The Consortium Series

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	The Consortium Series
Author(s):	M.J. Merica
Date(s):	1987-1988
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
External Links:
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The Consortium Series is a Kirk/Spock series of AU stories by M.J. Merica.

They were published as a serial in Naked Times.

The Stories

• Making a Captain (in NT #14 -- "After saving the ship he is posted on, Commander Kirk is sent to Vulcan to participate in a survival course with the Vulcan, Spock.")
• Taking Command (in NT #15 -- "Now bonded, Kirk takes command of the Enterprise with Spock as his first officer.")
• The Safe Zone (in NT #16 -- "The Enterprise is ordered on patrol duty until changing circumstances pull them into the war with Romulus.")
• Groundswell (in NT #17 -- "Kirk and Spock are temporarily sent to Earth to recruit Terrans to help in the war against the Romulans.")
• Making Peace (in NT #18 -- "The Enterprise is sent to pick up a Klingon delegation who want the Consortium to join them in a war with the Romulans.")
• The Velvet Glove (in NT #20 -- "With Terrans now unbridled, the Enterprise is sent to find a new planet for Earthʼs expanding population.")
• Detente (in NT #21 -- "A/U: The Enterprise picks up one more crewmember before heading out on her 5 year missio, a Russian ensign who Kirk distrusts on sight.")

art by Dragon in Naked Times #20 for "The Velvet Glove"

Reactions and Reviews

I normally do not like serials. I have several zines where there is part of a story, and some of these serials were never finished, for whatever reason. This one, however, I do like. Each story is complete in itself, though it helps to know what came before; I therefore photocopied the stories from the zines (which I had bought, I hasten to add), to keep the zines entire, yet have the series as a coherent whole.

This is an AU series; no Federation here - Vulcan is head of the Consortium. About a century earlier, Vulcan had "taken over" Earth, banning nuclear weapons but allowing wars with conventional weapons. Top military personnel were accepted, by invitation, into Starfleet, where they could rise to become Captain of a Starship; but each Human Captain had a Vulcan First Officer to whom they were bonded.

As the series begins, war with the Romulans is imminent. This, however, is more of a plot device to allow the development of the relationship between Kirk and Spock than an important part of the series.

In the first story, Kirk and Spock bond. In the second, Kirk decides that in his opinion, the Human halves of each pairing are becoming too "vulcanised" - "You are bonded to him, not in bondage" is probably one of my favourite lines from this story as he tries to persuade one of the other Humans to lighten up. In the third story, the Enterprise receives a distress signal; Scott and Uhura join the ship; and they begin to suspect that the Romulans are short of dilithium.

The fourth story sees Kirk returning to Earth on a PR mission - there are fears that Earth resents the Vulcans and might feel the Romulans would be a more sympathetic partner - and makes contact with McCoy.

In the fifth story, a group of Klingons comes on board - a diplomatic party that Kirk dislikes on sight. The Klingons, too, are at war with the Romulans; but when the Enterprise comes on a lone and helpless Romulan vessel being attacked by three Klingons, Kirk instinctively acts to save the lives of the three surviving Romulans on the ship, in spite of the arguments of the Klingon Ambassador.

The above is the main part of the series; however, there were a couple of follow-up stories. With the Romulan war terminated the Enterprise is assigned a five-year mission to explore uncharted space... with an almost entirely Human crew; and just before they leave, Chekov comes aboard - a last-minute addition to the crew. Kirk dislikes him for two reasons - first, he is Russian (in this series, the Cold War apparently is still in existence); second, he refused to bond with a Vulcan.

If there were any more stories in this series, I didn't, unfortunately, get them - but I was left with the feeling that the final line of the last story I have should have been "To be continued..."; there were two or three loose ends that needed to be picked up, but in a later story, given that it was a series, would have been logical.

I would very much like to see more of M J Merica's writing. The style is easy to read and there are touches of humour throughout. The characterisations of the regular crew (these are AU characters, with certain differences from "our" characters, remember) are convincing; the writer's own characters are equally well-drawn.

None of the stories are particularly long; however, it could be worth trying to get hold of the requisite issues of Naked Times just to read this series.

[Making a Captain]: Without being aware of it, you are drawn into an AU where an Earth/Vulcan consortium exists, readying for war against the Romulans. Kirk and Spock are alone in the desert, on what could be any landing party. It is through Kirk's ruminations of their meeting that we learn the difference. An interesting procedure for Starship command teams exists in this universe—a very clever one, where the pon farr is used, triggered even, to the good of the service. It makes for a short but interesting diversion.

[The Velvet Glove]: THE VELVET GLOVE a is yet another story in the "Consortium" series, and it's probably the best yet. When I heard that this series had concluded in a previous issue of NT, I was sorry to see it end, so this sequel was a welcome addition to the zine.

[Groundswell]: GROUNDSWELL Is the 4th part of the Consortium series which has been appearing In NT. In this segment. Kirk and Spock must visit Earth in order to "preach" the Consortium to Terra. Kirk finds it an abominably boring prospect and through his Ingenious efforts, manages to land himself and Spock In the 23rd Century equivalent of a bar room brawl. Humorous yet effective, a nice turning point in this series. ABOUT TIME is a story that starts off with a bang (literally and figuratively), and which doesn't let up until it concludes almost 25 pages later. This Is a very thoughtful story, in that it explores the K/S relationship through the medium of Kirk's dreams - induced partially by Spock through a meld. I've only read one other story by this author, but her work seems to be consistently well-written. ABOUT TIME is a sexy story as well as being a well-thought-out piece. Don't miss it.

[Detente]: DETENTE is described as "the second epilogue to The Consortium Series", and if the previous installments are as good at this story, I'm going to have to update my collection of NAKED TIMES real soon. Since I only got into collection about a year ago, I missed the vast majority of this "Consortium Series", so I don't feel qualified to actually review this story on its own. In essence, the writing here is excellent, fast-paced and believable. The story itself is interesting and original - something that, in itself, was enough to keep me turning the pages right through to the end.