Volume eight: New aliens, old adversaries, and planetary disasters confront Enterprise. The loyalty of the Bridge crew to Kirk is tested when Sulu and Chekov, labeled traitors, are helped by Dr. McCoy and Scotty, along with Kirk, Spock, and Klingon commander Kang, to bring the real traitors to justice. Kirk faces a Dohlman and with Uhura's help everts a war and establishes the true Dohlman on the throne. Kirk is sorely tested by the joy machine created by a planet seeking unbounded joy if one gives control to the machine. Enterprise and crew, thrown back in time during military maneuvers, discover their home planet never evolved humans. A landing team must stop a group of Ru determined to destroy the asteroid that changed the evolutionary line of earth. New comrades come from the future seeking help against the suffocating control of the Consilium. Enterprise meets new aliens: the Tauteans who nearly destroy themselves in the search for unlimited energy; the Rimillians facing a civil uprising as one group attempts to re-start their planet's spin; Furies, a dedicated group of new aliens, who threaten the Klingon Empire; and the yagghorth, a radiation-sensitive alien. Dr. McCoy faces the news of an unknown daughter while Sulu embraces the daughter he didn't know he fathered. An aging Kirk, called upon to witness the launch of a new hospital ship, which he fears will be disastrous as it has no captain, finds his fears confirmed. Deciding he doesn't want to grow old and give up adventuring in space, Kirk agrees to help the planet Chal.