The Ultimate Friend

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	The Ultimate Friend
Author(s):	Charlotte Frost
Date(s):	1986
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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The Ultimate Friend is a K/S story by Charlotte Frost.

It was published in the print zine Daring Attempt #5.

The Author's Comments

So, I decided I was going to try my hand at fanfic. I wrote this story (which I don’t remember much about). I sent it to an editor, complete with self-addressed stamped envelope, a staple of all writers (including professionals). No internet back then, so one shouldn’t expect a potential publisher to pay postage to return the manuscript they’d rejected. A couple of weeks later, I go to the mailbox at the U of A (I was in college then), and there’s my self-addressed stamped enveloped, thick enough to include the manuscript. Darn. The story was rejected. I sucked. I wasn’t any good. What a joke to think I could write even amateur stories. I took my mail back to my dorm room. I opened the big manila envelope and there was my manuscript, with red corrections all over it. Well, at least the editor was trying to be helpful. And then I read the cover letter. The editor said she loved the story and was very eager to publish it. She was returning my manuscript with her corrections, so I could approve them. Squee! Somebody liked my writing. I was going to be published and even receive a contributor’s copy. I was on my way. I was A Writer.

Reactions and Reviews

This story is a sequel to "The Ultimate Computer". Kirk is very touched by Spock's words to him on the bridge about a starship running on loyalty. I love very much the scene, when Kirk is in Spock's quarters to say "thank you". They talk and suddenly he says "I love you". There were no thoughts about love before -- he simply says it. And they talk about their feelings, very strong feelings, but without the meaning of sex in it. I found this very touching! Also the end was so gentle and tender. Again, they simply say what they feel, without the usual "I might lose him" or the other typical fears.

An innocent, simple story told by an author who's contributed a lot to K/S fandom, not just through her enjoyable stories but through her editorship of the K/S letterzine The LOC Connection, for five years.

The Ultimate Friend takes place right after the events of The Ultimate Computer, and Kirk is feeling very grateful for the support Spock showed him on the bridge. He decides he can't rest easily unless he expresses his feelings, and so he goes to Spock's quarters, and in the course of the evening finds himself saying "I love you," to his friend. Spock responds by revealing "You are T'hy'la to me."

Refreshing that they both react to these revelations with restraint. There isn't a hint that they want to make the relationship physical. Instead, they make a date to continue a chess game and then Kirk leaves. The reader is left with lots of warm fuzzies, though.

A few days later during a routine check-up on a colony, Kirk is bitten by a possibly poisonous snake, and Spock literally picks him up and runs back to base camp where McCoy is. The image is sort of ridiculous, I can just see Spock carrying his captain like a big baby, but jostling him up and down awkwardly as he runs. I really liked the way Kirk wasn't too crazy about this solicitude, and eventually says, "Put me down!" That's my captain.

But McCoy confines him to quarters where he falls asleep, and of course Spock stops by to check on him and stays until he awakens. After a conversation about wives and children, Kirk asks, "Come on, Spock. Why don't you relax for awhile? Kirk off your shoes and lie down for a bit?" There's a refreshing innocence about the question, and I got the impression that the idea occurred to Kirk without forethought. I also really like this section of dialogue, which occurs without any other mention of sex at all, as they're side by side on the bed. "... I've never had sex with a man before, and the thought of it... scared me. It doesn't seem 'natural.' Yet, when you think of two men who care for reach other," his hand moved to stroke Spock's cheek, "and who need each other, who understand each other, who love each other... it seems ... right..."

As Spock would say, "Indeed."