My Enemy, My Ally is a Pocket TOS novel – #18 in the numbered series, and the first in the Rihannsu series – written by Diane Duane . Published by Pocket Books , it was first released in July 1984 .

• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Cover gallery
• 4 Characters
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Summary [ ]

Commander-General Ael t'Rllallieu is one of the Romulan Star Empire 's most decorated starship commanders, but she has become increasingly disillusioned with her Empire as they throw away honor ( mnhei'sahe ) for riches and power. She has spoken out in front of the Senate one time too many and sent out on an "honorable" tour of duty to the Neutral Zone. Ael soon escapes from the broken-down warbird Cuirass and its disloyal crew and returns to her own ship, Bloodwing . She and her crew, including her son Tafv and close confidant Aidoann, cross the Neutral Zone and destroy Cuirass using Klingon -augmented gunnery circuits. She purposely initiates the conflict between Bloodwing and Cuirass close to where Captain Kirk and the Enterprise are patrolling the Zone with the starships USS Constellation , USS Intrepid , and Inaieu . In Federation space, Ael meets Captain Kirk face to face for the first time. She tells him about two secret projects currently under way in her home space: Sunseed, a device to destabilize a star and create ion storms , and a project to harvest Vulcan genetic material to enhance the telepathic abilities of the Romulans. Kirk sympathizes with her, but says he cannot in good conscience order the Enterprise across the Neutral Zone. That changes, however, when the all-Vulcan crew of the Intrepid is captured and taken into Romulan space. Kirk accepts Ael's plan to have Bloodwing "capture" the Enterprise and take her into Romulan space – coincidentally passing right by Levaeri V, the station where the mind research is going on.

Bloodwing and Enterprise succeed in breaking away from the escort sent to meet them, and launch their attack on Levaeri V. However, while nearly half of Enterprise 's crew is on Levaeri, Tavf stages an attack of his own – on the Enterprise . With the help of the loyal Romulans still on board Enterprise , including Khiy and Eriufv, the crew manages to repel the invaders. Tafv, though, is mortally wounded. After the Intrepid crew is rescued and Levaeri V destroyed, Enterprise , Bloodwing , and Intrepid successfully battle several Romulan ships sent to destroy them, by seeding Levaeri's primary with Sunseed. Ael sees Tafv in Enterprise 's sickbay , but McCoy tells her that no matter what, he will die. When Ael asks him why he betrayed her, he responds that it was mnhei'sahe , his loyalty to his cousin (Ael's niece) who had been exiled for losing the cloaking device to Kirk . Ael releases him from life support, doing what mnhei'sahe requires of her .

Before Ael beams back to Bloodwing , she tells Kirk that she is now exiled from her home. She tells him that they will burn her name, essentially saying that she no longer exists, for " A Rihannsu without her name is nothing ". She tells Kirk what all three parts of her name mean, and then giving him the greatest gift of all, she tells him what her fourth name means – " The name by which only one closer than kin may know her ". On Earth , Kirk hangs a pennant with Ael's first three names on it in a secluded valley, ensuring that the Commander and her memory will live on.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" … Entirely too many ion-flux measurements, according to Mr. Chekov, who has declared to the bridge at large that his mother didn't raise him to compile weather reports. (Must remember to ask him why since meteorology has to have been invented in Russia like everything else.)

" However, even Spock has admitted to me privately that he looks forward to solving this problem and moving on to something a little more challenging. His captain agrees with him. His captain is bored stiff. My mother didn't raise me to compile weather reports, either. "

" Mr. Naraht, are you quite sure of that figure for the iridium? " " To six decimal places, sir! Zero point three zero four one four one two two. " " That is eight decimal places, ensign. " " Oh. I'm sorry, sir! I thought you might like some more. "

" Aha! The truth will out! That's it! You only like that boy because you knew his mother the Horta – and she liked your ears! "

" Gentlemen, I will be open with you. I am a warrior, and I find peace very dull. But honor I cherish; and I see, with the completion and release of this technique, the rise of a new Romulan Empire that will have lost the last vestiges of the glory and honor of the old one. I have sworn oaths to that Empire, to serve it loyally. To stand by and do nothing about the destruction of the ancient and noble tradition on which that Empire is based is to put the knife into oneself. I will not. "

" I was thinking of capturing the Enterprise . Would you mind? "

"Mnhei'sahe. I'm sorry, captain, but you would ask me to render one of the most difficult words in the language. It's not quite honor – and not quite loyalty – and not quite anger, or hatred, or about fifty other things. It can be a form of hatred that requires you to give your last drop of water to a thirsty enemy – or an act of love that requires you to kill a friend. The meaning changes constantly with context, and even in one given context, it's slippery at best. "

" I suppose I'd better get down there and see how Scotty's doing with 'blowing up' his engines… " " I bet he's doing most of the 'blowing up' himself. " " Mr. Chekov, amen to that. "

" What use is a word that means only one thing? "

" The translator is having problems. You have little round flying insects on Earth eating a ship named Intrepid ? And you ask me about the danger of names? "

" How's Lieutenant Sjveda's music appreciation seminar coming along? " " Classical period still, sir. Beethoven , Stravinsky , Vaughn Williams , Barber , Lennon , Devo . Head hurts."

" I beg your pardon, " the man said merrily in a British accented voice, apparently looking right at Jim, " but is this Heathrow? " " Brother, have you ever taken a wrong turn! " was Jim's first thought.

" HEUOPIK EEIRWOINVSKY SHTENIX GFAK HU MMHNINAWAH! " " What the devil was that? Sounds like you've got a problem down there, lieutenant. A malfunction that shouts. " " No, doctor. It's taken us the last half-hour to get it to do that. "

" Daisemi'in rhhaensuriuu " "    meillunsiateve " "      rh'e Mnhei'sahe yie ahr'en: " " Mnahe afw'ein qiuu; " "    rh'e hweithnaef " "      mrht Heis'he ehl'ein qiuu. "

" Never complain about our transporters again, yours are even worse! " " Physician… stuff thyself. "

Background information [ ]

• Although this is designated as the first book in the Rihannsu series, that term was not applied until the 2000 reprint.
• The Science Fiction Book Club released a special edition of the novel in hardback in December 1984 .
• Although the Romulans considered attempted suicide a crime by 2372 , Ael's enemies in the Senate hoped that if she received orders to cross the Neutral Zone, her honor would force her to kill herself.

Cover gallery [ ]

Characters [ ]

References [ ]

Excalibur , neutralized by M-5

Excalibur , Hood and Potemkin fly in formation

External links [ ]

• My Enemy, My Ally at Wikipedia
• My Enemy, My Ally at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works

• Sign up and get a free ebook!
• Don't miss our $0.99 ebook deals!

