The Wristwatch Plantation This summary is of a story arc from the newspaper comic strip " Star Trek " . Summary . The story begins with a captain ' s log , explaining that medical and psychiatric personnel , as well as a sociology team , are remaining on Iskonia to help Lyra and her people adjust to their new lives . But before the crew can put in for R & R , they receive a priority message to report to Starbase 18 immediately . They do so and take on a delegation of high - ranking Bebebebeque , or " Beeks " . The mission : " " determine the fate of a Bebebebeque colony established on Mimit approximately fifteen Earth years ago . " " The Beeks are small , insect - like creatures , about a half - meter long , but are a powerful economic force in the Federation because of their machine miniaturization abilities . Certain areas of the ship are converted to their needs , but Starfleet orders grant them full access to the entire ship . Their constant buzzing about on anti - grav sled s and the sheer number of them have driven many of the crew to distraction , a fatigue syndrome Dr . McCoy labels " Bebebebequephobia . " The reverse is also true , as the Beeks have problems themselves working with such large creatures as Human s . The one area of the ship where everyone is getting along is Engineering , where Beeks and the engineering crew alike enjoy the technical give and take . Hadley , having been promoted to lieutenant , and Ensign Mike Carpenter finish up working on the auxiliary phaser controls with Beek assistance . Hadley then attends a meeting ( really a party ) in Scott ' s quarters where Beek and Human engineer s are enjoying building a useless but interesting structure . The rest of the ship is not adapting as well , and Captain Kirk visits the " alienologist " Mernat who came aboard with the Beeks . A Starfleet officer , he is also a Ferreth , a volatile race who fight among themselves ( killing for mating privileges , like Vulcan s ) but deal peacefully with everyone else . Mernat ' s assignment is actually a cover known only to Kirk and Spock ; his real job is to find those who are smuggling an illegal canister of the drug theep , which only affects the Ferreth . It gives them heightened awareness and extra energy , allowing them to " cheat for the highest possible stakes " during mating battles . It is also highly corrosive and will quickly eat through containers – including its own . As Mernat scrutinizes all activity in the cargo bay , Kirk tell him that he doubts he ' ll find any smugglers or Theep on the " Enterprise " , though , since " " security on a Federation starship is very tight ! " " Kirk is wrong , however . Lucy , an " Enterprise " crew member and smuggler , visits with Carpenter , who is also involved . She wants him to get the theep out of the cargo bay , as she fears the Beeks will find it soon . Shortly after that , a fight breaks out in the enlisted crew mess hall , and security guard Umeki tells Kirk that he ' ll have to hurt some people to break it up . Carpenter sees this as his opportunity to move the Theep and goes to the cargo bay . Meanwhile , Kirk gets the fight under control and asks what started the fracas . The crew blames the Beeks , and Kirk calls Mernat to the mess hall in his role as alienologist . The parties involved explain that the fight began because one crewman did not want to sit with " bugs " , which insulted another crewman who considered the Bebebebeque his friends . Kirk leaves disciplinary measures to Scott when he is suddenly called to the bridge . A Kzinti warship has just entered sensor range . While all that is going on , Carpenter and Lucy take the theep and place it behind a transporter control panel in Engineering that he and Hadley had finished working on earlier ; no one should be opening it up anytime soon . He takes the other to auxiliary phaser control as " insurance " , but is discovered by another crewman named Pete . Mike and Lucy appeal to the crewman to keep quiet and become rich . Pete says he ' ll think about it , and later agrees to help . Sensors indicate that the Kzinti warship , named " Giant Killer " ( in the Hero ' s Tongue ) , is armed with four each of laser banks and particle beam cannons , all of which are forbidden by the Treaty of Sirius . The Kzinti have " probationary status " in the Federation , but the treaty is supposed to restrict them to only having police vessels . Recalling the events of a " few years ago " , ( ) Kirk and Spock discuss whether this is a pirate ship and agree that the Patriarch of Kzin will , regardless , disavow any knowledge of it . In fact , direction from the Patriarch to Starfleet is to destroy any Kzinti ship found with weapons . Kirk contacts Starfleet and requests orders . Meanwhile , the Kzinti telepath attempts to access the thoughts of the crew . It causes pain , and Spock advises everyone to " " focus your thoughts on the taste of raw vegetables " " . Kzinti , being carnivores , consider it beneath them to read the minds of herbivores . Despite this , the Kzinti discover everything about the " Enterprise " s mission . Everyone on board ship has a massive headache , and Kirk places Spock