My Enemy, My Ally
Romulans board the USS Enterprise – and Kirk joins forces with his deadliest enemy!

My Enemy, My Ally is a Pocket TOS novel – #18 in the numbered series, and the first in the Rihannsu series – written by Diane Duane. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in .

Summary 
From the book jacket
Ael t'Rllaillieu is a noble – and dangerous – Romulan commander. But when the Romulans kidnap Vulcans to genetically harness their mind power, Ael decides on treason. Captain Kirk, her old enemy, joins her in a secret pact to destroy the research laboratory and free the captive Vulcans. When the Romulans discover their plan, the Neutral Zone seethes with schemes and counter-schemes, sabotage and war!

Commander-General Ael t'Rllallieu is one of the Romulan Star Empire's most decorated starship commanders, but she has become increasingly disillusioned with her Empire as they throw away honor (mnhei'sahe) for riches and power. She has spoken out in front of the Senate one time too many and sent out on an "honorable" tour of duty to the Neutral Zone. Ael soon escapes from the broken-down warbird Cuirass and its disloyal crew and returns to her own ship, Bloodwing. She and her crew, including her son Tafv and close confidant Aidoann, cross the Neutral Zone and destroy Cuirass using Klingon-augmented gunnery circuits. She purposely initiates the conflict between Bloodwing and Cuirass close to where Captain Kirk and the Enterprise are patrolling the Zone with the starships , , and Inaieu. In Federation space, Ael meets Captain Kirk face to face for the first time. She tells him about two secret projects currently under way in her home space: Sunseed, a device to destabilize a star and create ion storms, and a project to harvest Vulcan genetic material to enhance the telepathic abilities of the Romulans. Kirk sympathizes with her, but says he cannot in good conscience order the Enterprise across the Neutral Zone. That changes, however, when the all-Vulcan crew of the Intrepid is captured and taken into Romulan space. Kirk accepts Ael's plan to have Bloodwing "capture" the Enterprise and take her into Romulan space – coincidentally passing right by Levaeri V, the station where the mind research is going on. 

Bloodwing and Enterprise succeed in breaking away from the escort sent to meet them, and launch their attack on Levaeri V. However, while nearly half of Enterprises crew is on Levaeri, Tavf stages an attack of his own – on the Enterprise. With the help of the loyal Romulans still on board Enterprise, including Khiy and Eriufv, the crew manages to repel the invaders. Tafv, though, is mortally wounded. After the Intrepid crew is rescued and Levaeri V destroyed, Enterprise, Bloodwing, and Intrepid successfully battle several Romulan ships sent to destroy them, by seeding Levaeri's primary with Sunseed. Ael sees Tafv in Enterprises sickbay, but McCoy tells her that no matter what, he will die. When Ael asks him why he betrayed her, he responds that it was mnhei'sahe, his loyalty to his cousin (Ael's niece) who had been exiled for losing the cloaking device to Kirk. Ael releases him from life support, doing what mnhei'sahe requires of her. 

Before Ael beams back to Bloodwing, she tells Kirk that she is now exiled from her home. She tells him that they will burn her name, essentially saying that she no longer exists, for "A Rihannsu without her name is nothing". She tells Kirk what all three parts of her name mean, and then giving him the greatest gift of all, she tells him what her fourth name means – "The name by which only one closer than kin may know her". On Earth, Kirk hangs a pennant with Ael's first three names on it in a secluded valley, ensuring that the Commander and her memory will live on.

Memorable quotes 
"… Entirely too many ion-flux measurements, according to Mr. Chekov, who has declared to the bridge at large that his mother didn't raise him to compile weather reports. (Must remember to ask him why since meteorology has to have been invented in Russia like everything else.)

"However, even Spock has admitted to me privately that he looks forward to solving this problem and moving on to something a little more challenging. His captain agrees with him. His captain is bored stiff. My mother didn't raise me to compile weather reports, either."
 - Kirk, recording his log

"Mr. Naraht, are you quite sure of that figure for the iridium?"
"To six decimal places, sir!  Zero point three zero four one four one two two."
"That is eight decimal places, ensign."
"Oh. I'm sorry, sir!  I thought you might like some more."
 - Spock and Naraht

"Aha!  The truth will out! That's it! You only like that boy because you knew his mother the Horta – and she liked your ears!"
 - McCoy, about why Spock likes Naraht

