Bivouac

Fanfiction
Title:	Bivouac
Author(s):	Melinda Shreve, Laura Scarsdale and Mary Louise Dodge
Date(s):	1977
Length:
Genre(s):	gen
Fandom(s):
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Bivouac is a Star Trek: TOS story by Melinda Shreve, Laura Scarsdale and Mary Louise Dodge.

It was published in Delta Triad #4.

Part of a Series

• DT1: The Alphan Primaries
• DT2: Companion Four
• DT3: To a Time Divided
• DT4: Bivouac
• DT5: Rigel Five
• DT5: Mission and Men
• DTSI: Autumn's Echo

Summary

His patience at an end, Kirk orders his Science Officer and Medical Officer to settle their differences, once and for all, one way or another.

Another summery: Deeply concerned by the antagonism that exists between McCoy and Spock, Kirk sends them on an isolated one week survey in the hope that it will bring them closer.

From the editorial: "Laura and I have come up with a McCoy/Spock story to replace "Autumn's Echo" [which appears in Supplement 1] in DT 4 called "Bivouac"—we figure they must have 'had it out' at one time or another." (NOTE: despite this description from the editorial of issue #3, this story is a gen one.)

Reactions and Reviews

Trying to force McCoy and Spock into amity, Kirk sends them on a mission to investigate an abandoned fish-hatchery station on a water planet. The situation and the execution are both quite good. They find that life virtually disappears from the waters every 33 years, and the population of dolphins, introduced by the aquaculture team who left 100 years before because of the Romulan war, is doomed to be eaten or starve in the aftermath of a Leviathan's feeding cycle. The only major flaw is that Spock and McCoy rather blithely agree to destroy this creature of the natural fauna - they justify it with the premise that the Leviathan is on some evolutionary juggernaut and has nearly destroyed its planet, so must be sacrificed. The teamwork between the pair of Federi and the dophin herd is well-done, charming where it could have been silly.

'Bivouac' and it is excellent. Seldom have I seen the interaction between Spock and McCoy played out so well.

So this time, instead of race horses, it's dolphins starring in the major story 'Bivouac.' It is early in the five-year mission; McCoy and Spock have yet learned nothing of each other's character. To conciliate them, Kirk sends them off alone together to a century-abandoned project involving Terran dolphin dolphins on this watery planet. There, a mystery brews with the dolphins, 17 hogsheads of a fry, and a 33-year cycle. To solve it, McCoy and Spock must form a 'modus convivendi' and incidentally run some personal risks. It's a neat story!

The prize story in thish is "Bivouac," a Shreve-Dodge-Scarsdale joint effort, combining humor and wit with one of the best fan-written stories I have ever read. A lovely dolphin tale, among use of the technology developed by Starfleet during the last two years of the E's five-year mission -- The Aquashuttle. It sets up a rather rare situation with McCoy and Spock deliberately sent off together by Kirk on an assignment which (he hopes) will teach them to understand each other's strengths and weakness better. The suspenseful story is beautifully developed as the two work together to save the lives of the dolphins, and the Doctor and Spock do learn considerable respect for each other.