temporarily in command as no telepath will be able to read his mind . The Kzinti are concerned about the ship ' s mission , fearing that if the " Enterprise " reaches Mimit that they will all lose their chance " to win land and names " , and possibly suffer worse fates . Starfleet responds with orders to proceed to Mimit and ignore the Kzinti ship . The " Enterprise " begins to comply . But a problem has arisen on board the " Enterprise " : the theep in auxiliary control has begun to leak through its container and is eating through circuits . The problem is noticed and Carpenter tries to figure out how to have Pete move the theep before the junction is again checked . Too late , the crew watches as the acid foams up around the controls . On the bridge , Sulu notes the Kzinti ship is pacing them , and Kirk orders the shields to be raised . The Kzinti have decided that their best hope is to attack and are preparing to do just that . The " Enterprise " shields are malfunctioning due to the theep leakage , though , and they cannot be raised . At that moment the Kzinti fire a weapon they call the " Hamstringer " , an energy weapon built by Bebebebeque slaves and not detected by sensors earlier , which generates an enormous energy field around electrical circuitry . The artificial gravity generators build up a tremendous charge due to the weapon , and with no way to dissipate it they overload , throwing the entire ship into weightlessness – including the Beeks , whose sleds are rendered inoperable . Without shields or gravity , and with phasers now also off - line , Kirk orders warp 10 toward Mimit , believing they can make repairs there . The Kzinti ship ' s drive cannot compete , but they use subspace radio to alert their planetary defense squadron on Mimit . On the way , the " Enterprise " regains some gravitational control , and the search is on for the theep smugglers . As they enter orbit around Mimit , Carpenter goes to check on the Theep in Engineering , and Pete – searching for him to discuss the problem in auxiliary control – finds out about the second container . This container is also leaking , this time over the transporter circuits . Pete is furious at what he sees as Carpenter holding out , and starts to beat Carpenter . Lucy also goes to engineering to find out what is going on , but is followed by Mernat , who has suspected her for some time . When Mernat arrives he smells the leaking theep . Having had no success in getting communication from the surface , the landing party is preparing to beam down when Mernat calls for help . The " killing fever " is upon him from the scent of Theep , but he holds on to rationality long enough to communicate the problem . Spock , sensing trouble due to the theep location , tries to contact the landing party to abort the transport , but communications do not work . He rushes to the transporter room , and narrowly averts the beam - out . However , Pete and Carpenter , fighting next to the damaged transporter relays become caught in a short - circuiting transporter beam and are transported into empty space – which would have been the fate of the landing party had Spock not stopped them in time . McCoy gives Mernat an injection to counteract the theep , and Lucy is arrested . They still need to find out the status of the Mimit colony , and so the landing party takes a shuttle down . The " Enterprise " sensors pick up spacecraft launching from the surface under impulse power , and Spock signals Kirk ' s shuttle to return to the ship until more data on the nature of the spacecraft can be collected . Kirk identifies them visually as Kzinti warships , but the Kzinti are confused at why a lone shuttle would be the vanguard of the " Enterprise " s attack . While the starship defends itself from this new attack and leaves orbit to draw the Kzinti away from the shuttle , the Kzinti hope the " Giant Killer " arrives soon with its weapon . The shuttle is hit , crashes on the planet ' s surface , and all contact with the landing party is lost . The Kzinti ' s wish is granted and " Giant Killer " enters the system , its crew jubilant that they have not missed the battle . Meanwhile , on the planet a large beast is tearing its way into the crashed shuttle , just as Kirk regains consciousness . Sulu and Latham are still knocked out , and Kirk prepares to fire his phaser , but the beast hits it out of his hand . The Bebebebeque , however , work together to raise and fire Lt . Latham ' s phaser rifle on stun as Kirk battles the beast . Momentarily out of danger , Kirk contacts the " Enterprise " to both give and obtain status . The Kzinti intercept the transmission in their base of operations and begin to search for the downed shuttle . Beek slaves working in the main Kzinti base overhear all this , and decide that to escape slave ry they should risk everything to rescue the shuttle and gain a potential ally . They contact their underground resistance and begin to activate their hidden transporter . The Beek Councilor on the wreckage of the shuttle examines the area but is confused : there was no record of this type of animal they just stunned , and the ground outside should be covered by