The Longest Journey

Fanfiction
Title:	The Longest Journey
Author(s):	Carrie Ann Prentiss
Date(s):	1996
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS fusion with 2001: A Space Odyssey
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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The Longest Journey is a Kirk/Spock story by Carrie Ann Prentiss.

It was published in the print zine KaleidoScope #4.

Summary

"The Enterprise finds the Discovery, 200 years after its disappearance from its orbit around Jupiter."

Reactions and Reviews

1996

Well I was totally delighted to realize I was reading a Kirk and Spock meet HAL and Dave story! All along I was delighted. A very cool story. I'm so glad Ms. Prentiss wrote this. Not that this idea ever occurred to me, but once I realized what it was, I was surprised it hadn't been written before. Or has it? I rather recently watched "2010" again so that made reading this even better (and the story made me understand the movie better, too). (By the way. I thought the novel "2061" was really good.)

I loved the enhancing of and tying in all the details from the 2001-2010 movies with our ST lore—not an easy thing to take on. what with "the Jupiter transformation," the technical aspects of the Jupiter 1 and Hal, the ambiguous situation with Dave, and our own gray area of history around that time. To do a "sequel" to 2010, and then to make it a ST-K/S (and H/D) story on top of that. Well done, in conception and execution both. In the beginning we are given lovely little hints of how Kirk and Spock feel about each other. But I have to comment on the mixed POVs, even in the same paragraph.

The old ship is found drifting; its memory banks don't reveal what occurred 300 years ago Spock gets Hal up and running. I loved when McCoy accuses Spock of being in love with Hal. Cute.

It turns out Hal observes Kirk and Spock's love, and now has a better idea of what he feels for Dave. I liked that we were not told what Hal and Dave are up to. They want to take command of their own situation, rather than allow St art loot to make the ship, and Hal, a museum piece, and dissect Hal. Kirk and Spock want to help prevent this too. I also liked the tie-in with the M-5 incident, to show Hal he was not responsible for what happened, his human programmers were. Maybe it was some notoreful reading on my part, but I got confused: I know Dave was a non-corporeal being, but later, when things come to a head, I couldnt tell if Hal and Dave are now both non-corporeal, or corporeal but with powers outside physical limitations.

Nice sex. I wondered, though, about Spock immediately melding with Kirk, without asking.I can't decide how I feel about this: making them totally comfortable with each other when they're in bed together for the first time, as if they've been together forever. This makes for a certain lack of tension, when I think the tension is better there than not. On the other hand, being with someone of your own sex is a feeling like "coming home." Yet paradoxically, the sameness makes for a very unusual feeling too—aside from any societal taboo aspect, it might have to do with some forbidden aspect of self-love. Anyway, I canl really see this captain and his first officer being instantly comfortable the first time they're naked in bed together. Maybe their bodies fit rather nicely together, but there has to be some psychological awkwardness.

The Hal and Dave situation — an ingenious plot; and their feelings for each other; and the K/S story; all of these were seamlessly put together. A charming, fun story.

Neat "series" feel as the story opens on the bridge of the Enterprise complete with "plot an intercept course" and Spock giving data about the ship they came across. Nice little moments of Kirk's and Spock's intimate thoughts about each other.

The story is centered around finding "Hal", the computer from '2001". This premise is a terrific idea.

However, up until the love-making scene, the K/S is sort of just thrown in, scattered throughout the goings-on. Then the love-making seems to happen out of nowhere.

Speaking of the love-making, the sex is so innocent, kind of like two playful teenagers just having a good time. But enjoyable, nonetheless.

The main problem with this story is loads of telling who said what, what happened, what someone did or said all without present-time scenes or dialogue. A little of this is fine, but not when used for a majority of the events. An example would be: "Hal greeted them upon arrival and Spock informed him that their search had been successful." The paragraph continues to tell us what else had happened.

Point-of-views change constantly throughout

the story, including a number of short paragraphs in a row that switch POVS — "Spock felt...", "Kirk's spirit sang...", "Spock sank...", etc.

Some really neat stuff like how Hal observes Kirk and Spock in love and a really good use of McCoy as a balance to the anthropormorphisizing of Hal. An especially neat idea was Hal being freed of his "machine person" to become a man (and a gorgeous one at that!).

I loved how Kirk and Spock generated enough energy from their love and their having sex to free Hal! However, Kirk and Spock really figure out too easily, quite out of the blue, how to communicate with Dave.

So despite the difficulties, a very clever idea told in an ingenuous way.

A nice tie in with 2001, and an original idea. Nicely drawn characterizations. I haven't seen this author's name before and if she's a first time author, she's done a really good job. Indeed, if she's not a first time author, she's done a really good job.

2007

Wow. I love the way this begins, not just with a quote from “2001,” but reading Spock’s thoughts about the way Kirk’s voice sounds when he speaks to him with “affectionate intimacy”. Switching to Kirk’s POV as he comes on the bridge to take over the center seat from Spock, he relishes the warmth of his first officer lingering in the chair. Gosh. Nothing is going to keep me from reading on at this juncture.

And read I did. One could almost call this two stories in one. There is a finely written story of Kirk and Spock admitting their love for each other and, being decisive Starfleet officers, wasting no time in acting upon that love. It’s very nicely done, and nicely knitted into the story of Hal the computer from 2001. You see, the Enterprise crew stumbles upon Discovery One drifting in space and revives Hal. It’s easy to remember his unusual voice and tonal qualities from the movie because his dialogue is so well written and similar.

I must admit Kirk and Spock were much more lenient and understanding and much less suspicious of Hal than I. I was convinced Hal was going to do away with everyone just as he did centuries before, but that would have been too simple a plot. The interaction not only between Kirk and Spock but also between the three of them and finally a forth and unexpected character was distinctively unusual. A great deal of imagination is needed to come up with a crossover like this, and this author was successful. It’s an attention-grabbing tale.