“Sanctuary” by John Vornholt.
Finished “Sanctuary” by John Vornholt.
The novel opens with Enterprise in hot pursuit of infamous pirate Auk-Rex. Auk-Rex is kindof a Dread Pirate Roberts; more of a persona than a person, probably an alias, and mostly serves as a plot justification for the rest of the novel. Auk-Rex is bookin' it to an uncharted planet, which Spock hastily speculates might be a place called “Sanctuary”. A place Starfleet only knows about by rumor where fugitives and political dissidents often go to escape pursuit. So Auk-Rex will be home free if the ship is able to make it there.
They concoct a plan to launch a shuttle to pursue Auk-Rex as they're expected to catch up just as they reach orbit. So Kirk, Spock, and McCoy depart in the shuttle, and pursue Auk-Rex's ship down to the surface only to witness an escape pod crash into the mountain as they arrive.
Now on the ground, they are basically mugged by forest dwelling bandits of various races who relive them of most of their useful technology. They make it back to the landing site only to find that their shuttle is gone; transported away by the Senites.
One of the Senites, Zicree introduces themself and welcomes them, explaining that anyone who comes to Sanctuary is welcome, but must set their old lives behind them, and are never permitted to leave.
The Senites are a race of genderless aliens native to sanctuary. This isn't a major theme or anything. They just are.
Now… this novel was released in 1992, about 6 months after the TNG Episode “The Outcast”, and was probably being written over the previous year. And while non-binary and gender nonconforming people have existed for as long as there have been people, back in the '90s, they weren't really at the forefront of public consciousness. Workshopping of English neopronouns was mostly just beginning, and we were still years away from collectively settling on singular they/them. Star Trek novels did contribute somewhat to this workshopping, with the Hermats, aliens possessing of both genders preferring s\he (which I sort of read in my head back then as sh-he) and hir. But we won't encounter them until later. So the pronoun the Senites got stuck with was unfortunately 'it', though the occasional 'he' slipped in. But they don't really complain about it, and it doesn't really come up all that much, so opinions may vary on how much that really matters.
Anyway, so the Senites allow outcasts, fugitives, refugees, dissidents, or anyone fleeing persecution to come to Santuary to live out their lives. And if they can make it to the ground, then they are free to stay. But they are basically imprisoned there, prevented from ever leaving by the Senites themselves, who impound spacecraft, and maintain an energy shield around the planet. Kirk and party try to explain that they didn't know that before they came down, but Zicree isn't hearing it.
Kirk, Spock and McCoy eventually make their way to a nearby settlement of Dohama, briefly encountering a couple remote homesteading communities on the way. Dohama is inhabited by some of the more savory fugitives, and the Senites generally keep them placated with booze, greasy foods, and nightly festivities. Not too bad a place if you're into that sort of thing. There aren't very many women around, though. It's rumored most of the women are in another settlement called Khyming, which itself is nearby the Senites' seminary and their main base of operation. They meet Billiwog, a long term resident who likes building boats, and buy a boat from him to try to reach Khyming.
Meanwhile, in orbit, Scotty and the Enterprise learn the nature of Sanctuary from the sundry bounty hunters and rival powers blockading the planet in hopes of catching fleeing fugitives before they make landfall. They meet a Klingon captain who had been stationed there for some years just in case a fugitive from the Klingon Empire comes along that he can catch before they touch down. And an Orion pirate captain and former slave girl who Scotty has a brief dalliance with.
Back on the planet, Kirk and the boys wash up on Khyming. Zicree appears and tells them they can stay, as long as they behave, but if they become a problem, they'll be sent back to Dohama.
Where Dohama is a rollicking beach-side shanty town, Khyming is more like a resort spa. They meet up with a human woman, Renna, who recently arrived on Sanctuary with her elderly father, who is in the infirmary suffering massive injuries after crashing on the planet. Injuries consistent with an escape pod ejecting too close to the ground. After her father dies, she joins up with Kirk and party in planning their escape from Sanctuary.
I'm going to leave the summary there for the most part; I don't think it's necessary to get any further into spoilers. Memory Beta has a more detailed summary, so it's not like the plot isn't already out there.
It's an interesting dynamic; If you were to set up a situation like this, welcoming all comers from all walks of life, including unrepentant criminals, you'll inevitably end up needing to keep the more well behaved residents sequestered from the rifraf. So it makes sense that you'd have an isolated place like Khyming, and that Khyming would be majority female. And that much of the majority male criminal element would be exiled to the mainland in a place like Dohama. It's clear the author put some thought into how this situation would pan out. I mean let's face it; There's a reason the hypothetical of meeting a bear in the woods exists. I'm a straight-passing cis male, and some days, given the choice, I'd choose the bear too. It's not the main theme, but it is a theme that gets some exploration.
Another theme that gets touched on, but doesn't get nearly as much attention comes with the revelation that the Senites reproduce by periodically drugging the denizens of places like Dohama and surgically altering and mentally conditioning them. This is posited as more of a situation that poses a hazard for our heroes and their rag-tag party of refugees to escape from, more than saying anything about bodily autonomy, or forced indoctrination.
Starfleet sends the USS Neptune to assist Scotty with trying to retrieve their missing crewmates, which also makes an interesting side quest. The Neptune is a science ship specializing in marine biology, and Scotty was previously acquainted with the captain, Donald Mora. They can't beam down any technology, because it will be destroyed or confiscated by the Senites. They can only beam down biological matter, but anyone they beam down won't be able to leave. This leads Captain Mora to one of the more creative solutions I've seen from a Starfleet captain; to beam down a plague of Regulan locusts that he happens to have aboard that have been irradiated so they don't reproduce and become invasive, but that the Senites won't soon forget. Quite refreshing for anyone who whishes Starfleet would show more balls in dealing with situations sometimes.
The main theme according to the author in his forward to the novel is spaceflight being a privilege. Which yeah, is in there. Kirk and party, and anyone else whether they came to Sanctuary of their own volition or not are planetbound against their will, and denied any conveyance that could return them to the ship.
The much more interesting journey follows Kirk and party across Santuary, from Dohama to Khyming and onward, while they try to devise some way to circumvent the Senites' security system and leave the planet. It's really about the journey rather than the destination. And the real treasure are the friends we maroon on a prison cult planet along the way.