To Face the Future

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	To Face the Future
Author(s):	A.T. Bush
Date(s):	1984
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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To Face the Future is a K/S story by A.T. Bush.

It was published in the print zine Amazing Grace #1.

Summary

"Kirk is devastated by Spockʼs death but must contend wih a Klingon threat while having blackouts from the severed bond."

"McCoy is trying to care for Kirk and deal uith his own grief over Spock's death. Life is further complicated by the approach of Klingons to investigate the Genesis planet. Kirk suddenly begins to hear Spock calling for their help and sensors show a life form an the planet."

Reactions and Reviews

I freely admit that I enjoyed STIII. Each of the original characters was given the opportunity to advance the plot through professionalism and loyalty, Kirk was angst on rollerskates from the beginning to the end, McCoy got to save the day with a whole lot of help from his friends and the franchise got Leonard Nimoy back in front of the camera and behind it. What's not to like ... as long as you don't look at the plot too closely? Forget about minor details like the complete absence of effective, defensive countermeasures installed in and around the major military dock orbiting Earth or the fact that a stolen starship can travel to a distant, forbidden location unchallenged by Starfleet, maybe the higher ups were secretly rooting for Kirk and company.

No, it's the whole DNA thing that really yanks my chain. Radiation permanently damages DNA and Spock got cooked. Odds are awfully low that his DNA would regenerate without incorporating many random changes. What about the other organic residue in the tube? Did the clothing include plant fibers or other material with DNA? What about DNA from the fingerprints of anyone who'd touched the burial robe or Spock's body? Some should have been misincorporated in Spock's regenerated DNA. Do you suppose the tube was still hermetically sealed after it crashed and was uneffected by the evolving Genesis wave? Probably not. And there's all that rapidly mutating DNA on the planet's surface ready and willing to get mixed up in Spock's recreation. Nope, Spock should have been regenerated as a very different person... but would TOS have had a future? Probably not. What the heck! I enjoyed it despite the problems. But there was a different envisioning in 1984...

AT. Bush offered a much more 'logical' alternative with great emotional punch. The storyline doesn't have enough action to make good theatre. But it does have h/c aplenty and rationally closes many of the head-scratching plotholes in the movie. To Face the Future is an established relationship story which begins hours after the Enterprise leaves the Genesis planet to retrieve the Reliant crew. The officers and crew are still in shock from their battle with Khan. Kirk and McCoy are emotionally devastated and working their way toward the state of mourning. The author skillfully and believably portrays Kirk as lost and groping for personal motivation and McCoy as perpetually on the verge of tears. McCoy actually asks Kirk why he'd said he felt young and got an answer that makes sense, slaying my number one bugaboo with the movie. Of course, the Klingons show up. In this case, Khan's people contacted the Klingons, who are now headed for Genesis with superior firepower. The Enterprise is ordered to doubleback and intercept by the gruff, old school Admiral Gengkifl, who gives Kirk the only truly helpful advice he receives for tackling his grief, "... Get greasy, again. ...work with your hands, as well as your head. Especially now." So with Cadet Captain Saavik in tow, Kirk asks Scotty to assign him engine repair duty and his mood slowly begins to lighten. Though Kirk is well aware of Saavik's history and fully supported Spock's role as her mentor and surrogate family, there are several touching, awkward moments between Kirk and Saavik that raise some interesting questions about Saavik's awareness/ability to understand Kirk and Spock as a couple. Performing repair work to exhaustion, Kirk is finally able to sleep only to remember, in the twilight of awakening, one of those fortuitous, happy misunderstandings mates occasionally have, sending him back to a low on his emotional rollercoaster. Back on duty, Cadet Captain Saavik is proficiently seeing to her duties and trying to give Kirk all the support, professional and emotional, that Spock would have and is doing a credible job. Uhura steps into Spock's role of cadet instructor and Kirk assumes his duties as cadet cruise commanding officer when he isn't getting his hands dirty. When Kirk collapses in pain and equates the feeling to a time Spock was crushed by a dam collapse, McCoy caulks it up to stress and grief but when Kirk is hit by a second bout after the Klingons arrive, he hears Spock and knows it's leakage over the bond and that Spock is alive. McCoy thinks he's losing his grip on reality but when the Klingons retreat after being informed that Reliant, her crew and everything aboard was destroyed as powerful Starfleet backup arrives, Spock's tube is beamed back aboard and a partially healed Spock, verdant with new skin, is freed from its confines. Twelve days of deep healing trance and multiple surgeries later, Kirk awakes his prince with kisses and a meld. Spock thinks he's been in sickbay the entire time. It's the old Kirk luck. Saavik programed a soft landing for Spock's burial tube. McCoy rotely followed the Vulcan restoration/purification procedure to the letter, repairing even the tiniest wounds, purging the body of radiation and replacing lost blood prior to burial. We're told that on Vulcan burial doesn't occur for at least 16 days, 6 months for Gol masters. Vulcans can sink so deeply into the healing trance that not even a healer can unequivocally distinguish death from life. If not for the Klingon threat, Spock would have suffocated in his tube. Finally, "Remember" is neatly placed in this new context and Kirk declares a ban on all future separations. He's coming back to the Enterprise full time or they are leaving Starfleet.

In old KSPs Jenna Sinclair has remarked more than once that any Bush story is well worth reading. I heartily concur. AT. Bush casually adds just enough low key detail to give the reader a marvelous 'you are there' experience within storylines that always satisfy If you're a newby to the Bush pantheon, To Face the Future is a good place to get your feet wet.