For other uses, see Legacy.

"Legacy" is a Waypoint anthology comic story, the TOS feature in Waypoint, Issue 2 in November 2016. It was released by IDW Publishing in honor of Star Trek's 50th anniversary and is a first-person story narrated by Yeoman Leslie Thompson.

Description[]

Learn the backstory of Yeoman Leslie Thompson, the first and ONLY female redshirt to die in the ORIGINAL SERIES!

Summary[]

The five-year mission under James T. Kirk was perhaps the most famous mission ever undertaken by the USS Enterprise. Though it secured the legacies of Spock, McCoy, and Kirk himself, it was paid for with the lives and sacrifices of countless officers, among them Engineering Officer Leslie Thompson, the only woman to die on an away team during the whole mission. And Thompson did not die in a heroic display of Starfleet morals. She was unceremoniously, and arbitrarily, killed by the whim of a power mad lunatic. A demise hardly worthy of one who had done so much.

Such as during the crisis with the Terrans where the command crew of the ISS Enterprise was returned to their universe because the then Yeoman Thompson recognized Kirk's anomalous behaviour and risked her career to rewire the transporter and send him home, not, as Spock presumed, a natural cosmic balance. Or perhaps when the doomsday machine attacked and it was Thompson who provided the final burst of power that beamed Kirk from the ruins of the USS Constellation. Or when the Galileo was hurtling towards Taurus II and it was Leslie's rewiring that allowed the Enterprise to beam the five survivors out.

But in the end, Thompson, despite living her whole life believing in Starfleet, did not get to choose her legacy. No one gets to. One can only do their best and let history decide. And while Thompson would have been content that her service would inspire at least one future officer to enlist, she would go on to inspire one of the Federation's greatest heroes.

References[]

Characters[]

Samuel Boma • Kathryn Janeway • Kelinda • James T. Kirk • James T. Kirk (mirror universe) • John Kyle • Leonard McCoy • Leonard McCoy (mirror universe) • Rojan • Montgomery Scott • Montgomery Scott (mirror universe) • Shea • Spock • Leslie Thompson • Nyota Uhura • Nyota Uhura (mirror universe) • unnamed Starfleet personnel (Leslie Thompson's wife)

Starships and vehicles[]

USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • Galileo (class F shuttlecraft)

Referenced only

Doomsday machine

Locations[]

Earth (Golden Gate Bridge • San Francisco • Starfleet Academy) • Milky Way Galaxy • Nalogen IV

Races and cultures[]

Human • Kelvan • Terran • Vulcan

States and organizations[]

Starfleet • United Federation of Planets

Science and classification[]

communicator • Kelvan belt device • PADD • stylus • transporter • tricorder

Ranks and titles[]

captain • bridge crew • cadet • engineering officer • yeoman

Other references[]

assignment patch • away mission • book • bridge • brig • corridor • five-year mission • flower • food • gas • grass • history • Jefferies tube • marriage • monument • orbit • rock • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • Starfleet uniform (2350s-2366) • Vulcan salute • transporter room • tree

Appendices[]

Related media[]

• TOS episode: "By Any Other Name": Thompson was killed by Rojan in this episode, scenes from which are redrawn.
• TOS episode: "Mirror, Mirror": The Terrans returned to their universe due to Leslie rewiring the transporter, explaining why, in later media, crossovers did not usually swap humans and Terrans.
• TOS episode: "The Doomsday Machine": Thompson was working with Scott to fix the transporter.
• TOS episode: "The Galileo Seven": Thompson appears to be performing some emergency procedure on the transporter to beam out the eponymous crew just before the shuttle burns up on re-entry, an adventure easily distinguishable by the presence of Samuel Boma in the shuttlecraft and by Uhura's dialogue.

Background[]

• Unknown to Thompson, female USS Enterprise security officer Ching was killed in 2269 by the Sackers with an incineration weapon on the planet Holox, in TOS novel: The Three-Minute Universe.
• Additionally, two security officers of unspecified sex, Jamison and Matthews, died on Delta Gamma IV in 2270 along with medical technician Miriam Raymond from an infection caused by plant spores, in TOS novel: Death's Angel.

Images[]

Connections[]

Star Trek: Waypoint Comics

#1 ("Puzzles" & "Daylily") • #2 ("The Menace of the Mechanitrons" & "Legacy") • #3 ("The Wildman Maneuver" & "Mother's Walk") • #4 ("The Fragile Beauty of Loyalty" & "Mirror, Mirror, Mirror, Mirror") • #5 ("Frontier Doctor" & "Come Away, Child") • #6 ("The Rebound Effect" & "The Fear") • Special ("Only You Can Save Yourself" & "Consider Eternity" & "My Human is Not" & "Histories") • Special 2019 ("Hearts & Bones" & "Unfathom" & "The Swift Spoke" & "The First Year")