Fourteenth Story Arc This summary is of a story arc from the newspaper comic strip " Star Trek " . Summary . The , en route to meet the Komar ambassador , has to pass through the Deltan 330 Graveyard Sector . Uhura picks up communications from ahead that sound like a battle in progress . Captain Kirk suggests the authorities be notified and to give what is likely a merchant ' s " squabble " a wide berth . But the ship comes under attack from the two fighting merchant ships . Returning fire the " Enterprise " disables one and tractors the other . When the merchant ships are contacted , the only message back is " " Butt out ! " " . Furious , Kirk orders the merchant captains brought on board . The first to arrive identifies himself as Captain Krieger of the Latimor Recycling Plant . Two people are beamed up from the second ship , Captain Kro - Regas and his lieutenant and protector Zaia . Zaia is armed , and refuses to part with her weapon . She finally does so , but only to Spock , whom she notices – with some surprise as he is both a man and a Vulcan – treats her with respect . Regas used to command a large fleet of merchant vessels . As he explains it , " " during the Delta wars , the galaxy was filled with debris – a gold mine of recycling parts . The Federation peace missions put a stop to all of that ! " " The two ships were fighting over what remained . Sulu identifies a strange signal from a mass of debris with a collision time of three hours . Kirk says not to worry , that the ship will be long gone by then . Regas is not so sure about that , but keeps his thoughts to himself . Kirk suggests that , after " unarming " Zaia , Spock give her a tour of the ship . Zaia , who has already become fond of Spock , thinks it is a great idea . While this is going on , Regas attaches a bomb to the wall of the transporter , unnoticed . As they leave the transporter room , Krieger starts a fight with Zaia to distract everyone . During the fight , Regas attaches his second bomb to the " main circuits " . He believes it will knock out power for a few hours , which is all they need . After the fight Kirk finds what he thinks is a bracelet dropped by Zaia . He picks it up to return later . The bridge crew is still concerned about signals and low - level sensor jamming from the debris mass approaching , and asks Kirk to come to the bridge . The captains ask to come along to see , and Kirk agrees when they promise not to do anything improper . Once there they set the third bomb . The bomb in the transporter room goes off , and the merchant ship locks onto the captains ' and Zaia ' s bracelets to beam them off . But since Kirk picked Zaia ' s up , he is transported off the ship instead of her . Dr . McCoy questions Zaia right away , but Zaia is not in the mood to help , claiming the Federation " was responsible for the downfall of my people " . The lack of war and lack of debris has robbed her people of their livelihood ; selling the " Enterprise " as scrap will help with payback . Sulu finally cuts through the interference and determines the debris field is a hundred ships coming for them . A captive on the merchant ship , Kirk watches as the second bomb goes off , disabling fire control and power . The first cut off transporter control , and " " the third bomb is set to destroy your ship ' s master life support panel " " , killing everyone on board . Regas suddenly shouts that the third bomb should not be exploded as Zaia is his daughter . He had not told anyone before since he thought it would make her a target of competitors . Tired of Kirk ' s lectures and uncertain what to do with him , they lock him up . Fortunately , they do not remove his communicator , and Spock finds the third bomb . Regas then offers to help Kirk escape to save his daughter . They leave the ship via an escape pod that is brought into the " Enterprise " s landing bay . Zaia rushes to her father , already knowing their relationship in her heart . Regas cannot help disarm the bomb on the ship , but has placed one on Kreiger ' s ship in retaliation . Spock succeeds in disarming the one on " Enterprise " . Just then , the merchant ship suffers an explosion and begins to limp away . Kirk hands over Regas and his daughter to the local authorities , but promises to put in a good word for them about their last - minute help . Memorable quotes . " " Lieutenant , notify those two scoundrels and have them brought aboard ! " " " " No one unarms Zaia and lives ! " " " " You blood - thirsty parasite . " " " " I guess we ' ll have to make that tour a little later cute stuff ! " " Background information . With this story arc the uniforms from the second film began to be used . The time period it takes place in is unclear , though . Kirk is referred to as an admiral , yet Uhura is called a lieutenant , Chekov is on board , and Spock is alive . Krieger refers to Zaia as a " Deltan witch " , although she has a full head of hair ; given no other similarities to canon Deltan s , it may have been a coincidental use of the name . On the other hand , the character of Jedda , from Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan , was indicated to be Deltan in the screenplay , but had hair as well . There is no explanation as to why the merchants didn ' t target the ship ' s warp drive , or why the crew didn ' t appear to consider it a viable option to use it to escape the merchant fleet . Unfortunately , the change in creative team resulted in neither art nor story being up to the standards set by prior creators of the strip , and the quality of this particular story can be fairly judged from the above . This story was given the title " A Merchant ' s Loyalty " in " " . This story is often credited to Martin Pasko as the writer , but Padraic Shigetani was actually the writer of this storyline .