Ode to a Falling Star

Fanfiction
Title:	Ode to a Falling Star
Author(s):	Sharon Fuchs
Date(s):	1985
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
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Ode to a Falling Star is a Kirk/Spock story by Sharon Fuchs.

It was published in the print zine Of Course Another K/S Zine.

Summary

"The treatment to improve his eyesight goes wrong as Kirk approaches his 50th birthday."

Reactions and Reviews

The story picks up the throw-away line from ST II that Kirk is allergic to Retinax Five and runs with it. It's set a short while before the movie. After hearing of the success of the drugs on another Starfleet officer, Kirk has decided to go through the procedure to fix his eyesight. The drug is actually five drugs (hence, the name,) and during his stay in the hospital Kirk has a violent reaction to the third in the protocol. He and Spock are lovers, have been for many years, and Spock is there to help him recover after the drug almost kills Kirk.

But Spock realizes that what is making it worse for Kirk is Kirk's inability to accept his advancing age. Though not yet fifty, Kirk dreads the future and, what seems to him, its limited horizons.

What gives the story its poignancy is that it starts and ends with Spock thinking back on the experience. It has taught him to accept the passing of the years and to rejoice in every day he and Kirk have together. It is also the night before he will take the Enterprise and a shipload of cadets out on a training mission.