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Writer: Alan Dean Foster Running Time: 14:39 Stardate: 5466.9 Date of Release: 1975 |
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 The Enterprise is in orbit of the outpost colony world Rybol II. They have been summoned in order to find a solution to a plague of dranzers. Every six years, seventy to ninety percent of the colony's grain crop is destroyed by the stampeding animals. Kirk, Spock and McCoy meet with Mr. Newt Henderson of the Rybollian Settlers League. The dranzer is a herd animal that looks like a cross between a pig and a buffalo, with long black hair, four horns, and are half the size of an elephant. They also breed quickly and have bad dispositions. The planet Rybol II was settled twelve years ago. Herds contain millions of dranzers, and every six years the huge herd stampedes from the hills and ruins the grain crop in the plains below. The settlers can't wipe them out because the animals eat a type of high grass that would take over the planet's arable surface within a decade if not eaten down by the millions of dranzers. They also found out that they couldn't thin them out because that causes a premature mini stampede that ruins several thousand square kilometers of crops. Spock studied the problem and came up with a plan. While men from the Enterprise were getting ready to implement the plan, word arrived that the stampede had begun. They leapt into action. Using three high-speed land vehicles, they sprayed concentrated dranzer musk odor and diverted them into stampeding in a huge circle by causing the front of the herd to circle around and follow the back of the same herd. The dranzers exhausted themselves and many died. The surviving ones were enough to eat the grass. With the problem cleverly solved, the Enterprise departed Rybol II.
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Email: cdanhauser@yahoo.com
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Characters:Captain Kirk Mr. Spock Doctor McCoy Newt Henderson Ellie
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