#and they mentioned in the star trek enterprise one the things the wanted to change from the second to the third season

[unknownfaceless-ds9]

I always thought I'm the weirdo of the family because of how invested I got in books or tv shows. Then, however, we as a family started watching Star Trek Enterprise and I don't want to sound mean, but if my mom would have to chose between me, my sibling, our dad and literally anyone else she knows and captain archer, we all could start packing our bags.

#star trek enterprise #jonathan archer #fans #like #we watched a documentary about behind the scenes of every star trek show #and they mentioned in the star trek enterprise one the things the wanted to change from the second to the third season #new faith of the heart song #and they mentioned at one point that they thought about getting another actor for archer #and my mom literally gasped for air and was like 'HOW DARE THEY! NOBODY COULD EVER REPLACE SCOTT BAKULA AS ARCHER!' #And we were all sittingthere like 'damn mom #calm down #I mean not even I was so offended when they killed data in the movie #star trek fans #trekkies #star trek

[that-ari-blogger]

Inciting Incident (Thank Goodness)

One of the most popular songs in Wicked is sung by Galinda, and centres around the idea that the society she lives in is corrupt and that she is the only one who knows how it really works. But is she right about that? Does she actually know as much as she thinks?

I think the answer is complicated, and that's the fun of it. I think that Glinda has intellectually grasped that the system is flawed, but I don't think she's emotionally wrapped her head around it. Case and point, the complete and utter cognitive dissonance that is Thank Goodness.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (Wicked, The Trekkie's Tale)

Thank Goodness is actually two songs. Thank Goodness itself, and a reprise of No-one Mourns The Wicked. So, it's a rehashing of the first act, opening with Glinda conversing with the crowd, the difference is whether or not she is appearing to agree with it.

In the first Glinda tries to argue for Elphaba's morality, and it frames the entire story. But now, Glinda stands idly by and goes along with all that the chorus says while they get more and more worked up by lies that she knows to be untrue.

You would think that the two segments of the song being in agreement would mean that they go well together, but they really don't. Thank Goodness and No-one Mourns The Wicked do not fit with each other at all, in my opinion.

So, what does this mean?

I think that this song shows Glinda lying to herself, and finally starting to crack and realise what is happening.

Glinda spends this song deflecting from the problem, instead of confronting it head on. She relies on popularity and giving the people what they want to distract them.

My ex-girlfriend is being hunted by the masses for something she didn't do, but look over here, I'm getting married!

"Like some terrible green blizzard

Throughout the land she flies

Defaming our poor Wizard

With her calumnies and lies!"

The obvious thing here is the tense. This is happening now, as opposed to something the characters have lived through and made it out the other side of. It is more immediate.

But the other thing that I want to point out is the wall that the Ozians are putting up. The reason Elphaba can't get through to anyone is because they think she is lying, because who are you more likely to believe, someone who you trust implicitly, or someone who everyone around you says is dangerous?

The song is broken into four sections. The introduction, Glinda's two reflections, and Madame Morrible's story, which prompts her to change her mind a bit.

"When you bowed before his throne

He decreed you'd hence be known

As Glinda the Good, officially!"

The following is an excerpt from The Trekkie's Tale, a Star Trek fanfic first published in 1974.

"Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky," thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise. "Here I am, the youngest lieutenant in the fleet - only fifteen and a half years old." Captain Kirk came up to her...

"Here, take over the ship for a minute while I go get some coffee for us."

This is the archetypal Mary Sue story, a format where the protagonist gets all that they want and more. The world revolves around Mary Sue, and as a result, it isn't particularly compelling. She wins everything, then she saves the day and dies, and everyone mourns her.

Nobody online seems to be able to agree on whether this story was a satire of general fanfiction trends or not, a fact that I find rather funny.

But compare that to the story Madame Morrible is telling about Glinda. Allegedly, the wizard gave her the title for... not much actually. In Morrible's version of events, good people get things just because, and nobody is asking any questions.

Essentially, Glinda is getting all that she wants on a silver platter, with no questions asked, no strings attached. Well, one string attached.

"Then with a jealous squeal

The Wicked Witch burst from concealment

Where she had been lurking, surrpetitially!"

I mentioned in my post on Defying Gravity (maybe go check that one out) that the central conflict that ended Elphaba and Glinda's relationship was that Elphaba was prepared to sacrifice everything, and Glinda wasn't. But Glinda did have to give up something to achieve her dream, and I don't think she quite understood that until now. To get the power she craved, Glinda had to lose Elphaba.

This song is essentially bludgeoning Glinda over the head with the fact that this tradeoff was not worth it.

That is the dissonance inherent to Glinda's entire character. She recognises the flaws in the world around her but has convinced herself that it will be worth it when she gets to power.

I don't think that Galinda would have realised this, and I am making a point of differentiating Glinda and Galinda. In my mind, Glinda is the version of this character who fell in love with and was changed by Elphaba. The two characters are incredibly similar, and one is an evolution of the other, but it is the influence of Elphaba that makes the difference.

Galinda was seeking power for the sake of it, a person who got her way because she couldn't understand anything else. But Elphaba changed that and gave her a purpose for seeking to climb the ladder. I think Glinda believed she could make a difference from within the structure of Oz, probably to help Elphaba.

Glinda has got everything she theoretically wanted, but at the behest of the reason she was doing it, and now that she is here, she can't even initiate the change she wanted to change. Glinda made the wrong choice, and is only now realising it.

"We couldn't be happier

Right, dear?

Couldn't be happier

Right here

Look what we've got

A fairy-tale plot

Our very own happy ending."

If you are wondering why I've been leaving Glinda's monologues until the end, it is because they make my case for me, and make analysis rather difficult as a result. I have been saying over and over that this musical is about dreams and reality colliding, and that is explicitly stated in these verses.

The fact that there are two of these mirrors the two sides of Glinda's character. The first is the side that craves the attention and has got everything that she wants, then the song reminds her of Elphaba, and she tries again with a more nuanced perspective.

"Though it is, I admit

The tiniest bit

Unlike I anticipated

But I couldn't be happier

Simply couldn't be happier

Well - not simply

'Cause getting your dreams

It's strange, but it seems

A little, well, complicated"

This is literally what I've been saying. She's got what she wanted, but not in the way she wants. It's complicated, and that facade of hers is finally cracking.

That duality is mirrored by the time signature, which is maddening. The song oscillates between a ton of different signatures, and if someone with more musical knowledge understands anything more about this than me, please give me a hand.

From my, admittedly limited, understanding, this feels like a lack of surety. Glinda doesn't know what she wants or thinks anymore, so she can't decide what she is singing.