My Enemy, My Ally

Rihannsu #1.

LIST PRICE $7.99

• Amazon Kindle logo
• Apple Books logo

Table of Contents

About the book, about the author.

Diane Duane is the author of The Door Into Fire , which was nominated for the World Science Fiction Society’s John W. Campbell Award for best new science fiction/fantasy writer two years in a row. Duane has also published more than thirty novels, numerous short stories, and various comics and computer games, several of which appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. She is best known for her continuing Young Wizards series of young adult fantasy novels about the New York–based teenage wizards Nita Callahan and Kit Rodriguez. The 1983 novel So You Want to Be a Wizard and its six sequels have been published in seven other languages.

Product Details

• Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek (September 22, 2000)
• Length: 320 pages
• ISBN13: 9780743419697

Browse Related Books

• Fiction > Science Fiction > Alien Contact
• Fiction > Science Fiction > Military
• Fiction > Science Fiction > Adventure

Resources and Downloads

High resolution images.

• Book Cover Image (jpg): My Enemy, My Ally eBook 9780743419697

Get a FREE ebook by joining our mailing list today!

Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster.

More books from this author: Diane Duane

More books in this series: Star Trek: The Original Series

You may also like: Thriller and Mystery Staff Picks

More to Explore

Limited Time eBook Deals

Check out this month's discounted reads.

Our Summer Reading Recommendations

Red-hot romances, poolside fiction, and blockbuster picks, oh my! Start reading the hottest books of the summer.

This Month's New Releases

From heart-pounding thrillers to poignant memoirs and everything in between, check out what's new this month.

Tell us what you like and we'll recommend books you'll love.

• Find a Library
• Browse Collections
• My Enemy, My Ally

ebook ∣ Rihannsu #1 · Star Trek: The Original

By diane duane.

Add Book To Favorites

Is this your library?

Sign up to save your library.

With an OverDrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for at-a-glance information about availability. Find out more about OverDrive accounts.

9780671704216

Star Trek: The Original

Diane Duane

Pocket Books/Star Trek

22 September 2000

Find this title in Libby, the library reading app by OverDrive.

Search for a digital library with this title

Title found at these libraries:.

My Enemy, My Ally

Science Fiction

Subgenre(s):

Series / license:, first publication:.

Mass-market paperback, Pocket Books, July 1984: ISBN 0-671-70421-4

US editions:

Several reissues of the mass market paperback (1985, 1986, 2000)

SF Book Club hardcover, 1984: no ISBN.

Gregg Press hardcover, 1985: ISBN unknown

In trade paperback omnibus edition with The Romulan Way, Honor Blade, Swordhunt, as The Bloodwing Voyages: Pocket Books, 2006

World editions:

UK mass-market paperback, Titan Books, 1989: ISBN 1-85286-129-0

German mass-market paperback, published as DER FEIND—MEIN VERBÜNDETER, Heyne Verlag, 1988: ISBN 3-453-03125-3

Others: Spanish, more

Ebook editions

Related work.

A Wizard of Mars

Kill Station (Space Cops)

Spider-Man: The Octopus Agenda

• Buy the Book…
• Reviews Hub

the m0vie blog

Following Us

• Adding Our RSS Feed to Your Gmail
• Following our Feed in Internet Explorer
• Millennium (Reviews)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Reviews)
• Star Trek: Enterprise (Reviews)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (Reviews)
• Star Trek: The Original Series (Reviews)
• Star Trek: Voyager (Reviews)
• The X-Files (Reviews)
• X-Files Fandom Poll Form

Check out the Archives

Awards & Nominations

Star Trek – My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane (Review)

To celebrate the release of Star Trek: Into Darkness this month, we’ll be running through the first season of the classic Star Trek all this month. Check back daily to get ready to boldly go. It’s only logical.

We’ll be supplementing our coverage of the episodes with some additional materials – mainly novels and comics and films. This is one such entry.

1984 was a hell of a year of Star Trek tie-in novels. John M. Ford’s The Final Reflection was published in May 1984. It was followed by a tie-in adaptation of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , but the very next original novel would by My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane. Both novels feel like kindred spirits, really pushing the boundaries of what you could do with Star Trek tie-in novels.

In particular, both works devoted considerable time to developing some of the iconic and memorable aliens of Star Trek . Ford’s The Final Reflection extrapolated an entire Klingon culture, while Duane’s My Enemy, My Ally dared to imagine a complex Romulan Empire, so distinct and well-defined that it isn’t even known as Romulan (apparently the term outsiders use for the species), but Rihannsu .

There is an obvious point of similarity between The Final Reflection and My Enemy, My Ally , in that they are two novels published in the same year developing a recurring space-faring alien civilisation that first appeared the show’s first season. Both garnered a somewhat similar response from the executives working on Star Trek franchising. John Ford claimed that the submission guidelines were explicitly changed to stop books similar to The Final Game ever seeing the light of day , while Gene Roddenberry took particular exception to Diane Duane’s development of the Romulans .

Both books seemed to come directly before (and perhaps even prompted) the editorial backlash against this expansive approach to tie-in Star Trek fiction :

According to Ayers’ book, however, all was not well with the Trek novels — Gene Roddenberry wanted to micro-manage the book line and had his personal assistant, Richard Arnold, read every single book. And Arnold tended to balk at anything that went beyond what had been established on screen.

It’s a shame because – if anything – the Star Trek line really found its feet with books like The Final Reflection and My Enemy, My Ally . To reduce tie-ins to offering bland attempts to do live-action television knock-offs in book forms plays to the worst clichés of tie-in media, and betrays an incredibly conservative approach to the franchise.

However, for all the similarities between The Final Reflection and My Enemy, My Ally , perhaps it is the differences that are most telling. For one thing, My Enemy, My Ally actually features the Enterprise and Kirk. The Final Reflection only featured Kirk and his ship in a framing sequence, although Spock and McCoy both put in quick cameos in the main narrative. In contrast, My Enemy, My Ally is very clearly a Star Trek story, albeit it one with only a slight shift in focus.

The book is split relatively evenly between the events of the Enterprise and Romulan Commander Ael. While Ael is better developed than most guest-stars in previous novels or on the television show, Duane is careful to balance the development of the Romulan Empire with an exploration of life aboard the Enterprise. Although the novel is driven by Romulan society and politics, Duane is very clearly interested in our lead characters and in the way that the Enterprise works, bringing along several characters who recur throughout her Star Trek tie-in work.

