The Outsider (Star Trek: TOS story by Kathy Stanis)

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	The Outsider
Author(s):	Kathy Stanis
Date(s):	1998
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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The Outsider is a Kirk/Spock story by Kathy Stanis.

It was published in the print zine Scattered Stars #11.

Summary

"A young Jim Kirk is freed from his sterile life in the “City” by his mother who sends him out to journey to “Enterprise” and the alien Spock."

Reactions and Reviews

Kathy Stanis has written an unusual story. It's derivative of several famous sci-fi novels mixed together, but it's definitely a first for me in K/S. I could only think of BRAVE NEW WORLD and FARENHEIT 451, but there's only a little similarity, very little, with those. The story grabs your attention right off and keeps you interested and guessing about what's going on. It's a mystery story. You find out facts little by little and make your guesses about how it's going to end and revise them occasionally. I almost guarantee you that your guesses won't be any more right than mine were when you come to the end. There's a twist or two or three along the way. And not everything is explained by any means. There's a haunting sense of mystery, incompleteness, and loss to this story which I'm sure is definitely intended. Despite its length, Kathy manages to evoke a poetic feel to the story. Nicely written and good dialogue with an extremely unusual plot.

This is a very alternate, alternate universe story, very well written, very gripping—but ultimately very disappointing. I was thoroughly enjoying it until when it finished It reads to me like the beginning of a novel—or the beginning and middle of a novella—but in either case I felt it lacks an ending, and I wonder if this is because the writer wasn't quite sure where to take it after she got Kirk and Spock together.

There are so many unanswered questions. How did Kirk's mother escape from the City in the first place, who was his father, how did the other woman manage to have free thought, what happened to the people of Enterprise, how did the society get like that in the first place, what was the purpose of the City Those are just six of the many questions I had before the end.

As I said, I feel this was an idea that could easily have been—and should have been—developed into a much longer story. How about it, Kathy? What you have here is a marvelous teaser for a novel.

Another unique and terrific story from one of fandom’s most original writers and most creative talent. Kathy has infused a sci-fi story of a post-apocalyptic Earth society with K/S and the results are wonderfully involving. We meet Kirk with shaved head and uniform mind (very “THX”) in his cubicle in this dome-enclosed city. The entire first part of the story focuses on his growing awareness of his differences and his eventual escape to the “Outside”. All of Kirk’s dreams, longings, fantasies and beliefs are so carefully and fully realized. We follow along with him as he learns about himself and the world and it’s almost as if he “grows up” before our eyes when he makes his journey to Spock.

The story is very difficult to describe, but it’s really good science fiction combined with the intimate emotions of K/S. In fact, I almost didn’t miss Spock for the long first part of the story because it was so well- written and involving.

A large part of my involvement was because of the wonderfully complex relationship Kirk has with his mother. I loved the character of the mother and thoroughly enjoyed the outrageousness (this is a Kathy Stanis story after all!) of a scene between them the night before Kirk leaves on his journey (to “Enterprise, Iowa” which I thought was so clever). Kirk’s journey takes on a double meaning—not only to get to the “Outside”, but also to get to the inside of himself as he learns about his body, sensations, and emotions. All this was so beautifully shown and so well- written.

However (darn—there is a “however”), the rest of the story after he meets Spock does not hold up to the first part. Kirk meets Spock (the scene is almost anti- climatic—I had expected something momentous) and they travel together and have sex. I almost felt as if the story could have ended the moment Kirk found Spock because their scenes together really didn’t spark. I’m not sure if that’s the right word, but what happened between them was gentle and loving, but perhaps required intensity.

Also, Spock gives a strange explanation (one I didn’t totally understand) of Kirk’s mother really being crazy, or I guess I should say mad. I didn’t understand this or why it was even necessary to the story. And there were no other people there—no Uhura or McCoy as I had expected.

I felt the story promised a dramatic conclusion to Kirk’s journey, but instead just ended gently. By itself, this part of the story was just fine—nothing wrong with it at all—but pales when preceded by the strong drama of the first part.

However (another however), just about every story that Kathy has done has been wonderfully different and always beautifully written, as is this one.

This is the story of # 51947—James Tiberius Kirk. The story of a journey to Enterprise, Iowa, where people could feel and enjoy life. A journey to Spock, who had a name given to him by his mother and father. And a story about Mary Kirk, a woman who cared for her son and others, on the verge of madness from her fate, but nevertheless going on and helping. I like the stories by this author very much and this one is no exception. It's so unique, so wonderful. Very A/U, sometimes reminding me of a movie I've seen a long time ago, where people lived also in a dome, because outside was everything destroyed. People who were young and had no knowledge about life...until a few could escape. This story had so much feeling. It touched me deeply. I only felt the ending was a bit abrupt. A beautiful ending for a poetic story like this, but I was craving for more. Spock mentioned the possible existence of other people. He also mentioned the possibility of returning to Vulcan. I wanted to see through Kirk's eyes—the Enterprise and the graves of McCoy and the others. I wanted to meet Mary again, to see if she was well. What about a sequel? There is plot enough!!

A very good science fiction story and an imaginative use of the venerable post-apocalypse genre. The story uses the conventions of this genre to excellent advantage: an anesthetized population living a mechanized, almost robotic existence; a pre-apocalypse history that has mostly been forgotten; wilderness and ruined cities outside the perimeter of social control; and return to nature as rebellion.

The author evokes the mood of the post-apocalypse society with great skill and economy—hinting evocatively at the way it functions, rather than fleshing its structure out in detail, telling us only as much as we really need to know and leaving the rest a tantalizing mystery. The nature of the cataclysm itself is left equally vague, which I felt was a wise choice since the story is about what the characters do with their situation, not how they came to be where they are. Besides, it is told through the eyes of a character (a young, A/U version of Kirk) whose understanding of his world and history is limited at best. The world of this universe’s James T. Kirk is painted gradually, a brush stroke here and there, never too many. The author allows the reader gradually to understand Kirk’s situation at much the same pace as Kirk himself gradually shakes off the control of his Brave New World masters. The match of style and content is quite masterful. Kirk’s journey through the wilderness is exquisitely written. The newness and wonder of his discovery of the natural world would be fine reading in any context, but here it is also a perfect objective correlative to Kirk’s own rebirth and coming alive. The character of Kirk’s mother was especially original and appealing. In many ways, she was the real hero of the story. Certainly she was the character whose actions most propelled it forward.

For me, the challenge of the A/U genre in K/S fan fiction is to write a story in which the parameters of the universe are different, but the A/U Kirk or Spock retains the core, the essence of his character as Kirk or Spock. Others may understand the A/U problematic differently, but to me, that it what gives the A/U story its own unique impact. It’s often a fine line to walk, especially if you are more a nurture than a nature person (as I am). Since even Kirk and Spock are to a great extent products of their “universe,” if the universe is radically different from our own, Kirk and Spock are going to be very different, too. I found it hard to see the “essential Kirk” in the young man of this story. (The character of Spock fared much better in this regard, I thought.) One could argue, convincingly, that a Kirk growing up in this society would not be anything like the Kirk we know. I don’t disagree with that, but it did keep me from feeling the peculiar frisson of seeing the essential Kirk in a completely different universe.