It also gives an incredibly informal tone, as the lack of structure matches how a person speaks, almost. There have been two characters who have distinct speech patterns in this musical, Madam Morrible, and Glinda. The script of both of whom is written in recurring patterns and rhythms, making up words to match the metre of their sentence. It's pompous and pseudointellectual.

This is most obvious in how smooth the start of Defying Gravity is. There, Glinda doesn't have to change how she talks to match the song, because she is already speaking in the right rhythm.

Cynthia Erivo's rendition of this song in PBS's Wicked In Concert is phenomenal and I highly recommend you check it out, not least of all because removing the crowd gives the song a completely different vibe.

But here, halfway through a song, she gives up with artfulness and just speaks her mind. It's still a song, so you still get the rhythms and melodies, but that is breaking down, and is gone in the script from this point forwards. That's partially why I say Glinda and Galinda are different people, they sound different to each other.

There are a few almost exceptions to this rule, and I say almost exceptions because they come really close to breaking the mould, but don't.

In this exception, Glinda is trying to convince herself that she is happy. The song is limited to one thought, the idea that Glinda should be happy, and there can't be anything wrong. She has got everything she wanted, and that would make her happy, right? Happy is what happens when all of your dreams... That's the word that throws her off, dreams.

This is no longer Glinda's dream.

This song is a microcosm of Glinda's entire arc in the musical. She follows the story laid out for her, but is changed by the journey until it no longer fits. She has changed, and now she can't do anything about it.

Ironically, Glinda has gained all the authority she could dream of, but she is more powerless and has less agency than she started with, and all of that happened without her notice.

"There's a kind of a sort of, cost

There's a couple of things get, lost

There are bridges you cross

You didn't know you crossed

Until you've crossed."

Final Thoughts

Genuinely, my favourite trope in a story is a character undergoing character development and not realising. For example, the "nobody's that heartless" line in The Emperor's New Groove.

But Glinda is my favourite example of this because of the way in which she reaches her conclusions. She is smart, possibly the most intelligent character in the entire musical, but her biases cause her to make some serious leaps of logic and ignore several things that would change her worldview until she runs headfirst into them.

Also, the stagecraft of this song is simple in order to not distract from Glinda's thoughts, but that means a lot of these photos are remarkably similar. I apologise for that.

Next week, I will be looking at Wonderful, and how it forms a neat little mirror of Sentimental Man, so stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

#rants #literary analysis #literature analysis #character analysis #what's so special about...? #glinda #glinda upland #wicked the musical #wicked musical #wicked #glinda the good witch #glinda wicked

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 101 - Rescue Sarek!

Star Trek: Discovery - Season 1 Episode 6 - Lethe

We open with Sarek and the Vulcans testing their own mission, but his mission is sabotaged, by a supposedly isolationist radical group of Vulcans that wish to withdraw from the federation. Last time a Rogue Vulcan faction showed up, they ended up being the good guys, but this group definitely aren't the pacifists that the Syrranites were, I'm curious to find out exactly what their deal is.

We then see Sylvia and Michael doing laps through Discovery's headquarters. I would have imagined these more advanced ships would have had a proper gym like the NX-01 Enterprise had, but apparently not. It definitely seems that Michael is pushing her too far out of her comfort zone,

Lorca and his buddy he picked up from the Prison, Ash Tyler, are also running some combat drills on a Holodeck. I know from cultural Osmosis that Holodecks are big part Star Trek, but this is the first time I've seen one since the MPreg Episode all the way back in Season 1 of Enterprise, so it's nice to see it here, even if it's only briefly. Apparently, he has been instantly promoted to Chief of Security, a role that I forgot recently became vacant.

In the Mess, Michael and Sylvia encounter Ash, and sit down to get to know our new Security Chief. There is some initial friction between Michael and Ash, but introductions are cut short when Michael receives a message through Sarek's Katra. Sarek gives her a flashback to before she was transferred to Star Fleet. Apparently Michael was removed from the Vulcan fleet for being too emotional, among other reasons, and I love that we're finally digging into how fucked up it is to raise someone in the Vulcan way, and seeing the younger Michael be gaslit into thinking she's the problem is heartbreaking. Sarek notices Michael's presence in the dream however, and kicks her out, back into the real world.

Michael wakes up in Sickbay. Apparently the same rogue faction of Vulcans were also responsible for the attack on the Learning Center when Michael was a child. Discovery goes on route to rescue Sarek.

Unfortunately once Discovery arrives at the relevant nebula, there is trouble. Firstly, we have no idea where in the Nebula Sarek is, and secondly, Discovery cant enter the Nebula without the gasses causing the Spore Drive the explode. Michael comes up with a plan to use the Katra to find him, and gets a shuttle team together, meanwhile Starfleet Command starts to chew out Lorca for going on this mission against orders.

Michael puts her plan into motion, and we get a really cool fist fight between Sarek and Michael in Sarek's mind. And at the same time we get a really interesting conversation between Lorca and one of the Starfleet Amirals who he's had kind of a thing with throughout, that really starts to dive into Lorca's psychology. His previous ship was mentioned last episode, but here we find out that after making that sacrifice, he changed a lot as a person. Wild traumatic events will do that to you, and I kind of want to find out how his command style differed before. Was he just as the Ends Justify the Means as he is now, or did he change in different ways? We also see him have an absolutely terrifying Trauma response when she touches one of his Scars. I want to know more about his character development, I can't wait for the show to explore whatever happened on that ship to shake him so much!

Delving deeper into Sareks backstory in the flashback scene it's mentioned that Sarek is actually Spock's dad, which wasn't something I expected to hear. Either way, it's revealed that Michael was rejected from the Vulcan fleet because Sarek was asked to choose between Michael and Spock, but in the end neither ended up in the Vulcan fleet. But, Michael manages to break through Sarek's shame and locates shocks him awake to signal out his location, and the the rescue mission is a success. Sarek's own mission is left more open ended, however. The Admiral that was visiting Lorca goes to complete it, but the whole thing was an ambush, and the admiral is taken prisoner by the Klingons, as our cliffhanger. Lorca gives the command to wait for Starfleet's orders, which either means this is him taking her advice to heart, or a petty display of "I'm right your wrong", and I love that I can't tell which it is.

This was a good episode, I am absolutely fascinated by the Characterisation of Captain Lorca, and the details on Michael's backstory and her relationship to Sarek are really interesting too.

#whovian watching star trek #star trek #star trek Discovery #Star Trek DIS #Star Trek DISCO #ST DIS #ST DISCO #DIS #st: disco #DISCO #st: discovery #Discovery #ST: DIS

[forgottenfuturist]

The Incredible Growing Viewscreen

In the beginning, before Matt Jeffries had finished designing the spaceship that would become the Enterprise, set designer Pato Guzman sketched this idea for the "control room":

About the only thing it had in common with the final set was the large window/viewscreen up front.

