The Enterprise is sent to an area of space, previously unexplored, on reports that someone is trading the secret of the Romulan plasma weapon. Discovering the plasma storms in the area, Kirk names the region “the Badlands” after an area in South Dakota. They encounter a small vessel being chased by a Romulan warbird and they take the small vessel onboard, and the Romulan ship breaks up under the strain of trying to catch the Enterprise. The occupant of the small vessel turns out to be a female Romulan, Commander Teral, who claims not to be the one planning to sell the secret of the weapon, and an initial search seems to confirm that suspicion, but then a Klingon vessel turns up and the reaction of the Klingon captain to the Romulan confirms to Kirk that she is the one. Members of the crew start falling ill from a mysterious radiation sickness (experienced first after the Romulan ship exploded), and the Romulan gives up her secret after she falls ill herself. (The second half of the book is summarized in Volume 2 in the TNG section) [Timeline: 2268, Stardate 5650.1, two years after the Romulans had used the plasma weapon to destroy outposts along the Neutral Zone, and a few months after the Enterprise had captured a cloaking device from the Romulans]