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 "Zoe Querez/Qat Zaldana" was named after Zoë Saldana.

Cover gallery

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
Novels
Scribe Award nominees