The Rings of Time

The Rings of Time is a Pocket TOS novel written by Greg Cox. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in .
== Summary ==
;From the book jacket
:2020 The USS Lewis & Clark, under the command of Colonel Shaun Christopher, sets off on Humanity's first manned mission to Saturn. But the unexpected presence of a stowaway complicates the mission – as does a startling encounter with an alien probe. But when Colonel Christopher attempts to capture the probe, he suddenly finds himself transported across time and space to a future era of space exploration…
:Stardate 7103.4 The responds to an urgent distress call from a mining colony orbiting Klondike VI, a ringed gas giant not unlike Saturn. For unknown reasons, the planet's rings are coming apart, threatening the safety of the colony and its inhabitants. Searching for a way to avert the disaster, Captain James T. Kirk and his crew investigate a mysterious alien probe that has just entered the system. But when the probe is beamed aboard, Kirk abruptly finds himself floating in space above Saturn, wearing an old-fashioned NASA spacesuit, with the Enterprise nowhere in sight…
:Two missions. Two crews. And a time-twisting crisis that spans the centuries… 
== Background information ==
* The novel was announced by Cox on , following the signing of contracts. 
* The name of the USS Lewis & Clark and the 2020 launch date of the Earth-Saturn probe, the first manned mission from Earth to Saturn, are both taken from the reference book Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, ignoring the 2009 launch date from the .
* This novel was later collected, along with That Which Divides and the DTI novel Forgotten History, in the eBook omnibus Star Trek: The Original Series - The Continuing Missions, Volume 1.
* The character name "Zoe Querez/Qat Zaldana" is similar to that of Zoë Saldana, though when asked, author Greg Cox could not recall if he intentionally chose it to be so. 
=== Cover gallery ===
File:The Rings of Time solicitation cover August 2011.jpg|Solicitation cover, August 2011
File:The Rings of Time solicitation cover.jpg|Second iteration of the solicitation cover
== Characters ==
; James T. Kirk
; Spock
; Leonard McCoy
; Montgomery Scott
; Nyota Uhuru
; Hikaru Sulu
; Pavel Chekov
; Christine Chapel
; Shaun Christopher
; Alice Fontana
; Marcus O'Herlihy
; , alias 
==External link==
*
fr:The Rings of Time
Category:Novels
Category:Scribe Award nominees