a low - lying leafy vegetation ( carpet leaf ) the Beek had planned to eat and export as a cash crop . Just then , two Bebebebeque beam in . The new arrivals call the beast a " ravager " , and explain that they are the slaves of the Kzinti . There was no record of the ravagers because they had not emerged from hibernation when the planet was first surveyed . After they wake they gorge themselves on the carpet leaf , only becoming carnivores when the leaf is totally consumed . The ravagers awoke midway through the first Beek harvest of carpet - leaf , and turned to eat the Beek since fewer leaves were available . The only thing that saved them was the Kzinti . The planet is just outside the old boundaries of the Kzinti patriarchy , and Kzinti hunt the ravagers as a coming - of - age ritual . The Kzinti showed up , rescued the Bebebebeque from certain death , but then enslaved them . Kirk guesses the rest : " " With the Beeks ' s talent for miniaturization , Mimit has been a veritable wristwatch plantation for the Kzinti . " " Everyone in the shuttle is beamed out to a small Beek stronghold , just before the Kzinti hunting party arrives . The ravager , though , is still inside and waking up . In space above , the " Enterprise " has destroyed all the Kzinti ships save one – the " Blood Gnat " – which refuses to break off its attack . On the planet , Kirk asks whether the Beeks know anything about the Hamstringer weapon . They do ; it was made by the enslaved Beeks , and intended to become a means for the Kzinti to wage war on the Federation . Kirk immediately contacts the " Enterprise " , not yet realizing that the Beek stronghold is underneath the Kzinti base . The Kzinti pick up the transmission from inside their own building and begin a search . The Beeks reveal how to defeat the Hamstringer , and Kirk – knowing his position will be fully revealed upon a second use of his communicator – contacts the " Enterprise " anyway and transmits the information . The secret is to , essentially , force the Kzinti to overuse the weapon beyond its design parameters while simultaneously powering their shields ; this will eventually render them too weak to fire the weapon . The Beeks and landing party then wait with three hand phaser s and one phaser rifle to hold off the entire Kzinti base until help can arrive . The Kzinti hunting party has in the meanwhile returned wounded from fighting the ravager with another problem : the ravager was part of a mass migration , and the hunting party left a trail of blood straight back to the base . Shortly thereafter a large number of ravagers converge on the base and try to force their way in . Kirk and the others try and find a way out , avoiding Kzinti hunters along the way . And in space Spock draws fire from the Hamstringer , awaiting his opportunity . The ravagers break through , and hundreds of them pour into the base . Kirk then finds out that the Hamstringer requires Bebebebeque technicians to keep it operational , meaning that Beeks are on the " Giant Killer " . He formulates a plan , which is transmitted to the slaves on the ship . At a precise moment the Beeks in the engine room of the Kzinti vessel interrupt power to the shields , allowing the Beeks on the planet to use their transporter to beam several ravagers to the bridge . It works and the " Giant Killer " veers off course . The landing party beams up to the " Enterprise " and the Bebebebeque are transported off the " Giant Killer " . Kirk negotiates the surrender of the " Giant Killer " as the Kzinti ship is nearly out of power and unable to fire its weapon . Meanwhile the only other remaining Kzinti ship , the " Blood Gnat " , returns to the planet to pick up survivors . The captain of the " Giant Killer " has a problem , though : to surrender would be to assure his own death as a pirate by the Patriarch . After an encrypted transmission from the ground the " Giant Killer " self - destruct s . At the same moment the " Blood Gnat " takes off , having beamed the survivors from the " Giant Killer " on board . Vowing to become true pirates and exact vengeance upon Kirk when they next meet , the ship speeds off . Memorable quotes . " " They ' re a separate species from us ! " " " " I just hope one of them didn ' t get himself served up as the crab appetizer ! " " " " Kzinti vessel , this is the Federation starship " Enterprise " . . . and those had better be water pistols ! " " " " If they ' re caught . . . they ' ll have a choice of death by hanging , death by torture , death by fire , or death by orbvcs . . . personally , I would choose one of the first three methods ! " " Background information . Like the Kzin , the Bebebebeque are from Larry Niven ' s own work ( although from the series , rather than the series the Kzin are from ) . He also included a reference to the character of Kevin Renner from his book , , in this story . With this comic strip story arc ( which was the longest of " Star Trek " ) , DiVono and Niven managed to do something that Harlan Ellison had tried and failed to do in : implicate Starfleet officers in drug smuggling . A similar concept was also featured in DC Comics ' first Star Trek comic series .