The Choice (Star Trek: TOS story by Jim Ausfahl)

Star Trek TOS Fanfiction
Title:	The Choice
Author(s):	Jim Ausfahl
Date(s):	2003
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
External Links:
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The Choice is a gen Star Trek: TOS story by Jim Ausfahl.

It was published in Antares #12.

Reactions and Reviews

Jim Ausfahl's "The Choice" had a lot of interesting ideas in it: a futuristic monarchy, the musician's medical condition, and Spock being framed for murder. I thought the story suffered, however, by trying to do too many things, and perhaps for not being the intense murder mystery I thought it would be. Once the authorities concluded Spock wasn't a suspect, and that the "abducted" musician wasn't in any immediate danger, all the intensity and urgency went out of the story. The idea of Sarek and Spock being able to win a music competition seemed contrived to me, but I know the idea exists elsewhere in fandom, so that's just me, I guess. I thought the engineering competition was an interesting idea, but could have involved more intrigue and peril. And the Klingon villain sort of came out of nowhere. There are lots of interesting elements to the story, but it could use more focus.

Federation membership is coming up for vote on planet Walven, a modern society with a tourist-attracting medieval monarchy full of pomp and circumstance. With suitable raoyal foolishness, Kirk is knighted, made Duke of a volcanic hunk of ocean, and then asked to find the villains who assassinated King Peter's father by beaming out some snow to create an avalanche. A variety of goodwill competitions are set up between Enterprise crew and planetary teams, including soccer and junkyard engineering to build playgrounds, and crewmembers are sent down to spend money touristing. Spock participates in a concert with galactically famous pianist Amanda Adeodata, is accused of kidnap when she disappears, is cleared by his rare blood type, and solves the mystery - she was not, as supposed by the government and media, taken by the Tower of Ares military sect, but staged her disappearance in order to have some privacy with her new husband. Meanwhile Kirk serves as bait for the assassins by taking the same fatal ski route as the former king, blithely giving McCoy his fatal line, "What could go wrong?" What goes wrong is Klingon nemesis Karg; King Peter dispatches Karg, but not before Karg sends Kirk over a cliff - but planetary doctors manage to repair the damage. All is well, the mysteries solved, and Walven votes for membership.