The Quality of Command

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	The Quality of Command
Author(s):	Ellen O'Neil
Date(s):	1992
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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The Quality of Command is a Kirk/Spock story by Ellen O'Neil.

It was published in the print zine T'hy'la #11.

Summary

"Will their new relationship affect Kirk’s ability to command? Or will his insistence on keeping Spock out of danger consign them both to ground assignments?"

Reactions and Reviews

The story “Quality of Command” by Ellen O'Neil appears in T’hy’la 11 (1992), the first of four stories that would be printed within two years. Here Kirk’s solicitude for Spock as his lover undermines their ability to function as a command team. I remember when this story first appeared, how there was quite a bit of conversation about it as readers wondered if Kirk could be so short-sighted.

I really admired the style of writing here -- little details that created such vivid images. (Example: Kirk could "remove Spock's inhibitions as easily as Spock's clothes, stripping them away until Spock's body eagerly answered the quest of his hands....") The reader was right in the middie of all the activity, and said activity was well presented in terms of logistics and suspense. My quibble with this story is that I found myself questioning Kirk and Spock's behavior regarding the main conflict. Whiie the conflict itself -- that of Kirk allowing his feelings for Spock to interfere with his command decisions -- was intelligently presented, I found it difficult to believe that Kirk would have made such an issue of sending Spock to Auxiliary Control. It seemed like Kirk was trying to make a point for its own sake, and I don't think someone as responsible and as impulsive as he would have questioned Spock's confidence in the Vulcan's ability to do what he needed to do from the bridge, particularly when they were in such a dangerous situation where time was critical. (In fact. I thought Kirk's behavior in that scene was how Spock probably would have behaved, had their ranks been reversed.) I also thought the ending a bit too pat with Kirk more or less shrugging off Spock's insubordination and accepting that Spock would no doubt be insubordinate again in the future. While it's certainly realistic to think that situations will arise where Spock would feel it necessary to be insubordinate, Kirk the comaander, I feel, would tell Spock that he doesn't expect such behavior to be repeated by his first officer. I feel Kirk would feel it necessary to say the words, even if it were just 'for show'. Up until the 'Auxiliary Bridge' conflict, I liked the way they handled the dilemma, and particularly the way it was brought up and discussed in the privacy of their quarters. That scene felt very real. Also, that's an erotic bit of writing at the top of page 149.

I consider it the weakest of her stories, but it is still really interesting. (I haven't mentioned at all that O'Neil is a technically excellent writer. There's not much at all to complain about in mechanics of writing, she's actually one of the best who's ever written K/S in that area, in my opinion. Her prose is smooth, she has an excellent command of point of view, her structure works just right.)

The Quality of Command examines a basic question that too many of us skim over, and that is how Kirk and Spock will be able to function as officers when they are lovers, how their emotions will interfere with their duty. It's a great topic that should be pondered more often, but O'Neil does so by setting up what I consider implausible situations. First Kirk orders Spock off the bridge to sickbay, the most protected area of the ship, during a very dangerous situation when he should be more suitably in the command area. (They are lovers for three months during this story.) Then when Spock confronts him later with how unsuitable this command was, Kirk denies being consciously aware that he was allowing his protective feelings for Spock to get the best of him. Finally, in a later dangerous incident, Spock literally disobeys one of Kirk's orders. It turns out that it would have been disastrous if the command had been obeyed, but....

I guess my primary complaint is that I believe Kirk would have been more self-aware; he would have understood what he was doing to Spock (robbing him of his capacity to function as first officer) and why. I also find the disobeying-a-direct-order scene somewhat too obvious. And I really dont like that throughout Spock is so subservient to the wishes of his bondmate and captain. I wanted to kick him and say "Think of yourself!" As a matter of fact, McCoy says essentially the same thing to him here:

"Look, I never thought I'd be saying this, but...you're probablythe best thing that ever happened to Jim Kirk. I'd like to see Jim's relationship with you succeed. But if it is going to succeed, you may need to learn to flex your own ego a little bit. And I don't mean that boilerplate Vulcan superiority you flaunt all the time. I mean the ego of you, you Spock, the individual being you are. I know from personal experience, as wed as professionally, that relationships that dont leave room for both partners to have an expanding sense of self-worth aren't likelyto work anct-"

"Doctor," Spock interrupted. "I do not question your expertise in human inter-relationships. However, you erroneously attribute to me the human characteristic of an ego. I have no ego to flex, or to bruise. You concern yourself with a false issue."

"Do I?" McCoy raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Maybe you've got no ego, Spock, but Jim Kirk has one hell of an ego, and if you spend the rest of your life in a relationship with him denying yourself the kind of strokes Jim is going to expect and demand from you, at some point you may start feeling short-changed, and you'll sure as hell have to learn to like being on the losing end of all the arguments."

It’s not so much the quality of command which is the topic—but Kirk’s difficulty in separating first officer Spock from Spock—the lover. Kirk’s love for his friend interferes with his command, so much so that in a dangerous situation, he orders Spock from the bridge to sickbay, one of the safest places on the ship. I still have the feeling though that the author just scratched the surface. They came much too easily to a solution. There’s too much missing. Still, it’s enjoyable to read.

Ellen's excellent exploration of the problem of lovers serving on the bridge together. Nice weaving of the love story with a background adventure - in this case Enterprise has been trapped in a residual forcefield after a world has destroyed itself. Jim is making decisions that seem to be based on protecting his lover rather than using his first officer to the best of his ability. Also nicely handles the problem of Kirk's aggressiveness and Spock's tendency to submit.