The Lotus Eaters

Star Trek AOS Fanfiction
Title:	The Lotus Eaters
Author(s):	aldora89
Date(s):	2011
Length:	93594
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: AOS
External Links:	The Lotus Eaters (LJ) AO3 FFnet
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The Lotus Eaters is a Kirk/Spock story by aldora89.

Summary: Stranded on the planet Sigma Nox while searching for a missing away team, Spock and Kirk find themselves pitted against a disturbing native life form. With the captain out of commission on a regular basis and Spock struggling to preserve his stoicism, staying alive is difficult enough – but when a slim chance for escape surfaces, their resolve is truly put to the test. Together they must fight for survival in the heart of an alien jungle, and in the process, uncover the mystery of the planet’s past. Slow build K/S.

Reactions and Reviews

This was fantastically done. I'm not a big Star Trek fan, but I could still feel how authentic the characters were. I adored the planet Stigma Nox and all the very original ideas, especially the bulbweed. Also, Spock and Jim? Hot, very hot.

Rather long, a little slow and frustrating in places but sturdy plot and very well written :)

This is a reboot K/S story, done for the 2011 Star Trek big bang. It's very realistic, and gritty but all the hardships were very believable, and the science wasn't wonky or random technobabble (always a pet peeve for me, I can't stand stories full of bat-science :) Add to this excellent characterization, and you got a nice long enjoyable read.

The Enterprise receives a distress call from a science vessel that has run into trouble surveying a newly discovered world. Landing parties beamed down and made scheduled check-ins for a while, then stopped. They'd already been missing for three days when the Enterprise arrived. The area they were exploring was lush jungle, and sensors couldn't pick the crew out of the riotous life-signals. A team from the Enterprise beams down -- Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the obligatory trio of security officers, all well-equipped for landing party duty (the whole story is full of little things like this, the kind of stuff you find yourself thinking every time Our Heroes beam down carrying nothing but a hand-phaser and a communicator. Here they had full packs, water, and rations.) For a while it's just another routine survey; some anxiety re the missing scientists, but also Spock checking out interesting species and all of them noticing how weird it looks with all the plants on this world having red foliage instead of green. It's an odd sort of jungle; there are not very many different species visible, given the temperature and rainfall data, and Spock is not sure why that is so. Not only the foliage is red; so is the ground and so are most of the non-plant life-forms. The only exception is a sort of giant bulb that grows in its own little clearing, devoid of other life -- these are purple, green, or blue. Fairly early on they find one of the missing crewmen, in very poor condition, delirious and covered in scrapes and bruises. McCoy beams up with him, and the rest spread out to look for the other missing people. Kirk checks in with the ship a little later and is informed that there is static building in the atmosphere, that comms and transport are threatened. He sends the others back, he and Spock are going to keep searching. They are almost done with the call when the Enterprise is threatened, chased and fired on by a fleet of unfamiliar vessels. He orders Sulu to keep the shields up and get the ship to safety; the landing party will survive until they can return. Reluctantly, they leave. Shortly after that Spock turns around and Kirk is nowhere to be seen, only a trail of broken foliage. The tricorder cannot find him, and all Spock can do is follow the trail. He catches up just in time to see Kirk, along with a horde of the local insectoids, run across a clearing and into the top of one of the giant bulb-weeds, which has opened so that they can do so. The plant itself is glowing brightly now and seems to be the source of the growing EM static noted earlier. Spock tries to phaser the plant open so he can go in and grab Kirk, but he only manages a small cut before the phaser itself is slagged and useless. His tricorder and communicator are likewise slagged. He fights through the horde of insectoids and manages to reach inside and pull Kirk out, but that's not the end of his trouble. The captain is incoherent, heavily drugged, and will not stop trying to reenter the plant. Spock has to restrain him, and the effect doesn't wear off until the sun has come up, whereupon Kirk is hungover and thrashed but at least is himself again. They take their fried equipment apart only to find none of it is salvageable. They have their e- rations, water, and first aid supplies, but no comms, no way to contact the ship. All they can do is make camp and try to survive until the Enterprise can return -- assuming she survived the hostiles' attack. To make matters worse, as soon as the sun goes down, Kirk becomes entranced again, struggling to go to the nearest bulb-weed. Spock has to forcibly restrain him and as a result gets no sleep. In the morning the captain is rational again, but their situation is grim. They survive like this for a number of days, hoping every day to see a friendly landing party, but it doesn't happen. Every night Kirk is drawn toward the bulb-weed, and Spock has to restrain him. They had hoped that after enough time went by without him actually touching the stuff the effect would decline, but it doesn't. Finally one day they see a fiery re-entry trail, and figure out that it was probably the Galapagos, the science vessel they had originally tried to help. It's become obvious to both of them that they are on their own now, and they decide to try hiking to the crash site in hopes of salvaging some not-ruined equipment; this will require crossing some mountains, but they're not the Himalayas, the crossing should be doable. As they climb higher, they find fewer bulb- weeds and greater diversity of life; they also meet another stranded traveler, a reptilian who calls herself Longclaw. She is the only surviving member of her own crew, the rest were killed by the local apex predators, one of which had nearly killed Kirk and Spock at one point. They elect to join forces and keep heading for the crashed ship.

The bulk of this story is the interactions between Kirk and Spock, and later Longclaw, the effects of what they're going through and how they manage to survive same; I've probably bored you all to death with my blathering, but the story itself isn't boring anywhere. Rather it is exciting and a grueling adventure. The way they finally manage to get back is very realistic, and for dessert you get to enjoy Kirk reaming out an annoying admiral, always a favourite for me. This is a great story, and if you go and read it ye'll enjoy it very much!

This is one of my ultimate faves. Like the best K/S fics, it remembers that part of Star Trek’s appeal was the whole *exploration* aspect of space travel, and so the author has taken the time to build a very complex world in which Kirk and Spock must survive. This fic also has my favorite OC of all time.

This fic is awesome. So well written and such an interesting story. Not as dark as the warnings make it seem, but definitely this spooky undercurrent. The mystery of what happened to the planet and what is happening to Jim is compelling and a bit creepy. I loved their relationship here and the sloooow build. It's perfect. And Longclaw is so freaking awesome!! Just such an impressive fic!

The plot of this one is amazing. The author does the most amazing job at building the planet and the weird and horrifying stuff that goes on in it.

Well, okay, maybe this one is in order. Lotus Eaters is my absolute favorite fic. Survival fic with the best slow-build K/S I've come across and ending with some of the most realistic and honest sex. None of this "fluffy bunnies made love and everything was perfect and happy, the end.

Inspired Fanworks

Art

• Deep orange glow by aloiinthesky
• Lotus Eaters speedpaint by gunjanjoshi