The first iteration of the USS Enterprise bridge included a much smaller main viewer that looked like a really big television:

This was very cutting-edge for 1964. Color TVs were still pretty new in those days, and they had pretty small picture tubes. A wall-sized one must've seemed impossibly futuristic.

For the second pilot, the viewer got a widescreen upgrade:

When the show went to series, the viewer acquired a rectangular shape with a glowing blue outline, but stayed the same size:

When the Enterprise was redesigned for the big screen 13 years later, the viewer stayed roughly the same size, but it looked more like the window/viewscreen from Pato Guzman's original concept art:

Fast forward to 1987. Larger televisions were a becoming more common; some folks even had giant projection TVs that almost required a forklift to move. To emphasize the super-advanced nature of Star Trek: The Next Generation's brand-new Starship Enterprise, the main viewer dominated the entire forward bulkhead of the bridge:

Basically, they went from having a largish TV screen at the front of the bridge to having an entire movie screen.

The viewscreen got another upgrade nine years later with the big-screen debut of the Enterprise-E. In Star Trek: First Contact, there was no screen built into the bridge's forward bulkhead; it was just a blank wall. The "viewscreen" was a holographic display that appeared in front of the wall when activated:

This was an interesting innovation that never appeared again. In the next two movies, the Enterprise-E's bridge had a plain old viewscreen. Of course, holographic nor not, the functionality of the bridge viewer hadn't really changed since the very first Star Trek in 1964. It was basically a big TV that displayed one thing at a time. That might have seemed perfectly futuristic during Star Trek's first 30 years, but the world was changing.

When J.J. Abrams' big-budget reimagining of Star Trek was being developed in the late 2000s, everybody had computers and smartphones were becoming more common. So Abrams and his team went in a new direction:

Instead of the traditional Star Trek viewscreen, the front of the new Enterprise bridge was dominated by a giant curved pane of "smart glass" i.e. a window that allowed information from various sources to be superimposed on it:

Predictably, long-time fans complained about this because they hate change. But honestly, it's cool and it makes sense. In 1964, the Enterprise's viewscreen was so futuristic that there was no way to depict it without employing special effects. Fifty years later, you could buy one at Wal-Mart. Star Trek is set in the future; its technology shouldn't be something that the audience can walk into a store and buy today.

The 2022 version of the Enterprise bridge features a "smart glass" viewscreen much like the Abrams-verse version with one important difference:

It's a whole heckuva lot bigger. I can't even imagine what the aspect ratio is on that bad boy. And what about the resolution? What is that, like an 8000000K display?

I have zero problem with this. For everyone screaming "But it's impractical!" well, yeah, probably. But so is having the bridge in an exposed and easily-shot-at point at the top of the saucer. Not to mentioning having the warp core in a big open area with zero shielding around it and people working in close proximity to it 24/7.

If you want to get nitpicky about unrealistic stuff in Star Trek, we'll be here all year.

#Star Trek #Star Trek tech

[deepspacedukat]

Could I get a fluff request with Picard? I returned back to my job(warehouse work) after having hip surgery for a torn labrum. 💜

Oh, of course you can! I hope your surgery went well and that you're recovery is swift and easy. Here’s a little Picard fluff that I hope will cheer you up while you recuperate! I hope you don’t mind that I drew inspiration from your situation for this! Cross-posted to AO3 here.

If anyone wants to be added to my taglist or wants to submit a fic request, my ask box is always open! If you want to know whether I write for a certain character, have a look here. If the character you want isn’t on the list, I probably just forgot to add them, so please feel free to ask. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Recovery

Captain Jean-Luc Picard (ST:TNG) x Reader

[A/N: I looked up some basic recovery info about this type of surgery specifically and altered it in accordance with what I thought recovery times and practices would equate to in the TNG segment of the Star Trek timeline. Also, sorry this took me so long to write! I hope you’re still here, anon!]

Warnings: Mentions of surgery/recovery, but other than that, this is just pre-relationship fluff. Also, there are more emotions in this than I’d originally intended, but...here ya go lol.

~*~

“Make sure she stays in bed for the next couple of days,” Doctor Crusher ordered, and the Captain gave my hand a gentle squeeze as he listened to her instructions carefully. The anesthesia had only just worn off, and I was still too bleary to be able to trust my voice. All I could manage was to return Jean-Luc’s gesture weakly before closing my eyes once more.

“Fear not, Doctor. I shall dote on her and make sure she doesn’t lift a finger.” It was no secret aboard the Enterprise that the Captain and I were sweet on each other. Since the moment I responded to one of his literary quips on the bridge with one of my own, the two of us had struck up quite a friendship. We’d been careful never to cross that delicate boundary between friends and something more, but it was obvious, even to us, that we’d be well-suited to each other should we pursue such a change in relationship dynamics.

When I’d been injured on an away mission and required surgery for a torn labrum, Jean-Luc had promised he’d be there when I returned to the land of the living - a promise which he’d just kept. From the sounds of things, he’d also apparently volunteered to take charge of my medical care during my convalescence.

Forcing my eyes back open, I felt a bit more coherent as one of the nurses helped me into a standing position. I was a bit unsteady on my feet, and there was a dull ache in my hip. A strong arm wrapped around my waist pulling me carefully to lean against a sturdy body. When I turned to thank whoever had taken mercy on me, I was met with a gentle smile from the Captain.

“Thank you, sir,” I murmured in a voice rough from unconsciousness and disuse.

“Let’s get you back to your quarters,” he replied, and slowly we began to make our way to the turbolift. “Beverly said you’d be able to walk a little steadier in the coming days, but for now, you’ll have to try and take it easy. No sudden movements or overtaxing yourself, which I shall see to personally.”

“Ah, thank you, Nurse Picard,” I teased, and the Captain let out a quiet laugh. “I think I can manage once we get to my quarters. You’ll be free to go, I promise.”

“I beg your pardon?” He sounded genuinely confused as the lift started moving. Heat rose to my cheeks as his eyes met mine questioningly at close proximity.

“Well, you are the Captain of the Federation’s flagship. Surely you have more important things to do than look after an invalid,” I said trying to keep my tone light and full of levity.

“Lieutenant, don’t you know by now that my first duty is to my ship and my crew, which you are a part of. Are you suggesting that I would abandon a member of my crew when she is in need of assistance?” Jean-Luc asked in a tone that sounded just serious enough that my eyes widened.

“No, of course not, sir–”

“Good. That settles that, then,” he interjected, and placing a small kiss on my cheek, the Captain stole the last of the words from my throat before they could even begin to form. The rest of the way to my quarters, we walked in silence with a question hanging between us. What would we do about this...thing between us? It wasn’t a new question, but now...now it felt different. We’d walked a tight balance between professionalism and closeness, but somehow that had shifted.

