Gold Key Comics reprinted the first issue of their Star Trek comic, Planet of No Return in March of 1975. But the Human Adventure continued in May. This time, there was a story by Alan Moniz, art by Alberto Giolitti, and I’m pretty sure a cover painting, my favorite of the series so far, by George Wison.

The issue’s splash page hints that an old woman has some strange cosmic power that connects her to a nearby star that is about to go nova, and Kirk believes she is about to explode!

The story opens with the Enterprise conducting remote observation of a star, called Isis, which is going to go nova sometime in the next 48 hours. But new scans suggest that despite being classified as uninhabited, life signs are being detected.

Kirk asks Uhuru (seriously guys? Still. It’s Uhura, and while we’re at it get her skin tone right would you?) to pinpoint the life sign on the planet. It’s a huge reading, and Uhura doesn’t understand how previous Federation expeditions could have missed it.

Kirk arranges to beam down to the planet. He’s joined by Spock, Uhura and Chapel. The large signal seems to only have a small presence on the surface, and that is confusing to everyone. Sulu and Scotty remind the party that they only have a 24 hour window. And though they only make a very brief appearance, I was delighted to see those cool Federation backpacks making a return appearance.

Beaming down to the the planet, the group finds themselves driven by a series of electrical bolts along a path that funnels them straight to a giant temple. They are welcomed inside by a strange being, an old woman, who knows who they are. She refers to herself as the sun-god incarnate, Isis. And she claims to have summoned them to her and that they wish to see her die. It’s easy to figure out that she’s the physical and intelligent representation of the dying sun. It takes the rest of the landing party a while to catch on to that thought.

In fact, Kirk thinks she’s out of her tree. He, Spock and Uhura leave Chapel to mind Isis, and they go looking for answers, unfortunately they are unable to depart the temple’s grounds. When tthey return to the temple’s interior they find Chapel suffering from heatstroke. They are unable to beam up to the Enterprise, because the star’s solar flares are preventing it. The starship is also unable to contact them, and can do nothing but wait desperately in orbit.

While Isis offers no help, Spock and Kirk seek out a path into the planet’s interior, believing that the civilization must have migrated below the surface. There they discover a long deserted and ruined city. And conveniently, Spock stumbles across some history tapes that will explain everything, and they are somehow able to be viewed telepathically.

The legends and history of the people are related to the two officers, allowing them to fully understand what happened and what is actually going on. Returning to the surface, they find that Uhura and Chapel both agree to Isis’ right to die. And she shares her true nature with Spock as she calls out her farewells.

As the star goes nova, it is in fact, Isis, the landing party miraculously appears on the Enterprise, and are able to make their escape before the sun explodes and destroys the solar system. Isis was the sun in corporeal form, and it causes the crew to wonder about the true nature of stars, and the universe at large as they continue to boldly go.

The Human Adventure continues with issue 31, The Final Truth.