let that be your last battlefield (13. 074)

Courtesy of our faithful chronicler, we are reminded that the Star Trek: TOS (S3:E15), first broadcast on this day in 1969, portrays the Enterprise crew entangled in an intractable alien racial war when they the encounter a fugitive and a belligerent, irreconcilable pursuer. During an atmospheric decontamination mission to planet Ariannus, their work is interrupted as the ship leaves orbit to intercept a shuttlecraft stolen from nearby Star Base IV. In pursuit, they realise that life support systems are failing and tractor beam it into the shuttle bay. Recovering in sickbay, the thief identifies himself as Lokai of Cheron, and whilst grateful for the rescue becomes elusive and combative when questioned about his motives. En route back to the planet, sensors detect that the Enterprise is being pursued by a cloaked vessel—whose pilot appears on the bridge just before the apparent moment of impact. The new arrival, with similar colouration as Lokai, announces he is Commissioner Bele there to arrest the other alien, whom he has been chasing for fifty thousand Earth years for instigating a revolt against the enslaved population of Cheron and changing the ruling order. Lokai seeks political asylum with the Federation of Planets but Bele, mentally commandeers the Enterprise and rebuffs all efforts to stop him. To wrest back control, Kirk and Spock initiate the self-destruct sequence (the first time it’s used on the franchise), with Bele surrendering with only seconds to spare. Displeased with the idea of outside arbitration and appalled that his bounty might be treated equally to him, Bele attempts to assert his superiority by pointing out how he is black of his right side while Lokai and his people are white. After the mission is completed on Ariannus, the Enterprise heads back to the star base with the two captives but Bela again telekinetically seizes the helm, disabling self-destruct, and heads towards Cheron, Lokai afraid of the consequences of rendition, begins to fight his enslaver, their minds clashing and nearly destroying the Enterprise in the process. As they approach Cheron, sensors reveal, to the shock and dismay of Lokai and Bele that there are no life signs on their planet and their civilisation through aeons of internecine warfare has been annihilated since their chase began. Unable to persuade them otherwise, despite being the endlings of their kind with no structure to prosecute or reward their mutual enmity, Kirk decides to leave them both on their dead planet. Non-canonical sources state that Lokai and Bele have set up bases on opposite ends of their desolate homwworld and continue to fight one another—Star Fleet and the Romulans, the planet located just on the Federation side of the neutral zone, were generally avoided even before the civil war as the species were characterised by unnaturally long life-spans and unpredictable powers, all consumed by hatred.