The Healing (Star Trek: TOS story by Charlotte Frost)

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	The Healing
Author(s):	Charlotte Frost
Date(s):	1987
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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The Healing is a Kirk/Spock story by Charlotte Frost.

art by Jackie Zoost

art by Jackie Zoost

art by Jackie Zoost

It tied for the 1988 Surak Award for 'Best Long Story.'

It was published in the print zine First Time #14.

Summary

"Kirk comforts Spock after his aborted pon farr, so then Spock is able to comfort Kirk when he is notified of his nephewʼs death."

title page

Excerpt

"Kirk moved through the corridor of deck five, relieved that the Enterprise was making good time to Altair VI and that he had been able to get a few hours of necessary sleep to recover from his most recent ordeal."

From the Author

Many years after this story was published, the editor would enjoy telling people, “Charlotte Frost sent me this story and said [insert arrogant tone] ‘This is the best story I’ve ever written.’”

Hey, what’s wrong with that? It was. *g*

This was the seventh story I wrote. I sent it to a two new publishers who had announced their intention to produce their first zine. They sounded ambitious, so I wanted them to have this brilliant masterpiece I’d written.

Months went by. (No email back then.) And then I wrote them and asked how the zine was coming. They finally returned the story, asked if it was okay to keep a copy because they loved reading it so much, and said they’d cancelled the zine, due to lack of submissions.

Okay, great. I then sent it on to my favorite editor, who was very fast at producing zines. The story was printed and I nervously awaited the reaction. Back then, one could only get feedback via the zine editor. Within a few weeks, I got an envelope in the mail with *twenty-three* -- count ‘em, twenty-three! – letters with comments. It was so, so gratifying to see that the readers agreed with me that the story was brilliant.

What’s more, there were publications back then that printed zine reviews. (Fandom used to be so much fun for writers. Nothing like the drab, dismissive atmosphere it is now.) “The Healing” was prominently featured in a couple of lengthy reviews. I remember, in particular, one reviewer referred to it (amongst other wonderful things) as “masterfully crafted”. Squee!

But the accolades weren’t over yet. An organization got together to do K/S awards. “The Healing” was up for Best Long Story. It tied for first place (I got a certificate!)

And so, the seventh story I’d ever written was my best ever. And I knew I could never top that. I’d never write an outstanding story again. (Hee!)

Seriously, though, it’s a good thing I got two awards that year. My K/S stories continued to be nominated, but I never won again. Once I went to S&H fandom, I wasn’t even on the map until C Frost had been in the fandom for five years. Stories much loved now were bypassed completely in the nominations (in one case, not even included on the list of eligible stories, even though SH was a very small fandom at the time.) In TS fandom, I been little nominated and haven’t won.

I don’t participate in awards anymore. I’ve been losing for 18 straight years and can do without the constant reminder that I don’t measure up.

But it was fun winning back in 1988, for stories I felt well deserved it. Fandom was such a blast back then.

Reactions and Reviews

This is a loving and gentle novelette with a great deal of telepathic interplay, but there seemed to be very little dramatic tension in it. Over and over the characters would develop some conflict within their minds, and it would be dissipated instead of continuously building toward a climax. This lessened the impact of the story as a whole. I also wonder whether the tale couldn't have been told in fewer pages.

Am I becoming jaded or what? This story feels dull and that isn’t exactly something I’d like to say. Dead moments followed by dead moments. Is it my ineptitude to experience what she wants me to see or is it something else all together? I don’t know.

I think that this story won one of K/S fandom's awards that were being administered back in the late 80s. It's almost a novella. This is the time immediately after the events of Amok Time. Kirk is really concerned about Spock's physical and emotional condition. I like the way the captain relays McCoy's prescription of rest; he does it with delicacy and an understanding of Spock's feelings and his relationship with the doctor.

Anyway, the story is really a series of conversations between captain and first officer. Early on Spock says, "I regret that you have taken me off the duty roster. I do not wish...to be alone when my rest period is over." To which Kirk obligingly replies, "I understand. I'll stop by after your eighteen hours are up." This, to me, is a small problem, since I just can't see this quiet and tender and totally accommodating relationship between captain and first officer before they are lovers, it just seems a bit too much.

Eventually Spock reveals how he craves mental contact with someone, especially now that the bond with T'Pring is gone, and Kirk offers himself for a meld. The melds are written well, although primarily as a type of telepathic dialogue, which I don't always see, but if you take this approach, this is a good way to write a meld. I like the presence of colors in the melds, and it's something I have borrowed from Charlotte for some of my own writing. The rest of the story includes a series of melds between Kirk and Spock that get progressively "deeper" and more mentally intimate.

There's an interlude halfway through the story where the Enterprise picks up a woman scientist who has just lost her husband on an isolated planet where they two were alone. Turns out that the woman and her husband had known Spock when he was a cadet, and she and Kirktalk about him. There are some connections between her loneliness and Spock's, but I am never quite sure that they are necessary for the story.

Eventually Spock gets to the point where he is able to reveal his pain to Kirk at the severing of the parental bond with Sarek. I've seen this scenario used in other stories. I don't know who came up with it first, but here it's handled with sensitivity and also to propel the story. Someday I think I'd like to read it in real time as it actually happens to Spock as he leaves Vulcan, or maybe see it from Sarek's point of view. That would be neat.

A reciprocal revelation occurs when Kirk learns that Peter, his nephew, has been killed in an accident. I never have thought that it was necessary; the parallelism is a bit too evident.

Finally there's a meld between Kirk and Spock where "It occurred to him that they had dropped down to a level of the meld deeper than they had ever gone before. The sense of euphoria was even stronger here and he wondered if he would ever wish to return to the physical world. After a moment he realized that he was still aware of the physical world—and it was curious how the lips across from him were so soft, how the long, lean, but firm body melted against his." Yep, they get sexual in a meld, shocking both of them, but you know Kirk. Nothing ventured, nothing gain. He eventually says, 'We've both enjoyed the melds so much. Do you think we could enjoy a...a physical relationship as well?"

The rest is history as they two forge a sexual relationship while they are on shore leave. Charlotte Frost has a very quiet, intimate way of writing sex scenes that is especially well suited to the tone of this entire story. This is a great story to read at leisure on a quiet winter evening.