Once he’d helped me settle into my bed, Jean-Luc sat beside me and grasped one of my hands, lacing our fingers together as though it was the most natural thing in the world. And perhaps it was.

“Are you alright?” I asked with a small smile, and a bemused chuckle tripped from between his lips.

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that? You did just come out of surgery, you know,” he murmured, but we both knew that he would have answered if he truly was fine. A moment’s silence passed between us before he looked down and let out a quiet sigh. “I never can hide anything from you, can I? I...When Commander Riker called for you to be beamed to Sick Bay for emergency medical care, I...”

He drew a deep breath and cleared his throat as his fingers fiddled idly with mine.

“I know it is our duty as Starfleet officers to be prepared to give our lives if necessary, but...that didn’t stop me from fearing the worst,” he stated as he glanced into my eyes to gauge my reaction. “The thought of...of losing you...”

“You didn’t lose me,” I replied quietly as I sat up in bed and covered our joined hands with my free one. “And if I have my way, you never will.”

Jean-Luc breathed my name with such feeling that it stole my breath away.

“I realize that you and I have been close for some time now, but...I wonder...” he licked his lips nervously before continuing. “Have I completely deluded myself, or is there a chance however remote that you could feel the same as I?”

Gently and with only slight hesitation to give him a chance to pull away, I lifted one hand and cupped his cheek. The Captain let out a shaky sigh of relief and turned his head just far enough to kiss my wrist. When he shifted closer to me in bed and caught my lips in a soft, tender kiss, I knew the question had finally been answered once and for all.

#captain jean-luc picard #captain picard x reader #captain picard fic #captain picard #star trek tng #fluff #pre-relationship fluff #deepspacedukat fic #anon request

[hi-my-name-is-dotdotdot]

combined jumbled ds9 I watched a lot today

mirror Kira. she- I- um. HELLO??

I wanna read like a character study now. also implications for non mirror kira???

got long again and this is about many episodes and it’s all jumbled up, so here’s a cut

I kept thinking that by the amount of times they said “no changeling has ever harmed another” that would change soon, and I was right. feel bad for odo :(

lotsa invasions happening. romulan-cardassian invasion of the dominion, klingon invasion of cardassia, when is the full out war gonna start? also the maquis still exist but they haven’t done much in a while

oh wait, except for when ruler version 2 (tom) pretends to be will and steals the defiant. also I never got to finish tng (it left netflix and I just never got around to watching it on my own on my laptop) so like what happened between will and o’brien?? like. that “I have nothing to say to you” exchange was SO unexpected.

also apparently the enterprise gets destroyed. that was news

back to ds9, umm oh we finally see the ferengi planet! andddd yep, seems right, pay to enter someone’s house, pay for an elevator, pay to sit, pay to stand, pay to find out who’s been charged with a crime and what the crime is, etc

quark and rom’s mother seemed quite interesting. kinda want her to pop up again, see how her secret financial empire is going

nog got into the academy!

rom stood up to quark!

that one episode that’s pov is old Jake and it’s the story of how ben dies but not really was. so sad. good thing his plan worked and it was fixed! but also, feel like it should come with a suicide warning? technically?

who in their right mind thought sending dukat on a mission alone with kira was a good idea? and then he had the nerve to say “actually, I think the occupation was good for Bajor but I’m not here to debate you on politics” THEN WHY’D YOU BRING IT UP, MISTER

also, dukat of all people was in love with a Bajoran? and has a half bajoran daughter? who he couldn’t bring himself to kill even with a weapon pointed at her for a few long minutes? surprising

don’t know if taking her back to cardassia is actually the best thing, sorry major, but I can’t believe most cardassians would ever treat her as equal or respect her. not to mention like. I’m assuming dukat would take her home to his home. and his wife and seven children. so not only would the rest of cardassia think she shouldn’t exist, she’ll probably have to live with people who resent her and just think she’s a “mistake” by dukat. who knows though, maybe cardassian “family is everything” values have a broader definition of family than I’d pessimistically include.

worf is here! funny thing - when we watched tng my mom never liked worf but now that he’s here she’s happy to see a(nother) familiar character lol

JADZIA AND LENORA AND DS9’S FAMOUS LESBIAN KISS why is this episode so tragic I wanted to cry

alsoooooooo I love how not a single complaint was they’re both women but only that they were married in previous hosts like yes go star trek written in the 90’s you did it

oh that reminds me! this was a few days ago, sisko and bashir were talking about reassigning an ensign because he’s “budding” and then have a whole, happy conversation about how “he’s pregnant?” “yes, twins” “well congratulation, of course he’s reassigned” “we’re having a baby shower for him” “I’ll be there are you getting him anything” that just made me happy

also I like how julian and miles’ relationship went from miles hates julian and julian annoys miles and then they grow to like and understand each other and sometime they start spending fixed times together (racquetball, darts) and go to each other with problems, become basically best friends to the point where when they get captured by some jem’hadar who want a cure to their genetic drug addiction and julian refuses to leave with miles because he wants to cure them, miles is willing to risk his career and everything to get julian back to their ship with him no matter what. even if julian’s his superior officer. even if he has to blast his work apart. even if julian might always resent him for it. (happily the end cues seem like they can start hanging out again in a few days, but I don’t think it could be quite the same as before after something like that, not so soon at least)

during jadzia’s (????) ceremony where she meets her previous hosts and curzon somehow joins with odo and both decide they want to stay in odo’s body but eventually realize it’s not for the best. I just. that was sad ok.

also, speaking of odo, he’s in love with kira? I feel like there are literally never signs besides like. two episodes. one is when it’s the bajoran gratitude festival and odo’s like “I was thinking of coming this year… I’ll see you there?” and kira said she’d be with bareil and odo was visibly disappointed

the second episode was when another changeling pretended to be kira stuck in a growing rock and odo admitted it when he thought she was gonna die. (also! I KNEW it was a trap, the second they split up something happens to her? really? also she sounded way too panicked to be kira over getting her foot stuck in a rock)

another point - because of odo I just assumed changelings are bad at being humanoid, but changelings besides odo can imitate humanoids (so far, one vulcan and maybe two humans? including scanning as that species with a tricorder!) so why can’t odo? does he just need more practice or is it some result of being separated from his planet and people so young? or maybe something to do with this great link?

oh and about that episode where odo and garak go off to investigate and then garak is like “huh! I can be a good cardassian again? I can be back in the obsidian order? yes!” like. dude. of course I understand his desire to go home and feel bad for him but do you really trust that? really?? you were EXILED for betraying this man and - even if you say you didn’t do it - you think he’s just gonna let you back into the fold? back into cardassia? after you ran off to save him from ab assassin only to learn he sent the assassin after you? really? I suppose he figured it out at the end, somewhat.