Which brings us to the second difference between The Final Reflection and My Enemy, My Ally . John M. Ford wrote two Star Trek tie-in novels. Both were among the most experimental of the line – the Klingon-centric Final Reflection and the musical comedy of How Much For Just the Planet? – but Ford wasn’t a writer who worked with the line’s editorial fiat. In contrast, Duane has had a long and involved history with the franchise, writing for both Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation . In fact, she has a screenplay credit on Where No One Has Gone Before , one of the better episodes of The Next Generation ‘s rocky first year.

Duane has written conventional stories, world-building stories, high-concept stories. In fact, My Enemy, My Ally isn’t the first tie-in that Duane wrote, but it is the first in a series of Romulan-centred stories that would only be completed in 2006. She developed a strong enough following that – against the protests of the establishment – her Romulan stories (the Rihannsu series) were allowed to unfold within their own separate continuity. Which, given how tightly the tie-in novel range has been guarded at certain points in its history, is really something.

In fact, that’s a ringing endorsement of Duane’s work. I’ve never leant too heavily on the idea of “canon” myself, or an excessive reliance on continuity or the idea that everything has to fit together in order to have worth. Duane’s novels are good novels, even if they are often supplanted or ignored by the live-action shows. In fact, several of Duane’s novels have been rendered obsolete ( Dark Mirror comes to mind), but remain compelling and fascinating reading. The fact that mainstream fandom – a body traditionally fixated on the perceived legitimacy of “canon” – recognises the quality of Duane’s work is an indication of her skill.

Indeed, many fans consider Duane’s interpretation of the Romulan Empire to be superior to that presented on the television show. The portrayal of the aliens in the lackluster Star Trek: Nemesis prompted certain commentators to inquire why Duane’s work had been ignored . For her part, she’s always very polite in acknowledging that the continuity status of her work doesn’t define its legitimacy. Quite right, too.

It’s a fate quite similar to the version of the Klingon Empire depicted in The Final Reflection , an interpretation of the species that was effectively overridden by what appeared on screen in The Next Generation . However, The Final Reflection did bleed into Ronald Moore’s depiction of Klingon culture and you can see small points of overlap, like the way that the Klingons treat their dead in Heart of Glory .

Given Ronald Moore’s fondness for The Final Reflection , and his concession that it influenced his early writing, you can see the influence of Duane’s Rihannsu in the Romulan Empire depicted in The Next Ge neration . Rather notably, in Moore’s own The Defector , there’s a plot that seems quite similar to My Enemy, My Ally . Discovering a secret Romulan scheme that will upset the galactic balance of power, a high-level Romulan official makes contact with the Enterprise to stop a war.

Ael’s motivations seem quite similar to those driving Jarok in The Defector . “There was the matter of the many lives that would be lost, both in the Empire and outside it, should the horrible thing a-birthing at Levaeri V research station come to term.” In fact, the book even gives us an image quite like the one that opens The Defector , with a small ship crossing the Romulan Neutral Zone, chased by a larger one.

There is a broader connection here, one that could be seen as a defining line between the honour-based Romulan culture glimpse briefly in the original Star Trek and the more cynical and manipulative galactic power that emerged in The Next Generation . Indeed, the Romulan culture hinted at on the classic Star Trek gels with the portrayal of Klingons in The Next Generation , while the untrustworthy and duplicitous Klingons from Friday’s Child and Private Little War feel like progenitors for the Romulans of The Next Generation , fermenting political unrest rather than directly combatting their opponents.

Duane herself seems to allude to this yet-to-come shift when she allows Ael to condemn the act of assassination as antithetical to Romulan ways. “It was supposed to be disdained as a dishonorable act, a sign of barbarity and weakness in the person who hired the assassin: the type of ‘irresponsible’ behavior that made the Romulans despise the Klingons.” Such manipulation would not seem out of place in The Next Generation , and so My Enemy, My Ally almost foreshadows that development. In fact, Ael finds herself confronting a changing of the guard on Romulus, the emergence of a more aggressive and less scrupulous generation hungry for power and success.

“That courtesy, honor, noble behavior should be cast aside by the young, perceived as a useless hindrance to expediency, was bad enough,” we’re told. This is a younger breed of Romulan willing to forsake the “straightforward dealing that had been tradition for four thousand years of civilization” for a tactical advantage; a generation “who wanted everything right now, who wanted the easy, swift victories.” As we’re told, “They wanted safety, security, a world without threats, a universe in which they could swoop down on defenseless ships or planets and take what they wanted.”

This seems more in keeping with the portrayal of the Romulans in The Defector or Redemption or U nification than with anything that appeared in the classic Star Trek . Of course, Duane couldn’t have known this when she wrote My Enemy, My Ally . In fact, the treacherous Romulan Ambassador of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was still seven years away. However, reading the book now, after two decades of the Romulans from The Next Generation , it almost seems to foreshadow the end of the era of honour that Ael harks towards.

Duane even hints at a plausible enough explanation for this cultural shift. The defining technological attribute of the Romulan Star Empire was the advent of cloaking technology, used in Balance of Terror to simulate a submarine warfare movie. The idea had been so uniquely Romulan that the Klingons first used a cloaking device in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , released the same year as My Enemy, My Ally . Although the cloak was an important piece of Star Trek lore (so important that Kirk stole one in The Enterprise Incident ), it was also a distinctly Romulan piece of Star Trek lore.

Technological advancements have a massive influence on the way that we think, and the way that culture develops. It’s no coincidence that an early sequence set on board the Enterprise features the advent of “4D Chess” , a game using technology that seems remarkably similar to cloaking:

Harb had programmed the table’s games computer so that a player could vanish desired pieces from the cubic, for a period of his own determination, and have them reappear later—if desired, in any other spot made possible by a legal move. Pieces “timed out” in this fashion could appear behind the other player’s lines and wreak havoc there.

Naturally, this changes the very way that chess is played. This is an interesting thematic overlap with The Final Reflection . In The Final Reflection , Ford used games as an interesting way to explore the psychology of an alien species. Klingons learned to appreciate and understand their enemies by playing their games.

So affording Kirk and his crew the opportunity to play a game based around concepts unique to the Romulan Empire, Duane is able to grant us a nice and subtle insight into just how radically the cloak might change Romulan cultural values:

But this innovation had not merely expanded the usual course of play. It had also completely changed the paradigm in which chess was usually played. Suddenly the game was no longer about anticipating the opponent’s moves and thwarting them —or not merely about that. It was now also a matter of anticipating a whole strategy from the very start: a matter of estimating with great accuracy where an opponent would be in fifteen or twenty moves, and getting one’s pieces there to ambush him—while also fooling the opponent as to where one’s own weak and strong areas would be at that time.