"Gentlemen, I will be open with you. I am a warrior, and I find peace very dull. But honor I cherish; and I see, with the completion and release of this technique, the rise of a new Romulan Empire that will have lost the last vestiges of the glory and honor of the old one. I have sworn oaths to that Empire, to serve it loyally. To stand by and do nothing about the destruction of the ancient and noble tradition on which that Empire is based is to put the knife into oneself. I will not."
 - Ael

"I was thinking of capturing the Enterprise. Would you mind?"
 - Ael, proposing her plan to get the Enterprise across the Neutral Zone

"Mnhei'sahe. I'm sorry, captain, but you would ask me to render one of the most difficult words in the language. It's not quite honor – and not quite loyalty – and not quite anger, or hatred, or about fifty other things. It can be a form of hatred that requires you to give your last drop of water to a thirsty enemy – or an act of love that requires you to kill a friend. The meaning changes constantly with context, and even in one given context, it's slippery at best."
 - Lt. Janice Kerasus, Enterprise linguistics officer, attempting to explain a concept all-important to the Romulans.

"I suppose I'd better get down there and see how Scotty's doing with 'blowing up' his engines…"
"I bet he's doing most of the 'blowing up' himself."
"Mr. Chekov, amen to that."
 - Kirk and Chekov

"What use is a word that means only one thing?"
 - Ael

"The translator is having problems. You have little round flying insects on Earth eating a ship named ?  And you ask me about the danger of names?"
 - Ael, after Kirk's colloquial use of "mothballs"

"How's Lieutenant Sjveda's music appreciation seminar coming along?"
"Classical period still, sir. Beethoven, , , , , . Head hurts."
- Kirk and Athende

"I beg your pardon," the man said merrily in a British accented voice, apparently looking right at Jim, "but is this Heathrow?"
"Brother, have you ever taken a wrong turn!" was Jim's first thought.
- 3D hologram of the Fourth Doctor and Kirk

"HEUOPIK EEIRWOINVSKY SHTENIX GFAK HU MMHNINAWAH!"
"What the devil was that? Sounds like you've got a problem down there, lieutenant. A malfunction that shouts."
"No, doctor. It's taken us the last half-hour to get it to do that."
 -The modified holography console, McCoy, and Uhura

"Daisemi'in rhhaensuriuu"
"   meillunsiateve"
"     rh'e Mnhei'sahe yie ahr'en:"
"Mnahe afw'ein qiuu;"
"   rh'e hweithnaef"
"     mrht Heis'he ehl'ein qiuu."
 - Of the chief parts of the Ruling Passion, only this can be truly said: Hate has a reason for everything. But love is unreasonable. (V. Raiuhes Ahaefvthe)

"Never complain about our transporters again, yours are even worse!"
"Physician… stuff thyself."
 - McCoy, after the landing party's hasty extraction from the space station, and Kirk

Background information 
 Although this is designated as the first book in the Rihannsu series, that term was not applied until the  reprint.
 The Science Fiction Book Club released a special edition of the novel in hardback in .
 Although the Romulans considered attempted suicide a crime by 2372, Ael's enemies in the Senate hoped that if she received orders to cross the Neutral Zone, her honor would force her to kill herself.

Cover gallery

Characters 
 Enterprise captain
Enterprise exec and science officer
 Enterprise surgeon
 Enterprise chief engineer
 Enterprise communications officer
 Enterprise helmsman
 Enterprise navigator

 Green, scaly, Enterprise crewwoman who served in the dietary department.
 Sulamid officer assigned to the maintenance department

Roz Bates

 One of McCoy's nurses, helping him in sickbay while Christine Chapel works on her doctorate

 Enterprise officer who was injured in the assault on the Levaeri station
 Sulamid ensign
 Enterprise linguist

 Enterprise ensign

 Horta ensign serving on the Enterprise, he earned the nickname "Ensign Rock" from Ael and participated in the mission to recover the Intrepids crew