odo in that episode too. so when he can’t turn back to liquid he starts falling apart? like. geez that’s harsh. also why does he always wait until the whole 16 hours have passed? like, 16 hours is his regeneration period, it’s the longest he can hold a form, but wouldn’t it make more sense to go back to his liquid state whenever he has a safe few minutes time? that way his 16-hour “time bank” would always be as full as possible. or does it only count at the 16-hour marks?

also the scene when odo is flaking apart and looking in all sorts of pain and can’t stand anymore and garak runs over like “just tell me something! anything!” and odo bursts out with “I want to go home! not to the station, but to my people! I want to be part of the great link” and he sounds tortured and agonized over it. well. goodness, that hits right in the heart, doesn’t it? (the “goodness” makes me southern in that sentence, lol)

also the whole thing with “need to bleed to prove you’re not a changeling because when separated the blood goes to what I’m now calling default changeling mode (dcm?)” why oh why are they always making big dramatic cuts in their palms? a finger prick would work just as well! at first I thought, just yank out a strand of hair but then I remember wigs could easily make that useless. but seriously. finger pricks! also get something sterile, why is everyone in the room using the same klingon’s knife?

my dad promised to get paramount+ after wimbledon’s over, so I’ll probably finally actually finish tng before I come back to this. since I’m not under “BINGE BEFORE IT LEAVES” constraints it���ll probably just be one or a couple of episodes a day, which’ll hopefully mean I’m actually coherent if I’m possessed to write about it like this

#star trek #ds9 #long post #very very rambling thoughts #just realized a lot of these are about specific scenes in specific episodes and so don’t make much sense

[thebibliomancer]

11 Days of Comics! 4/11: Star Trek Annual #1 (1990) "So Near the TOUCH"

Something that's interesting about Star Trek compared to other big franchises is how the main actors get so noticeably involved on the creative side of things.

You have Shatner's Star Trek novels. Shatner and Nimoy took their turns directing one of the movies. And third example: this comic which was co-written by George Takei.

It's fascinating to me. I wonder what about Star Trek makes this a thing.

You don't see Mark Hamill writing a series of Star Wars EU books. Maybe he should. He apparently wrote a bunch of Simpsons comics.

Anyway, I just had to comment on this Star Trek phenomenon before I get into this Mr. Sulu centered tale, co-written by George Takei and Peter David.

Mr. Sulu's cool magic show is interrupted by an emergency Starfleet mission.

There's a planet called Datugad that was a leading producer of processed trimanium for the Federation. Trimanium is a fuel even cooler than dilithium.

But trimanium being not as well known, Datugad didn't take a lot of precautions to prevent toxic waste from leeching into the air, water, ground, and people. The planet is basically FUBAR.

As are the people. Because the number one effect of these chemicals is a change in people's metabolism where prolonged physical contact causes non-spontaneous combustion.

Since the Federation used most of the trimanium that Datugad produced, they feel. Kinda responsible? Responsible-ish?

So they're going to do what they can. Planet is FUBAR and the people are FUBAR so the Federation is going to gather egg and sperm samples from volunteers because those are easier to cleanse of the offending chemicals than an entire person. Using this genetic material, the Federation will make a lot of test tube babies and grow a new generation. This new generation will be educated on the culture they're supposed to carry on and then settled on a clean planet.

Good plan, right? Ambitious, at the least.

And to help with this plan, Dr Corazon Kohwangko is going to be leading the medical side of the project.

She's an old flame of Sulu's. They met on Starbase 27 and eventually hit it off. They were cute together but their careers were going different directions and they couldn't make it work long term.

They nicknamed each other Yin and Yang. There's a bunch of yinyang symbolism in this thing.

The medical team transports to the planet, using special force field belts to keep from being poisoned by all the chemicals that are still absolutely everywhere.

But the Datugad leading council neglected to mention that, uh, there was a religious extremist group who felt that being stuck on a slowly dying planet and bursting into flames if they touched each other is what their god wanted for the people of Datugad.

And the council underestimated how many followers the leader, Shelm, could rally.

There's a big riot and the Federation team gets taken hostage.

Shelm demands that the Enterprise blow up the medical center as a show of good faith. Kirk refuses. So Shelm decides to expose the hostages to the toxic Datugad environment one by one and have one of his supporters give each exposed Federation person a big ol' firey hug.

This is a pretty convoluted way to kill people but whatever.

The Federation refuses to give Kirk permission to send a team because they'd rather send a negotiating team and then a rescue party if the negotiators fail.

Because love interest of the episode is involved, Sulu ignores orders to remain in his quarters. He gathers some volunteers and also Chekov and takes a shuttle to storm Shelm's base.

Sulu gets to be a cool action hero and use his fencing skill to great effect. He tricks Shelm into exposing his hypocrisy so his own followers turn on him.

But alas. He does not get the girl.

Its revealed that Dr Kohwangko volunteered to be the first hostage exposed to the toxic environment to protect one of her subordinates. She's been irrevocably exposed and now if Sulu touches her, she'll catch on fire.

It turns out this entire wacky sci-fi premise was all a metaphor for their relationship. Kinda. I mean, not really. But kinda.

"Yin and yang. Male and female. Providing the harmony of the universe. Balancing against each other, in perfect symmetry. United in opposition. Yin and yang... always together... and always apart."

Dr Kohwangko decides to stay on Datugad, do the work she came to do. She'll research the condition, see if she can find a cure. Either way, she and Sulu are still heading two different directions. Same as it ever was. But with combustion enforced separation now.

Back on the Enterprise, Kirk tells Sulu that he'll probably be reprimanded for what he did and Kirk himself will have to give him a stern talking to. But he's not going to pile on him now.

A decently entertaining story.

Set on the planet of hug-triggered combustion.

#11 Days of Comics! #Star Trek #liveblog #x days liveblog #DC Comics

[beltiel]

I'll Keep You (My Fuzzy Little Secret)

Errant plotbunny that won’t leave me alone and might/maybe/potentially get turned into an actual fic...

AOS!Jim's time on Tarsus triggers a dormant gene in his genetic make-up. Cue True Alpha, Werewolf Jim.

Yeah. I went there. (I came to Star Trek after five years obsessing over Teen Wolf, please for to forgive 🙏)

Getting thru the academy without Jim getting found out is responsible for a majority of Bones (scarce) gray hairs. I'm thinking a five plus one fic where Spock almost finds out multiple times, and one time where he either knows and uses it to their advantage, or finds the eff out.

1.) Lake Day for Puppies- Bones and Jim head to a local lake to relax after finals and Jim takes the rare opportunity to stretch his four legs. Amanda is there walking the park and has gotten some bad news; Jim dog shakes and gets her all wet and interrupts the call she's on with her son. An aggrieved Bones drags Jim away, tho not before professor Spock notes the unusual size of the 'dog' and his piercing blue eyes over the vid call.