The cloak is a technology built around deception and misdirection. A technological advance like that would obviously undermine a culture based around honour “straightforward dealing.” It’s telling that the Klingon-centric stories that rely on cloaking devices ( The Search for Spock , The Undiscovered Country , The Rules of Engagement and even Star Trek: Generations ) are all built around undermining the ideal of Klingon honour.

They will take advantage of the disorganization and mistrust of such times, use them to expand, to enlarge the Empire at the cost of both sets of enemies. And when one of the great powers has reduced the second to slavery or powerlessness, then the new voices in the Senate will cry out for war. “Hit the winner now, while he is weak,” they’ll say. More war, more death. Perhaps even victory —but, O, dishonorable, vile—

Of course, My Enemy, My Ally does more than inadvertently foreshadow the future characterisation of the Romulan Empire. It also builds on their portrayal in the classic Star Trek series. As Duane herself has noted, the depiction of Romulan culture here draws from the original Roman influence on the aliens in episodes like B alance of Terror :

“I’ve been following what I believe to be Dorothy Fontana’s lead, mostly, and thinking of [the Rihannsu] (to a certain extent) as Romans,” she said, “but Romans caught in that difficult post-Republican period, when memories of a smaller, simpler Republic keep jostling up against the needs of a growing Empire.”

However, since the story of Romulus and Remus is a human story, Duane has a flash of genius and reveals that the Romulans don’t actually call themselves Romulans, and didn’t name their twin planets (either intentionally or accidentally) for a human myth. It does seem just a tad unlikely that there would be twin planets of a Roman-like civilisation named Romulus and Remus, and Duane smartly acknowledges that “Romulan” is simply a human word. The real term, the word giving its title to the series of novels written by Duane about their culture, is Rihannsu.

So the Romulans are established and defined as an ancient and honourable people. Ael asks McCoy, “What honor is there in taking one’s enemies by stealth, giving them no chance to fight back, and then binding and torturing and slaughtering them like animals?” We discover that Romulan ships have no aft weapons. The rear of the ship is the point “where an unmodified Warbird could not fire.” Indeed, the novel even makes some observations that fit better with the Klingons of The Next Generation era. We’re told that “a Rihannsu without a house was no one and nothing.”

Much like The Final Reflection , My Enemy , My Ally embraces cultural relativism. It acknowledges that a culture can grow up with different values than the Federation while still existing as a legitimate and functional society. John M. Ford even hinted in The Final Reflection that the Federation was neither as advanced nor as morally superior as they might like to claim. Duane’s take on the Federation is not nearly as subversive. She accepts the observation that the Federation is an ideal society, but she explores how the Federation can afford to be so content.

After all, the Federation doesn’t have an economy. It exists in a post-scarcity future. Sure, the ships need to trade dilithium, but replicators have eliminated hunger and money doesn’t seem to exist within the organisation. It’s idealistic, but it is held together by the fact that nobody wants for anything, so there are less likely to be conflicts of interest. Everybody can get along and be friendly to one another because everybody gets to what they want anyway.

Duane cleverly suggests that Federation’s material wealth not only allows for its utopian ideals, but also that it fosters resentment in less economically successful galactic powers. Of the Vulcans, Ael reflects that, “like all Federation peoples, they were hopelessly spoiled—rich, soft, and unable to take care of themselves.” She even reflects on human attitudes to Romulans, and understands that some of their perceptions are based on an inability to relate to a struggling galactic power. “No wonder they understand us so little, who are so poor. Perhaps they don’t even understand the anger that the hungry feel when the full go by, unthinking…”

Indeed, Duane offers up her own slightly subversive twist on the Star Trek mythology, by vaguely hinting that the Romulans might not have been the aggressors in the famous Earth-Romulan Wars, and that the victory of humanity in that conflict was responsible for shaping the Romulan psychological character, pulling a clever twist on the classic “create your own villain” cliché:

For thousands of years the Rihannsu had not dreamed of any other life in the universe; even Vulcan had become almost a legend. But then came the days of starflight, the rediscovery of other species, and the First War that resulted in the setting up of the Zone. What had been mere ignorance and isolation turned rather suddenly into a politically-based xenophobia, the idea that anything not Rihannsu would most likely either shoot at you or steal from you.

Damn Federation. Always screwing things up. It’s a clever little twist, and one that makes the Romulans relatively easy to understand, by allowing us to see the Federation throw their eyes, and understanding that the Federation impacts their culture just as much as they meddle in Federation affairs.

While John M. Ford tended to craft the Klingon Empire in The Final Reflection from next-to-nothing, it’s remarkable how clearly and effectively My Enemy, My Ally builds on the little traces of continuity established in  Star Trek . For example, Duane actually justifies the abundance of anonymous Romulan commanding officers featured in the classic Star Trek , turning a plot point into a racial characteristic. Explaining why the officers in The Balance of Terror and The Enterprise Incident were reluctant to share their names, Duane invents the notion that Romulans believe that names have power and – as such – are reluctant to share them with outsiders.

Duane also does an excellent job connecting the Romulans with the Vulcans, something that Star Trek did relatively little of outside The Balance of Terror . Sure, the shared racial histories became a plot point in episodes like Reunification and Kir’Shara , but the franchise never really developed the connection between the two. Here, Duane scores a number of fascinating thematic points. Indeed, she effectively establishes the contrast between early Vulcan and Romulan encounters with humanity. Humanity defined both species, but in very different ways.

Throughout the book, Duane hints that the Romulans and the Vulcans are not as different as they might like to think. Observations about Romulan codes of honour are juxtaposed against discussions of “the ferocious, unconditional Vulcan loyalty.” We discover that the Vulcans share the Romulan fascination with the power of names, even naming the Intrepid after a ship destroyed in The Immunity Syndrome . “There was no tampering with names.”

And still, despite the fixation on developing Romulan characters and Romulan culture, My Enemy, My Ally is still very much a Star Trek story – albeit it one with a somewhat broader perspective. Part of Duane’s initial idea for the project was to offer a bit of a subversion of a common Star Trek trope, and it’s telling that her development of the Romulan Empire is just one half of the inspiration for the project, balanced with an attempt to offer a strong female foil for Kirk.

According to Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion :

My Enemy, My Ally was one of those story ideas that sort of creeps up on you while you’re not looking. As far as I can do, it did this in two pieces. First, the nature of the relationship between the Romulans and the Vulcans had been on my mind for some time as something that needed some investigation: the hints and suggestions dropped during the course of the original-series episode The Enterprise Incident was tantalizing. But, along an entirely different line, I was becoming aware of a long-delayed reaction to the frequent portrayal of Kirk as the relentless ladies’ man who went cutting a swath—without much resistance—through the feminine contingent of Star Trek characters. Somewhere along the line I’d started thinking, ‘I wish somebody would drop a woman into this man’s path that would give him a run for his money.

