Think of the Future Tomorrow

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Think of the Future Tomorrow
Author(s):	Natasha Barry
Date(s):	1989
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Think of the Future Tomorrow is a K/S story by Natasha Barry.

It was published in the print zine First Time #22.

title page

art by Kay Wells for "Think of the Future Tomorrow" -- "This picture of a nude Kirk standing in the shower looks like a rather early DEW effort that I like quite a bit. Perhaps the back is elongated a bit too much, but the shoulders and arms seem about right, and I do like the face! Although, since Kirk is turned with his back to the viewer, that’s not what you look at first…."

Summary

"At a diplomatic conference, Kirk meets his Klingon roommate from the Academy."

Reactions and Reviews

Whenever I've read this story, I've always asked myself: "Now, why in heaven's name would Kirk take a shower at that particular time when being the guest of a Klingon he doesn't trust?" The only explanation I can come up with is that it gives us a convenient setting for the Klingon's sexual assault.

The story opens while Kirk is at the Academy and dating Ruth. He becomes drunk at a party so Ruth asks a friend to take him home. Spock, apparently some sort of graduate student at the Academy, observes all this without interacting at any time, but he is disappointed that he won’t get the chance to meet Kirk, whom he’s been obsessing about for some weeks.

The “friend” takes Kirk to his dorm room, which he shares with—a Klingon! Kumara the exchange student apparently also has designs on Kirk, although not as pure as Spock’s, and he happily receives an almost-unconscious Kirk at the dorm room door. You can imagine what happens when an unscrupulous and lust-crazed young Klingon suddenly has the body of his dreams in his hands. Years later Kirk and Spock are attending some sort of conference at which Kumara, now also a starship captain, is in attendance. He’s still got the hots for Kirk, and he maneuvers Kirk into meeting with him alone, which piques Spock’s interest and concern. During the evening rendezvous, for some unknown reason Kirk decides to step into the bathroom and take a sonic shower! This throws Kumara over the edge and he assaults the naked starship captain just as Spock shows up in the room. A nick-of-time rescue! The next day Spock implies to Kumara that Kirk is “taken,” although that isn’t true. Kirk doesn’t like it too much: “Kirk rarely felt such deafening fury, being treated as this object to be won, a possession to be earned.” Later Kirk and Spock meld and the memory of Kirk being raped by Kumara while he was excessively inebriated surfaces. Kirk doesn’t seem to care very much: “It’s hard to get worked up over a rape of over fifteen years standing.” And finally, Kirk takes a shower again, this time on board the Enterprise, and Spock walks in on him! I mean, straight into the shower. Kirk doesn’t seem too happy about it, there’s been very little indication in the story that he desires Spock, but he accepts Spock’s advances and they end up in bed together, drowsing after their love-making, and right before he falls asleep, suggesting that Spock grow a beard. This story has a lot of stops and starts caused by internal inconsistencies, and it’s a great example of the need an author has to pay close attention to the emotional truth of her tale. There are important events presented and then just dropped, for example, the rape. It could serve as a plot impetus or at the very least as a vehicle for revelation of character, but mainly we just get that Kirk doesn’t care. I’m not sure whether the author is saying that Kirk is just a slut who will sleep with anybody (I don’t’ think so, as he does fight off Kumara’s second advance, though in a pretty silly way), or whether the motivations the story needs are just buried beneath the plot details.

On the other hand, the use of a Klingon is unusual and interesting enough to have kept me reading the entire story. Different.