2.) After they've finished with the Narada and are heading back to earth/vulcan sans warp core (I refuse to let Vulcan be destroyed in my head canons. You can't just take the single most interesting culture that Trek introduces and get it gone, JJ.) and Spock realizes that Jim's taken a hell of a beating. A beating he really doesn't seem to be showing signs of at all. There's 'having a best friend with a dermal regenerator on quick use' and then there's 'conveniently don't have broken ribs/tentacle burns/frostbite/ busted wrist anymore'. It's not til a recovering Pike tells him firmly to be a 'good boy' and 'go lie down' that Jim does take any rest. (Obvs dadmiral Pike is in the know)

3.) Angsty one. Turns out Scotty is totally in the know. He's from a small pack back in Aberdeen. Drunk on a shore leave at one point (Scotty's stash of wolfsbane 'shine ftw), Jim bemoans his loneliness and Scotty asks about his mate- most 'wolves have met theirs by his age. Jim laments that his mate is actually his True Mate, but… they're already as good as married. (Spuhura for a beat here, sorry) Scotty weasels out of Jim that it IS someone on the enterprise tho. When they get back to the ship, Spock is there to berate the Captain, Bones tells him to shove off, and Scotty drags Bones to their end of the officers deck while a *very* handsy Kirk is escorted back to his quarters by Spock. There's a lot of scent marking going on. When Spock mentions that he will be returning to Uhuras quarters after this, Jim full on whines at him.

4.) The enterprise is sent to a planet that ONLY Jim and Bones are allowed to beam down to. Upon discussion with Pike, Jim argues to bring Scotty and an ensign from the sciences department (who's also a 'wolf, tho younger). Turns out the planet is pack full (ha) of werewolves and humans and they don't really want to join the federation, but star fleet (not in the know) has given Jim a chance to change their minds. Jim spends the week stretching his four legs and reveling in a 'wolf culture that he's never known. Bones soaks up information like a sponge, finally having someone to talk to about the medical aspects of having a best friend who's a werewolf. Scotty makes friends over his wolfsbane 'shine recipe. Ensign Danvers meets her mate and decides to resign her commission to stay planet side. Everything pretty fine and dandy, by the 3rd day the locals even let the Enterprise send down their science team to do some local science-y things. The local Alpha invites Jim 'and his 2nd' to a run with them that evening. Spock overhears Jim accept, and arrives at the appointed place (ha) late due to a science hold up; only to find that Jim is there with Bones and was not, apparently, expecting Spock. Jim is shirtless and flushed with exhilaration, having just come back from a 'lap around the lake' (unlikely, the lake is 10 miles around, Spock isn't THAT late)(except if you're a 'wolf, that wouldn't take very long at ALL) and Jim is hanging all over Bones, punch drunk on adrenaline and happy, but he snaps to when he sees Spock. Bones is his second in Jim's pack- the local Alpha can smell/tell that Spock doesn't truly belong to Jim (yet). Negotiations break down a bit when Spock alludes to the captains penchant for going dangerous places with/doing dangerous things. He is, after all, surrounded by a group of the locals wearing their four legs. Jim does damage control- Danvers helps, since she's now mated to the alphas son. 

5.) Bones gets away to do some camping, Spock goes looking for Jim who's beamed down to join Bones last second in an attempt to get away from Uhura and Spock celebrating their anniversary or whatever. Jim's clothes are at Bones campsite, but Jim isn't, and Spock is (livid) confused, but the verbal sparring is cut short when a local predator pack approaches the campsite. They growl menacingly and Spock shoves Bones behind him- only to hear a far more menacing and wet snarl erupt from the tree cover behind them. Curiously, McCoy actually *relaxes* and is flooded with relief (touch telepathy, plz n thnx) by the sound. The creatures however, are not, and they turn tail and run. Jim shows up shortly thereafter, wrapped in a towel, apparently back from a 'washing up'. (He left the enterprise an hour ago, why didn't he just use the sonics? Spock ponders)

6.) Spock gets a new incense. One of the ingredients is a variant of wolfsbane that gets Jim high as balls and his control starts to slip on the bridge. Like catnip. Bones has to quarantine the bridge and holler at Spock about not checking things first. 

7.) Obligatory, stranded in a cave on an ice planet and Spock is freezing to death/delirious. His fever dreams of snuggling up to Ichaya are just fever dreams, tho, pay no mind to the blonde wolf fur clinging to his away science blues…

8.) Yes, this is more than 5. Oops.

#plot bunny #ficlet #fanfiction #writing is hard #star trek #star trek aos #teen wolf #if you squint #miscommunication is my fic weakness

[beatrice-otter]

Fic: Essential To Your Own

Title: Essential To Your Own Author: Beatrice Otter Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation Pairing: Geordi/Data Length: 3,364 words Rating: Teen Written for: colormejaded in the 90s_channel_tv_exchange 2023 AN: In the Star Trek universe, every species name is capitalized: Vulcan, Andorian, Betazoid, Klingon, Bajoran, Cardassian, etc., etc. Therefore, by analogy, "Human" should be capitalized as well. At AO3. On Dreamwidth. On Squidgeworld. At Ad Astra. On Pillowfort.

Geordi was staring aimlessly at the warp drive. Enterprise was in perfect condition, he was up to date on his reports, and they were in transit through well-charted space, having just finished up with a delicate aid mission, and heading toward a diplomatic conference. Both were important in the grand scheme of things, but neither were the type of mission that asked much of Engineering.

On a quiet shift like this, he'd normally work on a personal project. Most of his people were; a Galaxy-class ship could practically run itself, when you weren't running head-first into a dangerous situation. And it was easier to keep good engineers when you didn't make them do boring busy-work when there wasn't any real work to do. Dern was writing a holonovel. T'Hes was working on a puzzle, as always—Geordi had tried one, last year, and it had been fiendishly difficult. Mansaray was working on a new intermix chamber design, just for fun, and Geordi dreaded the day she'd get promoted to a desk at Utopia Planitia, where they'd let her experiment with new designs to her heart's content.

Geordi didn't have any projects in progress, and he was drawing a blank on thinking up something he could start. So he was staring at the warp core and trying not to think about why he didn't have any projects in progress.

"Geordi?"

"Yeah, Data?" Geordi said absently.

"You seem preoccupied. Is anything the matter?" Data's voice was warm and attentive, as it always was.

"Not really," Geordi said. "Nothing major. Just feeling a little down." Though he felt a little better that Data had noticed something was off. The android was a keen student of human behavior, and he'd made a particular study of Geordi.

"Because of Lieutenant Ortuno's departure?"

Geordi shrugged. "Sort of. Not really. We both knew it was going to be short-lived, and it was fun while it lasted. But even if we had more time, I don't think it would have turned into anything serious."