Duane has done an excellent job throughout her  Star Trek work of creating a sense of logical progression. For example, Dark Mirror is about the fall-out of Mirror, Mirror , before  Crossover revisited the same idea. Here, we discover a Horta crewmember on board the Enterprise, creating the impression that Starfleet itself is changing and evolving – that The Devil in the Dark was just the first step in relations with the Horta.

There’s even a cheeky acknowledgement of the increasingly popular phenomenon of “slash” fiction, pairing two fictional characters up as a romantic couple. The trend actually started with Kirk and Spock , as Duane alludes to her. When Kirk comments he might as well hold hands with Spock and McCoy, McCoy confesses that he would be fine with that. He advises Kirk, “But watch it with Spock. People start the damndest rumors about this ship’s crew, even without provocation…” I bet they do.

Duane also cleverly uses her novels to create aliens that could never have been created on television at the time, taking advantage of the medium to tell a story that would require a massive special effects budget. Televised Star Trek has been somewhat restricted in what it could show on screen, and this creates the impression of a universe that is (broadly speaking) relatively homogenous. Humanoid bipeds who breathe oxygen are about as far as the budget would stretch. Unconfined by a budget, Duane can go wild. And it’s a massive shame that editorial occasionally felt it had to hem in that ambition and creativity.

At the same time, Duane seems to concede that revisiting old Star Trek plot devices and stereotypes is a relatively unfulfilling ambition for a writer. Creators like Gene Roddenberry and Richard Arnold seemed to believe that the books existed to offer substitute television stories, to tell the kind of tales that would appear on a Star Trek show. I’m not a fan of this approach, finding it too narrow-minded and restrictive. And I suspect that Duane feels the same way.

The book features the Enterprise on a generic exploration mission, and Duane has a great deal of fun pointing out that this is business as usual. Kirk notes in his log, sarcastically, “Mr. Spock is ‘fascinated’ (so what else is new?)” He then offers an affectionate jab at Checkov:

Nothing to report but still more hydrogen ion-flux measurements in the phi Trianguli corridor. Entirely too many ion-flux measurements, according to Mr. Chekov, who has declared to the Bridge at large that his mother didn’t raise him to compile weather reports. (Must remember to ask him why not, since meteorology has to have been invented in Russia, like everything else.)

This is all old-hat. It’s an excuse for old in-jokes so familiar that we don’t even need to see the characters deliver them. Kirk himself is so familiar these exchanges and clichés that he can even point them out to the audience. It is a little stagnant, and Duane seems to be acknowledging that confining the tie-in novels to collections trite fanboy-pleasing tropes is self-defeating.

Star Trek is not about Mr. Spock saying “fascinating” or Checkov boasting about Russia. It’s about exploration, and strange new worlds. Tie-in novels represent a unique opportunity to explore those worlds – as seen here and in The Final Reflection . Duane really is among the most consistent of the Star Trek novelists because she has a wonderful range. She can balance the familiar characters and bold new ideas, and is smart enough to realise that the former can’t sustain a novel on their own.

My Enemy, My Ally is a fascinating exploration of one of the most iconic Star Trek aliens, and it’s a great read. It doesn’t matter that a lot of Duane’s notions about the Romulans have been overwritten or ignored, the book is a strong enough read on its own terms to justify a look. It’s well thought-out and remarkably clever, offering a unique glimpse at the politics of the Star Trek universe, the kind of thing that the live action show could never have gotten away with at the time.

You might be interested in our other reviews from the first season of the classic Star Tre k :

• Supplemental: Vulcan’s Glory by D.C. Fontana
• Supplemental: Early Voyages #1 – Flesh of my Flesh
• Supplemental: Crew by John Byrne
• Where No Man Has Gone Before
• The Corbomite Manoeuvre
• Mudd’s Women
• The Enemy Within
• The Man Trap
• The Naked Time
• Supplemental: My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane
• Supplemental: Romulans: Pawns of War by John Byrne
• Supplemental: Errand of Vengeance: The Edge of the Sword by Kevin Ryan
• Dagger of the Mind
• The Conscience of a King
• The Galileo Seven
• Court Martial
• Supplemental: Early Voyages #12-15 – Futures
• Supplemental: Burning Dreams by Margaret Wander Bonanno
• Shore Leave
• The Squire of Gothos
• Supplemental: Requiem by Michael Jan Friedman & Kevin Ryan
• Supplemental: The Fantastic Four #108 – The Monstrous Mystery of the Nega-Man
• Tomorrow is Yesterday
• The Return of the Archon
• A Taste of Armageddon
• Supplemental: The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volumes I & II by Greg Cox
• This Side of Paradise
• The Devil in the Dark
• Supplemental: Spock Must Die! by James Blish
• Supplemental: The Final Reflection by John M. Ford
• Supplemental: The City on the Edge of Forever by Harlan Ellison/Cordwainer Bird
• Supplemental: Crucible: McCoy – Provenance of Shadows by David R. George III
• Supplemental: Star Trek (Gold Key) #56 – No Time Like the Past
• Operation — Annihilate!

Share this:

Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: Diane Duane , Final Reflection , gene roddenberry , John M. Ford , Klingon , Rihannsu , Romulan , spock , star trek , Star Trek Next Generation , star trek: the next generation , StarTrek , vulcan |

16 Responses

“Indeed, the Romulan culture hinted at on the classic Star Trek gels with the portrayal of Klingons in The Next Generation, while the untrustworthy and duplicitous Klingons from Friday’s Child and Private Little War feel like progenitors for the Romulans of The Next Generation, fermenting political unrest rather than directly combatting their opponents.”

Yes, except (and the risk of getting nitpicky) that it’s a different kind of honor. The Romulans in Balance of Terror had the stereotypical soldier’s honor, in the sense of duty to home and country and all that. Whereas the Klingons often came off as having “honor” in the Three Musketeers, you-bumped-into-me, I-must-now-challenge-you-to-a-duel-or-be-thought-a-pussy kind of way. The Romulan soldiers also aren’t particularly eager for bloodshed (though it’s implied that their leaders are) and they’re not concerned with glory either (the one person who is gets chewed out and reduced in rank for endangering the ship and the mission) – again, two significant differences from the TNG Klingon warriors who often came off like macho, posturing street gangs rather than professionals doing their job.

I appreciate the review, because I always thought the Romulans were at their best in the two TOS episodes and became much more bland over the course of TNG and DS9 (the less said about Nemesis, the better). I’d never heard of the Rihannsu novels before, and will definitely look for them now, because I think I’d probably be one of these people who prefer them to the direction the Romulans took on television.

