Operation Retrieve Operation Retrieve was the code name of a mission proposed by Starfleet Colonel West upon the arrest of Captain James T . Kirk and Doctor Leonard McCoy for the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon in 2293 . It was devised , in light of increasing tensions between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire , to extricate the officers from their captivity by military force . The operation . The details of the operation involved a direct incursion by several starship s launched from Starbase 24 to the penal world of Rura Penthe , well within Klingon territory . The operation was expected to last no more than 24 hours with an acceptable loss to equipment and manpower . The plan was vetoed by the Federation President as it would have most likely provoked the Klingon Empire into a full scale war . The operation was subsequently proven to be unnecessary , as the entered Klingon space without authorization from Starfleet and retrieved Kirk and McCoy from the planet . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The Operation Retrieve briefing material had a fourth page that was never seen on - screen , and is reproduced to the right . Sector 21166 was identified by name on the star chart " Starfleet Operations – Sector 21166 - 22079 " in 2367 . ( ) The mission charts were created by Graphic Designer Michael Okuda , who years later elaborated on the origins of the ship ' s names and registry number s : " If I recall correctly , the charts visible on film / video listed only ship names and registry numbers . One can probably glean some class designations from the ship icons in the diagrams . I don ' t have the original art handy ( I think it ' s archived on Syquest disks , which I don ' t have the ability to read , even if I could find the disks themselves ) , but I recall giving the info to Bjo Trimble , and I ' m pretty sure she used most of it in her revised " Star Trek Concordance " . I might note that some of the ship registry numbers came from Greg Jein ' s interpretation of the starship chart in Commodore ' s office in ( TOS ) . Other registry numbers came from Franz Joseph ' s " Star Fleet Technical Manual " or his " Starship blueprints " . In still other cases , the ships and / or numbers did not come from either source , but were consistent with some fleet status charts I did elsewhere " [ note : the bridge ] " on the in " Star Trek VI " . ( In other words , there ' s something that just about everyone will disagree with , but I also hoped that there would be at least something that almost everyone would agree with . ) I should also point out that I prepared several charts for the rescue briefing scene , and that not all of them ended up in the final cut of the film . I don ' t recall which ones were used , or which ones ended up unseen . I do seem to recall that there was at least one chart that had quite a number of registries – mostly , I recall , from FJ ' s work – that ended up unused . " The names listed in the roster of commanding officers , excepting that of Sulu , were all but one those of production staff ers who had been working on " The Undiscovered Country " at the time . The one exception was of a personal nature , as Okuda included a Captain D . Tathwell , which was the maiden name of his future wife Denise , who , at the time , was the one not yet working for the live - action franchise . Okuda ' s remark regarding " Jein ' s interpretation " concerned the latter ' s influential " The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship " article which Jein had written years earlier for a fanzine and in which he had postulated a starship registry numbering system . As Okuda has since then strictly adhered to Jein ' s interpretation , it was a stark indication that he had only became aware of Jein ' s article during the time he was working on " The Undiscovered Country " . At the time , Jein had by then become the regular studio model vendor for , befriending Okuda , and was cooperating with him ( as was his future wife Denise ) on his reference work , , which was concurrently in development . Strictly adhering to Jein ' s article from then on for those registries Okuda had not yet used at that point in time , this became the very last recorded use of Franz Joseph ' s " Manual " as a production source . The Operation Retrieve Command Briefing charts were after the production of " The Undiscovered Country " discarded , saved by Penny Juday , ending up in the collection of American collector Sean , and who ultimately restored the damaged sheets . It is through his efforts that the detail information as featured in this entry has become available .