Best of Times (Star Trek: TOS story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Best of Times
Author(s):	Toni Cardinal-Price
Date(s):	1983
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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Best of Times is a Kirk/Spock story by Toni Cardinal-Price.

It was published in the print zine Twin Destiny.

Summary

"As Kirk contemplate leaving space again, Spock surprises his lover with a birthday present."

Reactions and Reviews

1998

This is one of my favorite stories, not only in this zine, but a favorite regardless.

The story takes place in the apartment Kirk and Spock are sharing—about a year before ST:WOK. Their sexual relationship is well-established as "lovers who know each other totally". The story starts out with Kirk coming home after a meeting with McCoy. He is upset with the doctor as he has made a decision that McCoy is, as Spock says, "less than pleased by." Kirk has decided, after their second five-year mission following ST1, that he wants to return to a position similar to the Chief of Operations he held after the original mission ended. His reasons for this are that he feels Starfleet is losing sight of their original mission, and that lately they are building up their military defenses and virtually ignoring space exploration which is what he saw happening when he held the operations position in the past.

Spock, while not in total agreement with Kirk's decision, is supportive. His only wish is that he is not separated from Kirk. Kirk reassures him that will not happen, and why he wants Spock to head up the teaching program with the young cadets. He feels it is important that "those young kids be broken in the right way, and we're the ones who can do it."

He reasons that one year, possibly two, would be enough time to get Fleet "back on track" and then he could take the Enterprise back into space again. At that point, they begin to flirt, but before Kirk can get very far, Spock stops him and goes into the kitchen. He returns with a package and gives it to Kirk telling him "Happy birthday." Kirk at first is disapproving, telling Spock that he didn't want to celebrate any more birthdays and that Spock had promised him he wasn't going to get Kirk anything. Spock disagreed, telling Kirk he had simply said he would not get anything elaborate, and that if Kirk opened the present he would see that Spock "kept my word."

Kirk opens the present to find it is simply a moderately expensive bottle of wine. "A very good wine, yet Spock usually gave him something a bit more...exotic." He teases Spock, questioning the Vulcan if it was his intention to get his captain drunk. Spock, of course, denies this and they begin flirting again. Kirk suggests they take it to the bedroom and Spock readily agrees. As they arrive, he drops back to let Kirk enter first so he can have full view of what is now in there. To Kirk's stunned surprise—in place of their old bed—is a gleaming four-poster brass bed. Kirk is totally flabbergasted and can only ask Spock, "Where? How?" Spock begins to worry that Kirk is upset by his gift and begins to anxiously describe the history of the bed and its authenticity.

Knowing Kirk's fondness for antiques (now where have we heard that before?) he thought, and here he hesitates as he is unsure of Kirk's reaction. Thinking Jim is upset, Spock offers to replace it with a more suitable gift. Jim quickly reassures Spock that he isn't upset and that he has always wanted a bed like this.

The story takes a humorous turn as Spock describes how he had the bed beamed into the apartment as it was too valuable an antique to trust to conventional movers and how there may be some "residual conversation" among the customs transport officers. Kirk laughs at that as he imagines the rumors that will be flying about the subspace channels. He also finds out that the cost may, as Spock so succinctly puts it, force the two of them to "restrict our vacation leaves to this planet for the next few years."

Spock then anxiously asks Kirk if he really likes the bed and Kirk quickly reassures him it's "the best, the very best gift anyone's ever given me." The story ends with them preparing, as Kirk says, "to create our own history on this bed." I find this story very gentle and sweet. The pace is unhurried and, in typical fashion, Toni does an excellent job of keeping the two men in complete character. This story is even more believable as we know that they really do exchange birthday presents as evidenced in STII.

Although I don't think we'll ever see Spock giving Kirk a present like this on film, this short story is a real gem.