I recommend it. Along with The Final Reflection, which will also be getting a tie-in treatment, it’s one of the few Star Trek books I would unreservedly recommend. There are other great ones, but these two are really the gold standard for demonstrating what tie-in fiction is capable of doing. I wanted to explore some of the tangential Star Trek material, along with the episodes of the television show, so I could point curious people towards or away from certain tie-ins worthy of attention along particular themes.

And fair point on the distinction between Romulan honour and that of the later Klingons, although I always got the sense that Mark Lenard’s Romulan Commander was the exception who proved the rule. The officer he demoted was clearly spoiling for a fight, and a chance to “honour” himself against the Federation, so I kind of figured that both the leaders and the youth too young to remember the horrors of war were anxiously waiting for an excuse to start a war. Obvious one feeds into the other, and it’s an extension of the soldier’s honour you mentioned.

But you’re right, there is a very clear difference between the “do our race proud” honour of the early Romulans and the loud “remember my name in glory” honour of the later Klingons.

That said, I am actually one of the few people who likes the Romulans from The Next Generation. I never saw how Klingon culture could sustain itself in the mid- to long-term – which, to be fair, Ronald D. Moore did explore on Deep Space Nine as the political instability of the Klingon Empire made it seem like the most dangerous power block in the Alpha Quadrant. In contrast, the Romulan politics of episodes like The Enemy and The Defector (and even The Mind’s Eye and maybe Unification) seemed a little more plausible as the conduct of a viable political power block standing in opposition to the Federation.

Pretty much like a prototype for what Deep Space Nine did much better with the Cardassians. Which meant that, when it came to Deep Space Nine, the Romulans became largely redundant. You can see that in the show’s third season, where it seems like they want to use the Romulans, but can’t figure out how. They worked a lot better in the sixth and seventh season when the Federation basically rode roughshot over them, demonstrating that perhaps Starfleet’s foreign policy is just as manipulative and imperialist as its political opponents.

In the Pale Moonlight and Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges worked perfectly as mirrors of Ronald D. Moore’s early Romulan episodes, except this time it was the Federation which was the duplicitous and manipulative force. Of course, it’s been a while since my last rewatch, so I’ll be curious to see whether that still holds up.

Just discovered this website and am loving your thoughtful Trek reviews. I’m glad to see that SOMEBODY else enjoyed the Romulans in TNG and even DS9. For years, they were the only effective foil for stories about political manipulation and Cold War-style thrillers. I thought “Face of the Enemy” actually worked well in setting up tension between the Roman military and the Tal Shiar.

I think you’re right in that the Cardassians ended up making Romulans redundant, but still wish DS9 had found a way to use them more effectively. The key thing that struck me about the Romulans is that – on an individual level – they always seemed the most reasonable of the major powers. There are numerous scenes in which individual Romulans express preferences or sentiments not alien to those of the Federation. In TNG’s “The Chase,” it’s the Roman commander who seems to most appreciate the scientific discovery.

Yet, unlike Cardassians, who are expansionist, Romulans have always been isolationist. In fact, they’re really the only major isolationist race in the series. Even after all this time, there’s still been such little cultural contact between the Federation and Romulans. It’s portrayed as a big deal in DS9’s Season 7 in “Inter Arma…” when a Federation delegation goes to Romulus. The main characters seem to know far more about Cardassian and Klingon cultural quirks than Romulan. I wish the show had found a way to tell stories about cultural contamination or interaction. Maybe exploring how even people with similar attitudes towards science and family can be separated by a cultural gap.

Thanks Arnold! Hope you continue to enjoy! 🙂

I wanted to tell you this is a great site. The reviews are always interesting. There a few things I wanted to discuss about the Romulans. It is interesting that you bring the concept of honor to state as the Romulan code of honor. In your review you mention how both the show and Diane Duane use the comparison of the Roman Empire and the Romulans. Honor in Ancient Rome was defined by the duty the empire just as the Romulans in the series. Duane develops this further than either series ever went. She still keeps the historical similarities while keeping them original by going farther than this.

Your review did not mention the poem about the Romans this is reprinted on the page in the middle of the novel. This is Duane’s most most direct analogy to the historical Romans in the whole book. You should consider adding that part since it reinforces much of what you said. A very nice review of a very good novel.

Thanks Zeno.

I try to balance my sampling from the work. Don’t want to take too much – after all, it’s well worth buying. But you’re right, the poem is insightful, and an indication of just how well Duane crafted her version of the Romulans.

There are only two minor weaknesses to the novel which is otherwise well written. The battles scenes in the last part of the book go on longer than they needed to and the final last minute escape on the Vulcan ship was a bit too much. Between the battles on the station and the other battle going during the enterprise it was a bit overkill. Second and this is a personal thing here but Mccoy being able to beat Spock’s chess game so easily was a bit out of character. I cant even remember Spock insulting Mccoy either.

I don’t know. I didn’t mind the chess game. After all, Kirk beat Spock in Where No Man Has Gone Before, but that was before McCoy was created to channel Kirk’s irrational and human side. In the second pilot, the dynamic was logic-against-emotion with Kirk and Spock representing the two extremes.

I’d argue that McCoy’s victory makes sense here when you keep in mind that he replaced Kirk in the logic/emotion divide, with Kirk acting as an arbitrator between the two halves. McCoy wins here by the same narrative logic which allowed Kirk to win in Where No Man Has Gone Before. It’s just that their roles in the story have changed.

Well,it was not so much the fact that McCoy could defeat him but that it was so such a easy victory. Also I can’t remember Spock getting any insults in on Dr McCoy even though McCoy says something in one scene.

It’s a fair point, I suppose. But I always figured that Spock would be either easy or impossible to beat – the moment he figures out what you’re doing, the match would be over. Whereas, if he can’t, it’s plain sailing.

Actually the reason I wanted to post here was to ask you about the Roumlan Way,which is the sequel this book. It is very good and was written with Diane’s husband. Though the difference the between the two books did not occur to me earlier.the Roman metaphor is hardly used it all in that book. Still,it gives a excellent history of the Romulans that would have been better that was developed. I haven’t read the later Romulan novels Diane Duane did. Have you?

Not yet. I’ve got The Romulan Way on my reading list for December, as a companion piece to The Enemy or maybe The Defector.

The Defector is a really underrated episode. While I would not put it as the best Next Generation episode,which Matt Mckinley did in his Youtube it is still a great episode. It does however contradict My Enemy My Alley. Picard says the concept of a Romulan defector is unprecedented which goes against this novel and the rest of the Duane’s Romulan series.

