The Kobayashi Maru
Kirk and his crew face certain death… while journeying deep into their own pasts!

The Kobayashi Maru is a Pocket TOS novel – #47 in the numbered series – written by Julia Ecklar. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in .

Summary 
From the book jacket
 A freak shuttlecraft accident – and suddenly Captain Kirk and most of his senior officers find themselves adrift in space, with no hope of rescue, no hope of repairing their craft, or restoring communications – with nothing, in short, but time on their hands.

Time enough for each to tell the story of the Kobayashi Maru – the Starfleet Academy test given to command cadets. Nominally a tactical exercise, the Kobayashi Maru is in fact a test of character revealed in the choices each man makes – and does not make.

Discover now how Starfleet Cadets Kirk, Chekov, Montgomery Scott, and Sulu each faced the Kobayashi Maru… and became in turn Starfleet officers.

Kirk's story relates how, after failing the test more than once and becoming more and more obsessed with it, he cheats and reprograms the test to make it think he was so famous and respected in battle, that the simulation adversaries instantly surrender and offer assistance.

Chekov's story begins the review of his decision to self destruct the ship so that it doesn't fall into enemy hands. It then relates his (and his classmates) rather humorous misinterpretation of a Starfleet Academy exercise in which the class is left on an empty space station and ordered to 'stay alive.' Many booby traps, ambushes, and hacking into computers later, Chekov ends the exercise by 'suicide stunning' himself and several of his former teammates (who had captured him) so that nobody wins. He later learns that Kirk successfully completed the exercise with high honors, having ensured that no one died.

Scotty's account of the test relates how a teacher and mentor at the Academy recognized Scott's genius at engineering but also recognized Scott's family's need for him to complete command school for family honor. When Scott lasts longer than anyone else ever on the test, using his knowledge of engineering and theory, the same teacher has him kicked out of the school, pronouncing him unfit to command, as one of the theories he had used only worked in the program, but wouldn't in real life (Scott knew this). This allowed Scott to return to engineering full time… his true love.

Sulu's story relates his relationship to his great-grandfather. Soon after Sulu enters Command School, his grandfather makes the decision to stop taking treatments for a terminal cancer, thus choosing to end his life with dignity. While this estranges the pair for the final several weeks of the grandfather's life, it teaches Sulu the value of learning to let go… a lesson he uses to refuse to even try to rescue the Kobayashi Maru during the test. 

Between each story is related how the four work together to survive and send a signal to call for help from the Enterprise.

Background information 
 The ship pictured on the cover is a Tritium-class ship, designed by Rick Sternbach for the Spaceflight Chronology. It is not clear if it was meant to represent the fictional space vessel Kobayashi Maru. In the original design it was a prototype Starfleet ship that only entered limited production, not a Class III neutronic fuel carrier.
 In the Interplay game , the Kobayashi Maru level can be reprogrammed as Kirk described in this novel. Even the dialogue is similar.
 The image of the Kobayashi Maru itself on the cover would later be used as the basis for the design of the ship when it made a appearance of it in 2009's . 
 Bookriot.com ranked the novel among as one of the best Star Trek novels.

Characters 
James Kirk
Hikaru Sulu
Montgomery Scott
Pavel Chekov
Kojiro Yance  Fictional character, captain of Kobayashi Maru
Kozar  Fictional character, Klingon commander of IKS Kh'yem. 
Kozar would appear again in a  issue of Star Trek (DC volume 2).
Howell  Admiral who supervises Kirk's test and serves on the evaluation board for Scotty's.
Walgren  Admiral who supervises Scotty's test and serves on the evaluation board for Kirk's.
Aldous Kramer  Commodore, Chekov's cadet bloc instructor and test supervisor, also supervises a subsequent command scenario in which Chekov participates.
Rachel Coan  Commodore, Sulu's cadet bloc instructor and test supervisor.
Hohman  Commodore who serves on the evaluation board for Scotty's test.
Shoji  Commodore who serves the evaluation board for Scotty's test.
Constrev  Lt. Commander, member of Howell's staff and friend of Kirk's at the academy. Human, but born and raised on Vulcan.
Sasha Charles  Chekov's academy classmate and girlfriend at the time of his Kobayashi Maru test.
Robert Cecil  Chekov's best friend at the academy. 
Alan Baasch  Chekov's academy classmate and arch-rival.
Tetsuo Inomata  Sulu's great-grandfather, affectionately called "Poppy".
Maria Theresa Perez-Salazar  Sulu's academy classmate, and his first officer during his Kobayashi Maru test.

 References Halley : Enterprise shuttlecraft.
IKS Kh'yem : Fictional Klingon battle cruiser faced in the Kobayashi Maru scenario, commanded by Commander Kozar.Kobayashi Maru : Fictional 3rd class neutronic fuel carrier under Captain Kojiro Vance.
   ship Cadet Chekov commanded a simulation of.
  Constitution-class ship Cadet Sulu commanded a simulation of.
USS Saratoga: Constitution-class ship Cadet Scott commanded a simulation of. This would seem to be a reference to the heavy cruiser USS Saratoga mentioned in the Star Fleet Technical Manual and the Federation Ship Recognition Manual.

Timeline 
 2244: Scotty's test.
 2254: Kirk's test.
 2259: Sulu's test.
 2267: Chekov's test.
 2273: The shuttle accident.

External links 

 

de:Kobayashi Maru (TOS-Roman)

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Audiobooks