Call from the Past
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Call from the Past |
| Author(s): | Sharon Travis and Gena Moretti |
| Date(s): | 1997 |
| Length: | |
| Genre(s): | slash |
| Fandom(s): | Star Trek: TOS |
| Relationship(s): | Kirk/Spock |
| External Links: | |
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Call from the Past is a Kirk/Spock story by Sharon Travis and Gena Moretti.
It was published in the print zine Scattered Stars #10.
Summary
"Kirk, McCoy and Scotty take a vacation from their PI business at Scottyʼs uncleʼs castle, where they become embroiled in a world-wide murder case."
Reactions and Reviews
1997
Ancient Egypt! In a K/S story? That was my reaction when I started to read this, and since the former isn’t one of my burning interests I wasn’t at all sure about the story. Then I was hit over the head with the fact that in this universe Kirk, McCoy, and of all people, Scotty, were detectives. Kirk I could believe, but it took some doing for me to rationalize McCoy and especially Scotty in those roles. “But,” I thought, “hey, I paid 20 bucks for this zine and like it or not I’m going to get my money’s worth by reading every word.” It’s hard enough to dream up a plot and turn it into a readable story, but it must be many times more difficult to take someone else’s vision and show it to us on paper. I congratulate Gena for her ability to do this. The pictures drawn with her words were what made me put aside my misgivings about this extremely AU story, which, after all, turned out to be quite interesting. While it didn’t grip me to the point of “can’t put it down for a moment,” the narrative moved along at a fairly good pace and the plot was straightforward and well resolved. Since this I s a new zine I don’t want to risk giving away the plot, but after I finished reading, my only real complaint was that it took so long for Spock to make his appearance. I know it was supposed to be that way, but I’m much too impatient to wait so long when it comes to that adorable Vulcan. Congratulations to Gena, and to Sharon for coming up with a universe, the like of which I don’t believe I’ve seen before. [1]
1998
Neat ancient Egyptian theme, complete with lost treasure, intrigue, murder, immortality and a nice dose of K/S.Spock’s meeting with Kirk was very cute as he reads his mind and knows about Kirk’s sexual desire. More cute when Spock finds it affects him, as well. I loved: “In fact, he found himself wishing that he was holding a magazine, too.” That is, held strategically.
Neat set-up as all the characters are in an old mansion during a big storm! Very Agatha Christie and lots of fun as the mystery unfolds. Scotty and McCoy are there, too.
I like that Spock, being the super spy that he is (way better than old James Bond, thank you) sleeps with Eleyna/Nefertari to get information. But neither can read each other’s mind and Eleyna thinks Spock is really good in bed.
Very cute as Kirk goes to get milk and brownies (one would have thought brandy and a pizza or something) and sees Spock leave Eleyna’s room. Spock realizes he wants Kirk as a mate and wants to bond with him.
Spock goes to Kirk’s room and they kiss. Yes, an excellent first kiss: “The Vulcan whispered, ‘I wiped no kisses of Eleyna’s from any place on my body. I told her Vulcans did not kiss.’ Warm lips sought and covered cool ones.” Really nice.
They make love and Spock uncontrollably bonds with Kirk. But he doesn’t tell him until later. He does tell him that he is in a sort-of arranged marriage for fourteen years and has two kids. This doesn’t make Kirk too happy, but it definitely works out in the end, and that’s the most important.
Lots of goings-on with murder and a good bad guy and the solving of the crime. Some nice detail (and some unnecessary detail) and a good, solid plot.
I am suitably impressed that Gena and Sharon, living so far apart, were able to so successfully collaborate on a story together. Good work, ladies! [2]
Scattered Stars is a zine of AU stories, so this one, although possibly slightly more way-out than some of the stories in the series, fits in quite well. Starting in Ancient Egypt, with the burial of Queen Nefertari, it skips quickly to the discovery of her body, 3630 years later, in a hidden chamber. Stolen by archaeologist Duncan MacGregor, an uncle of Scotty's and again hidden in a secret room, she revives to continue with her plans to rule Earth - plans that the lack of technology in Egyptian times had rendered abortive. Meanwhile, Scott, Kirk and McCoy, who between them run a small but successful detective agency, decide to visit MacGregor for a holiday; and when a severe storm blows up, the party is augmented by a stormbound neighbour and Spock, deliberately by accident after his aircar has crashed. The story flows well, and it is easy enough to suspend disbelief in the continued existence of the three-thousand- plus-year-old Nefertari. The various characters are well- drawn - even the "regular" ones, whose differences from the ones in aired Trek are quite considerable.It comes in at around 47 pages, but is very full and gives the illusion of a story much longer. The plot is tightly handled and well paced, and of course Kirk and Spock are drawn to each other.
I did feel that perhaps the writers were a little unfair to the original Nefertari, who as far as I know was a perfectly blameless individual, but of course to have enough power to attempt a take-over of Earth, this character would have to be in a position of some importance on Earth, and the period of Nefertari's life was one of some change in Egypt.
One interesting point, though - I was so carried away by the whole, that when it reached its denouement some six pages from the end, I looked at what was left of the zine (close on 100 pages) and wondered what the twist was going to be - I'd been so carried away by it that I briefly had the illusion of being only a third of the way through a full- length novel! [3]
Seeing who the authors were, I prepared myself for a thoroughly enjoyable read, I'm very sorry I have to say, "that'll teach me." The plain truth, I got bored stiff, so much so that I even skipped pages (and that is a rare occurrence) until I got to the first interaction between Kirk and Spock and that doesn't happen until halfway through or so it seemed to me. The way I read it, or how it came across is that Nefertari is the main topic. She intruded way too much for me to consider her a background character only. Neither Kirk nor Spock could hold my interest. I felt no affinity with them. Give them different names and perhaps it could work. [4]
2005
Again an enjoyable story, much longer than the previous one, and with, for me, strong elements of Stargate and Conan Doyle. This story has several threads interwoven with the holiday of Kirk, Spock and McCoy with Scott at his uncle’s remote Scottish castle; the discovery and theft of Egyptian artefacts, resurrection of the mummy of an ancient queen, etc., I’ll leave the rest to the reader to discover. Not quite TOS/K/S but very readable. [5]