Ah yes, but I was never too concerned with canon and non-canon. I’m a big fan of the whole “your own personal canon” dealio. But I think there is a heavy influence, just as you can see the influence of Ford on some of Moore’s Klingon work.

Actually one review said her last book tries to link her Romulan’s to the The Next Generation. How is that is possible given what we see in the Defector is seems hard to do. By the way,are you rereading Romulan Way or is this your first time?

I must admit, it will be my first time.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Recent Posts

• 373. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (#225)
• 371. Poor Things (#246)
• 370. Dune: Part Two (#12)
• 369. Memento (#57)
• 368. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (#154)

Recently tweeted…

• "I Simply Am Not There": The Existential Horror of Eighties Excess in "American Psycho"...
• Star Trek: The Original Series (Reviews)
• Adding Our RSS Feed to Your Gmail
• Star Trek: Enterprise (Reviews)

Available at…

Blogs Well Worth Your Time

• 1001 Must See Films
• Andrew at the Movies
• Anomalous Material
• Cut the Crap Movie Reviews
• Encore Entertainment
• Fandango Groovers
• FlixChatter
• Four of Them
• It Rains… You get Wet…
• Jameson Cult Film Blog
• Jar Watches Films
• Let's Go To The Movies
• M. Carter at the Movies
• Marshall and the Movies
• Movie News First
• Musings from a Man Lost in La Mancha
• Never Mind Pop Film
• Paragraph Film Reviews
• Roger Ebert's Journal
• Ross v. Ross
• Scannain.com
• Screenwriter (Donald Clarke, Irish Times)
• Strange Culture
• The Film Cynics
• The Pompous Film Snob
• The Projection Booth
• Things That Don't Suck
• Too Busy Thinking About My Comics
• Undy a Hundy

Film Nerd Resources

• CinemaBlend (News)
• Internet Movie Database
• Rope of Silicon
• The Guardian Film Blog
• James Berardinelli
• Roger Ebert

Email Subscription

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

Sign me up!

Blog at WordPress.com. WP Designer.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

• My Enemy, My Ally

Rihannsu, Book 1.

Ael t'Rllaillieu is a noble – and dangerous – Romulan commander. But when the Romulans kidnap Vulcans, intending to harness their mind power through genetic experimentation, Ael decides on treason. Captain Kirk, her old enemy, joins her in a secret pact to destroy the research labaratory and free the captive Vulcans. When the Romulans discover their plan, the Neutral Zone seethes with schemes and counter-schemes, sabotage, and war!

• Diane Duane

USA, born 1952.

• Star Trek: The Original Series (numbered novels)

Star Trek: The Original Series (numbered novels) consists of ninety-seven books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

Main series Star Trek: The Original Series

• Risingshadow

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.

• Author / People
• log in sign up

An electrifying thriller from bestselling author Diane Duane set in the Star Trek: The Original Series universe. Ael t' Rlailiiu is a noble and dangerous Romulan Commander. But when the Romulans kidnap Vulcans to genetically harness their mind power, Ael decides on treason. Captain Kirk, her old enemy, joins her in a secret pact to destroy the research laboratory and free the captive Vulcans. When the Romulans discover their plan, the Neutral Zone seethes with schemes and counter-schemes, sabot...

Similar Artists

Refresh required.

We have released a new version of the hoopla web site. You'll need to refresh this page now to continue.

My Enemy, My Ally

• Reviews / News
• Pocket Books Trek Novels
• 2024 Releases

Thursday, June 23, 2011

My enemy, my ally.

• Star Trek #13: The Wounded Sky  (1983)
• Star Trek #35: Rihannsu #2: The Romulan Way  with Peter Morwood (1987)
• Star Trek: Spock's World  (1988)
• Star Trek #50: Doctor's Orders  (1990)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: Dark Mirror  (1993)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation #45: Intellivore  (1997)
• Star Trek #95: Rihannsu #3: Swordhunt  (2000)
• Star Trek #96: Rihannsu #4: Honor Blade  (2000)
• Star Trek: Rihannsu #5: The Empty Chair  (2006)

5 comments:

Great plot. Is the Romulan commander the one we saw in "The Enterprise Incident"?

Yeah, the plot certainly was very good. And no, Ael is not the commander from "The Enterprise Incident," but they are related, which does figure into the plot somewhat!

I want to read this book, mostly because of the Horta crew member :) I never would have pictured the Horta joining Starfleet, so I'm really interested to see how that works in the novel!

Yeah, Nahraht is an interesting character, and he shows up in many of the novels, particularly those by Diane Duane. He even shows up in a few of the comic books by DC!

One of my favourite novels, and when I finally figured out that Jim means enterprise in Rihannsu, it was all the more fun:-)

• Science Fiction & Fantasy
• Science Fiction

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

My Enemy, My Ally (Star Trek: The Original Series, No. 18) Paperback – August 1, 2000

• Print length 320 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Star Trek
• Publication date August 1, 2000
• Dimensions 4.25 x 0.75 x 6.75 inches
• ISBN-10 074340369X
• ISBN-13 978-0743403696
• See all details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved..

Copyright © 1984 by Paramount Pictures.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Star Trek (August 1, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 074340369X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743403696
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.75 x 6.75 inches
• #12,915 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)
• #61,628 in Science Fiction Adventures

About the author

Diane duane.

Diane Duane was born in New York City -- a descendant of New York's first mayor -- and worked there as a psychiatric nurse before leaving the profession for the only one she loved better, the business of writing. Since the publication of her first novel in 1981, she's written fifty more, not to mention numerous short stories, comics, computer games and screenplays for TV and film, and has picked up the occasional award here and there. (She's also worked with Star Trek in more media than anyone else alive.)

Right now DD is probably best known for her "Young Wizards" series of young adult fantasy novels, featuring the New York-based teen wizards Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan. The series now enters its third decade with Nita's and Kit's newest adventure, GAMES WIZARDS PLAY, the tenth Young Wizards novel (published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in February 2016). Also new from DD in the Young Wizards universe are the interstitial collections INTERIM ERRANTRY (containing the 110,000-word YW novel LIFEBOATS), available at Amazon and from the author's ebook store EbooksDirect.co, and INTERIM ERRANTRY 2: ON ORDEAL (at this time available only at Ebooks Direct).