"If you are not missing Lieutenant Ortuno, then … may I ask what is causing your distress?"

"I don't know if I'd say it's serious enough to qualify as 'distress,'" Geordi said. "Mostly, I was just feeling a little sorry for myself. Even knowing it wasn't going to last, I enjoy romance. Partnering up with someone and getting all wrapped up in them, and them in me. And there's just not that much opportunity for that on the Enterprise, not for me. There's none of the regular crew interested in me that I'd want to date, and we don't get new crew that often. I always knew the dating pool on a starship was pretty small, but when I was first posted here, I figured, with a crew of a thousand, surely there would be somebody for me, and … there wasn't. Unless a miracle happens, all I'm gonna get for the next several years is the occasional fling."

"I am sorry to hear that," Data said. "You have previously mentioned a regret at your lack of romantic prospects, but I had not realized it was this serious."

Geordi waved a hand. "My life is pretty good, Data, don't worry about it. I love my job, I have a lot of good friends here on the ship—especially you—and I wouldn't want to change any of that. It's just this one aspect of things that isn't ideal." He didn't like dwelling on things he couldn't change—what was the point?—and honestly, he loved his life, all things considered. "So, what were you up to while I was busy with Amya?"

Data regarded him thoughtfully, and Geordi could tell that he didn't quite believe him. But Data was usually pretty good at respecting when you didn't want to talk about something, and so he gamely listed off all the things he'd done in his off-duty hours. Much of it Geordi already knew at least a little about; wrapped up in a girlfriend or not, Enterprise was a small ship and everyone heard about everything eventually. But as always, Data had an interesting perspective. Right now, he was working as set designer and props person for Doctor Crusher's latest play, and Geordi didn't know much about the theater but Data had some interesting ideas about symbolism that he'd worked into it, and by the time he was done explaining, it was time for shift change.

……

Six months later, Geordi had pretty much forgotten about that conversation, and only rarely thought about Amya. He was caught off-guard when Data brought it up out of the blue.

"Geordi," Data said after their shift was over one day, "would you like to go to the holodeck together tomorrow? As a date?"

That stopped Geordi in his tracks, and he closed his mouth on the automatic 'yes' he'd been about to say. "I didn't know you were thinking about dating again," he said noncommittally. "After how things went with Jenna."

"I believe that relationship was what one might call 'a learning experience.' I did learn a great deal, although I regret how it ended."

The turbolift doors opened and they entered. There were already three others in it, so Geordi let the conversation lapse.

He got off on Deck Two, with Data, heading for Data's quarters. When they got there Spot yowled at Data to complain about his having been gone all day, and rubbed around his ankles while ignoring Geordi, which was a comforting bit of normality in a day which had suddenly taken a turn for the unexpected.

Geordi ordered juice from the replicator while Data cuddled with his pet. That could be you, a traitorous voice in the back of Geordi's mind said. Which was interesting, because he hadn't thought cuddling with Data was something he was missing. Or was it just long enough since he'd had a partner that anyone was starting to look good?

Geordi set that aside to think about later. But it was good to remember, watching Data and Spot, that although Data had no inherent biological need or desire for the sort of touching and companionship that Humans did, he genuinely enjoyed caring for Spot. Geordi knew what it looked like when Data was doing something merely because Humans did it, but got no innate satisfaction out of it. (The relationship with Jenna D'Sora had been one of those times.) This wasn't that. Data cared about Spot, and enjoyed spending time caring for Spot, and spent much more time thinking about Spot than was necessary for responsible pet ownership.

It was easy to remember that Data wasn't Human—if nothing else, Data would remind you if you forgot. But being an android didn't mean Data didn't care, didn't genuinely desire companionship and relationships with other living things. It wasn't just programming and logic.

"You have said that you would prefer to be in a relationship, and regretted the fact that there were no prospects on Enterprise," Data said. "It has occurred to me that a romantic relationship between us would be beneficial for both of us. I understand if my request to change the nature of our relationship seems sudden, Geordi. I assure you that if you choose to turn me down, I will understand and will not be offended."

"Of all the concerns I have, Data, that isn't one of them." Geordi sometimes thought that Data should be more willing to be offended by the way other people treated him, because he sometimes let himself be taken advantage of and rarely objected to being hurt for the convenience and bigotry of others. The chances of Data holding something against him—unless he did something monumentally and calculatedly cruel—were so small as to be nonexistent. Which was actually a reason to be cautious. No matter what happened, if they tried this and it didn't work out, Data would assume that all the fault was his. Even if it wasn't.

"Then what are your concerns?" Data asked.

Geordi sighed and headed over to the couch, sitting in his usual spot. "Walk me through this, Data. Why do you want a relationship? Why now? Why me?"

"You are my best friend," Data said, sitting down just enough further away than normal to be noticeable. "If a romantic relationship entails being wrapped up in another being for an extended period, there is no one I would rather be focused on. And, as I said, I believe I have learned enough since my relationship with Jenna to not make the same mistakes."

"You know," Geordi said, "looking back on that, I think we all made some mistakes. And one of them was, we were all worried about Jenna getting hurt, but nobody was worried about you getting hurt. What she wanted … she had this idea of the perfect partner, and she wanted you to be that. Instead of accepting you for who you are, and figuring out what an honest and real relationship between the two of you would look like. And that's not a good way to run a healthy relationship, for either of you."

Data cocked his head. "That did occur to me, after the fact; I spent some time comparing my analysis of our time together with standard relationship counseling advice, and realized that there were fundamental imbalances in our respective goals and wishes which were major contributing factors to the way things played out, and which would have been damaging forces even if the immediate issues which ended the relationship did not exist. However, we both had reasons for beginning a relationship that had little to do with the other person involved: she believed that I could fulfill her fantasy of the 'perfect man,' and I wanted to experience what it was like to be in a relationship, and did not pay enough attention to who I wanted to be in a relationship with, or what sort of relationship I wanted."

"Neither of those are good reasons for starting a relationship," Geordi said.

"In some respects, no," Data said. "However, I have observed people who have made successful relationships work that started with less substance, and other cases that did not last despite a stronger foundation. You yourself have started relationships merely because you were lonely and wanted company and the person was available and willing."

"My dating history isn't necessarily the greatest," Geordi pointed out. "I wouldn't hold it up as something to be emulated."

"Still, you can hardly object to me trying something that you yourself have done," Data said.

Rather than respond to that directly, Geordi backed up and asked about the reason he'd given. "Data, are you lonely?"

Data paused. "I am not lonely at present; I find my friendships here on Enterprise generally satisfy my needs for companionship. However, I am aware that our service together on this ship cannot continue indefinitely. When some or all of us are reassigned, the chances of me being assigned to a post where I will be accepted and befriended as I have been here are small. While I believe that the friendships among Enterprise's command staff are strong enough to survive when we are inevitably separated, that is not the same thing. In particular, my life would be greatly lessened if you were not a daily part of it. I hope that we will always be together, regardless of what form that takes."