 Starfleet lieutenant and Enterprises chief of recreation, he participated in the battle to re-take the Enterprise from Tafv's forces
 Romulan, commander of the Bloodwing, aunt of the Romulan commander the Enterprise previously met
 Romulan, Uhura's "guard" on the bridge and "took over" her station, also was Ael's third-in-command
 Romulan officer
Dhisuia  Romulan officer who Ael ordered to warn the crew about possible communication leaks
Eriufv  Romulan officer
 Romulan chief engineer of Bloodwing
Helev  Romulan officer
 Romulan officer
K'haeth  Romulan officer who Ael ordered to warn the crew about possible communication leaks
Khiy  Romulan officer
 Romulan officer
Lhian  Romulan officer
 Romulan, commander of the Javelin who has earned the intese dislike of Ael
Lyie  Romulan officer whom Ael ordered to warn the crew about possible communication leaks
Lyirru tr'Illialhae  Romulan, commander of Battlequeen
 Ael's martial-arts expert
 Romulan officer serving aboard the Bloodwing, he had a sister on the destroyed Javelin
t'Liun  Security officer on the Cuirass
t'Viaen  Engineering officer on Bloodwing
tr'Khaell  Romulan communications officer on the Cuirass, he was loyal to security officer t'Liun and Ael's enemies
tr'Iawaain  Romulan officer on the Cuirass
Tafv Ei-Leinarrh tr'Rllaillieu  Romulan Sub-Commander and Ael's son, he betrayed her and tried to take over the Enterprise as revenge for his cousin
Triy  Romulan officer
Raela hr'Sassish  Tellarite Constellation first officer
Aline MacDougall  Constellation chief surgeon.
Nhauris Rihaul  Denebian captain of the Inaieu, she was old friends with Kirk
Iwao Sasoaka  Constellation chief engineer
Sehlk  Vulcan Intrepid first officer
Sobek  Vulcan Intrepid CMO
Suvuk  Vulcan captain of Intrepid
T'Kiha  Vulcan Intrepid helm officer
T'Leiar  Vulcan chief engineer of Intrepid
 Captain of the Constellation; Walsh had previously served with Kirk aboard the Excalibur

References 
 Captain Michael Walsh
 The Constellation has the registry number of the previous ship to bear this name, although later canon works contend this replacement Constellation might have had the number NCC-1974, and would have been the prototype for the Constellation-class ships later seen in TNG.

 Both Jim Kirk and Mike Walsh served together on this vessel earlier in their careers, they met again in the aftermath of the Excalibur crew's decimation, by M-5 multitronic unit

 The Hood and Potemkin were due to arrive and take over patrol from Kirk's task force after the incident at Levaeri
 Defender-class destroyer of Captain Nhauris Rihaul. Built in the Deneb system with a primary hull three times the size of a  heavy cruiser. Inaieu had four nacelles and a mile long secondary hull that was a quarter-mile in diameter.
 Captain Suvuk, the second starship to bear the name. This vessel was noted to be of Vulcan-designed specifications similar to s upcoming refit.
 A World War II-era aircraft carrier, decommissioned after that war and currently a museum ship in New York City; Kirk refers to it as one of the forbears of the current Intrepid.
 The Hood and Potemkin were due to arrive and take over patrol from Kirk's task force after the incident at Levaeri
 Romulan ship, a modified K't'inga with a purportedly Klingon name
 Romulan ship
 Romulan ship, a modified K't'inga, of Commander Lyirru tr'Illialhae, destroyed in battle
 Commander-General Ael t'Rllaillieu / Sub-Commander Tafv ei-Leinarrh tr'Rllaillieu
 Romulan ship
 Romulan ship, a modified K't'inga with the false Klingon name Ehhak, destroyed in battle
 Romulan ship, named after the sun around which Romulus and Remus (ch'Rihan and ch'Havran) orbit
 Romulan ship disguised as a Klingon flagship
 Romulan ship
Hsaaja  One-man scout carried in Cuirass, property of Ael, destroyed in battle
 Romulan ship, a modified  of Commander Llunih tr'Raedheol, destroyed in battle
 Romulan ship, a modified K't'inga with a false Klingon name
 Romulan ship
 Romulan ship, destroyed in battle
 Romulan ship, destroyed in battle
 Romulan ship, a modified K't'inga with a false Klingon name
 A new variant of chess, designed by Harb Tanzer. The players are able to "rest" their pieces by temporarily taking them out of the game, but once a certain time has expired, the pieces come back into play. The game uses sophisticated transporter technology, which came in handy when Tafv's forces took over the Enterprise.
 Ael's niece, she was stripped of her rank, title, and house in front of the Senate after the incident with the Enterprise and sent into exile
 A program developed by the Romulans that generates an ion storm, which was used repeatedly to abduct ships with Vulcans on them
 20th century Earth film; while Uhura and an enthusiastic lieutenant are augmenting the Enterprise entertainment library, Kirk catches a glimpse of a scene from the film, when 's character delivers his famous line, "I coulda been somebody. I coulda been a contender!"
Bloodwing a predatory bird on Romulus, which Ael describes in similar terms to a Terran condor: on the ground, it is squat, slow-moving, and rather easy to contain, yet once it is airborne it is unrivaled in both airspeed and elegance.

External links 
 
 

de:Der Feind – mein Verbündeter
fr:My Enemy, My Ally
Novels