DD shares a two hundred-year-old cottage in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland with her husband, the Belfast-born novelist and screenwriter Peter Morwood, and various overworked computers... an odd but congenial environment for the staging of epic battles between good and evil and the leisurely pursuit of total galactic domination. (And a lot of ethnic cooking: her own favorite foods come from the cuisines of central Europe and the Mediterranean.) In her spare time DD gardens (weeding, mostly), studies German and Italian, chats with friends and fans on her Tumblr at dduane.tumblr.com, listens to shortwave and satellite radio, and dabbles in astronomy, computer graphics, iaido and amateur cartography... while also trying to figure out how to make more spare time.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Fact-Checking Spock: Was the “Enemy of My Enemy” Guy Really Killed by His “Friend”?

Is Mr. Spock spreading misinformation?

© Paramount Pictures 2013

Toward the end of the latest Star Trek film, Captain James T. Kirk makes yet another in a string of bold decisions: He decides he will join forces with one of his enemies to fight another even more dangerous enemy, rationalizing his decision with the axiom that “the enemy of my enemy is friend.” Spock, as ever, is more skeptical, and warns Kirk that this saying was an Arab proverb coined by a prince who was soon decapitated by his “friend.” It’s one of the movie’s better laugh lines—but is it right? Or has Spock’s Vulcan memory somehow failed him? This statement must have been made by his human half. The decades-spanning, cross-cultural history of the proverb is a little murky, but, unless our understanding of history changes between now and the year 2259, Spock’s story appears to have no basis in historical fact: The adage doesn’t appear to have originated with an Arab, nor a prince, nor a man who lost his head. It’s true that the phrase is commonly described as an Arab proverb. Longtime New York Times language columnist William Safire learned this when he asked around about the phrase in 1990, in the buildup to the first Iraq War: “ Everybody I ask about this says, ‘It’s an old Arab proverb ,’ ” he wrote. And a similar expression does exist in Arabic: Safire cited the New York Times ’ correspondent in the Middle East, Tom Friedman— later to become a columnist for the paper —who told him of a similar saying he had heard in that part of the world: “ Me and my brother against my cousin; me, my brother and my cousin against the outsider .” But when I asked various experts who study the origins of words and phrases, none could support Spock’s assertion. Instead, they referred to the history provided by the Yale Book of Quotations , which suggests that the phrase is the summary of advice given not by an Arab but by Kautilya, the “Indian Machiavelli.” In the Arthashastra , a foundational text of military strategy written in Sanskrit around the 4 th century B.C., Kautilya puts it this way: “ A king whose territory has a common boundary with that of an antagonist is an ally .” (Or, as his theory is commonly summarized: “ Every neighboring state is an enemy and the enemy’s enemy is a friend .”) After his death—whose circumstances are a little mysterious but don’t seem to involve beheading—Kautilya’s counsels remained influential around much of the world for centuries. In the West, the proverb eventually found a more recognizable form in Latin. Amicus meus, inimicus inimici mei (“my friend, the enemy of my enemy”) was a common saying by the early 18 th century, when it appeared in books otherwise written in Italian (by 1711) , written in German (by 1721) , and translated into Spanish (by 1723) . From there, the axiom may have entered English through French. As Garson O’Toole, the self-styled Quote Investigator , pointed out to me, the expression “ every enemy’s enemy is a friend ” was described as a “popular” line of reasoning in an 1825 English translation of a French book, History of the Conquest of England by the Normans . The adage took on the more familiar English phrasing, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” by the late 19 th century. The first recorded instance for this phrasing comes from Gabriel Manigault, who in his 1884 Political Creed described the sense that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” as a “ natural feeling .”

Natural or not, the phrase didn’t appear in the New York Times until 1954—where it was described, not for the last time, as an “ ancient Arab saying ”—and only became a common household saying during the many decades of the Cold War . Thanks also to Barry Popik, Ben Zimmer of the  Visual Thesaurus  and  Vocabulary.com , and Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations .

Mission: Friend of My Enemy

• VisualEditor
• View history

• [ Graviton Deflector Array Mk VIII [Em] ]
• [ Positron Deflector Array Mk VIII [Ins] ]
• [ Tachyon Deflector Array Mk VIII [ShdS] ]
• [ Neutrino Deflector Array Mk VIII [SIF] ]
• [ Field Stabilizing Warp Core Mk VIII [Coi] ]
• 1 Mission Text
• 3 Objectives
• 4 Accolades
• 5 Walkthrough
• 6 Mission Replay

Mission Text [ | ]

<rank> , a few Romulan colony worlds are open to cordial relations with the Federation, and Starfleet is encouraging these relationships.

If we cannot win the friendship of all the Romulans at once, perhaps we can do so one community at a time. After all, Surak said in the Kir'Shara that one must wage peace with the same amount of effort that one would use to wage war.

The outpost at Chiron II has extra medical supplies that it is willing to donate to the Romulan colonists. You are to pick up those supplies and deliver them to the colony in the Rashana System .

Be wary, <rank> . Not everyone welcomes our offers of friendship.

Objectives [ | ]

• Go To Chiron System
• Approach Planet
• Beam Down to Base
• Go To Chiron II Outpost
• Speak with Ekanath Malik
• Return to Ship
• Go To Rashana Solar System
• Defend the Civilian Ships
• Defeat the Reman patrol
• Beam to Planet
• Go To Rashana Planet Surface
• Speak to Outpost Doctor
• Collect Samples (0/3)
• Enter Lab Complex
• Go To Romulan Lab
• Refine Samples
• Run Biospectral Analysis
• Formulate a Treatment
• Exit the Lab
• Heal Civilians (0/9)
• Beam to Ship
• Defeat the Reman Ambush
• Depart System
• Report to Starfleet

Accolades [ ]

Walkthrough, mission replay [ | ].

This mission is repeatable through Mission Replay , although the Rewards for completing may be reduced. Items scale to a player appropriate level ( Scaling Rewards ).

• [ Graviton Deflector Array Mk <> [Em] ]
• [ Positron Deflector Array Mk <> [Ins] ]
• [ Tachyon Deflector Array Mk <> [ShdS] ]
• [ Neutrino Deflector Array Mk <> [SIF] ]
• [ Field Stabilizing Warp Core Mk <> [Coi] ]
• [ Current Lock Box ]

Notes [ | ]

• This mission has a slight bug, do not attempt to access the terminal directly ahead of you when you come to the cross section of the Lab until after you have accessed the ones to the left and right. Otherwise you will not be able to complete the mission.
• The Chiron System is located in the Sierra Sector of the Alpha Centauri Sector Block .
• Players should ensure they visit the Chiron System before the Rashana system, or they will have to repeat the ground portion of this mission.
• This mission has a slight bug regarding the final encounter with a Reman Ship. If the Reman ship's hull is below fifty percent and you drift outside of ten Kilometers, it may warp out of the system leaving you unable to complete the mission.
• 1 Playable starship
• 3 Infinity Prize Pack - T6 Ship