Geordi smiled. "Me too, Data; me too."

"Thank you, Geordi," Data said. "If we were to begin a relationship, and that relationship lasted long enough to formally declare to Starfleet, it would greatly increase the chances of our being stationed together in the future."

"That's a good point," Geordi said. He wasn't as awkward as Data was, and he didn't face the same sort of stigma that Data did, so he wasn't afraid of having to make new friends. But every Starfleet officer knew the pain of being stationed in a new place far from your friends and loved ones and having to build up new connections from scratch. Taking your family with you helped with that … but only for the people who already had families that could and would go with them. "But I don't know that it's a good enough reason to try for a romantic relationship. What would you be getting out of it that you don't already get from our friendship, besides a chance at a posting together in the future? I mean, I know you want to be Human, but is that a good enough reason? It's not like you're going to fall in love."

"Humans form long-term romantic and sexual relationships for many reasons," Data said. "Not all human cultures have romantic love as a concept, and not all humans from the dominant culture experience romantic or sexual attraction. Moreover, even humans who do experience romantic attraction may form relationships for reasons other than romance: companionship, sexual compatibility, child-rearing, shared domestic labor, legal protections, cultural compatibility, and many more. If Humans can form relationships for reasons other than being in love, I do not see why I should not be able to do so. I wish to be in a long-term relationship with you; I believe it would be beneficial to both of us."

"All right," Geordi said. "Besides keeping my best friend with me when, in the distant future, we get reassigned, why would it benefit me? It might mean that I wouldn't have the opportunity to start a relationship with someone I was attracted to." He paused. "Assuming you want monogamy, that is." Geordi was pretty thoroughly monogamous, himself.

Data cocked his head. "Have you ever considered whether you are attracted to me?"

Geordi floundered a bit. Had he? Data had seemed so naïve when they first met, younger than you'd expect for his rank, and Geordi had never been into younger people. By the time Geordi had realized his mistake, Data had firmly been in the mental box marked 'friend.' "Not really," he admitted.

"Perhaps you should consider it," Data said. "I do not mean to pressure you, or prevent you from forming a fulfilling relationship with someone else should you choose to do so; but I also do not wish you to dismiss the idea out of hand."

Geordi thought back to that moment when he'd imagined Data cuddling with him. "Maybe I should consider it," he said in bemusement.

"As to monogamy, I would prefer it," Data said. "I find myself … unsatisfied, when you are in a relationship with someone else and, as you describe it, wrapped up in them. I miss you, even though you are still here."

"You're jealous," Geordi said with a smile. It's not that jealousy was a good thing, but … he hadn't realized Data felt that strongly about him. For anyone else, what Data described would have been tepid and lackluster. But for Data, it was practically a declaration of undying love. And if hearing that Data loved him made him feel this warm and happy, maybe he needed to take a closer look at his own feelings.

"Jealousy might be too strong a word," Data said, "as I do not experience emotions. And I have no wish to prevent you from having fulfilling relationships with others. But I confess I prefer it when I am not coming second place in your attention."

"Okay," Geordi said. "So what is it, exactly, that you want? What would it look like, if we were in a romantic relationship? How would it be different from our friendship now? We already spend a lot of time together."

"Physical intimacy would obviously be one factor," Data said. "In addition to sex, you are much more tactile with your partners than with your friends, and I would be pleased to share greater intimacy with you. Aside from that aspect, I have analyzed our relationship and concluded that we already fulfill many of the standard marks of dating—the amount of time spent together and mutual focus on each other, for example. The key differences would then be of intent, not form."

"About sex," Geordi said, "I know you're fully functional, but do you enjoy it?"

"I do not have a sex drive, but I find intercourse to be a positive sensation," Data said. "In addition, there is the satisfaction of having pleased my partner."

Geordi couldn't help remarking on that. "You're good at … pleasing people then?"

"I am," Data said. "My programming in technique is very thorough, and I am able to notice and respond to physical cues with a high degree of sensitivity." "I see," Geordi said, and he did see—he bet Data approached sex with the same attentiveness and compassion he applied to everything. To be the focus of that attention … would probably be quite something. He got a bit distracted by that, for a bit. "I do not expect an answer immediately," Data said. "Good," Geordi said. "Because I have a lot to think about." "If you had no interest in a romantic relationship with me, you would not need time to think," Data said. "Therefore, I conclude that there is a chance you will say yes." "Yeah," Geordi said. "I'll let you know." He went back to his quarters and took his VISOR off, putting it carefully in its place and feeling himself relax as the overwhelming visual input ended. He laid down on his sofa to think. Given his spotty dating history, he'd done the initial falling in love and getting to know someone stage a lot, but he and Data already knew each other. They'd be jumping straight into the deep waters of being with someone you knew intimately, which Geordi didn't actually have much experience of. He and Data could figure out what that meant together. Even if it didn't work out he had faith that they could go back to being friends with no hard feelings on either side. There wasn't really any risk to trying, was there? He could see himself with Data, though, was the thing. He could imagine growing old with Data at his side. He could imagine having kids with Data, if they both decided they wanted them—Data was great with kids. Maybe he'd want to try building another android, again, if they could figure out what went wrong with Lal, and how to ensure that any other androids were treated as people, not property. Geordi spent some time imagining various scenarios of what their life together might be like, and all of them felt good. He was leaning towards saying yes, he realized. "This is crazy," he said out loud. "How long have I known Data, and we're only just now thinking about this?" He shook his head and got up to pace along the wall that didn't have furniture, one hand dragging along the wall to keep himself oriented. "Guess that just leaves sex, then," he said. If their sex life wasn't going to be fulfilling, that would be a major problem that Geordi wasn't sure could be overcome. Data might have all the moves, but if Geordi wasn't interested, that wasn't going to matter. "Time for some preliminary research," Geordi said. He walked into his bedroom, undressed, and got into bed to consider the question of whether sex with Data might be something he'd be interested in. …… Some time later, Geordi pulled himself together enough to clean up. He was definitely interested in Data. That had been a very successful experiment, and he was looking forward to recreating it with a partner. …… "So, Data," Geordi said the next day at lunch. Data was on the bridge this shift, but they often met in Ten Forward for lunch. "What did you have in mind for tonight?" Data gave him a pleased look. "I have found a new series of holodeck mysteries I that might be the right mix of challenging and entertaining. I thought we might start with dinner, and then a mystery." He paused. "After that, we might return to your quarters for dessert." Geordi lowered his voice. "Or … dessert." "Indeed," Data said. "I look forward to it," Geordi said, and smiled.

#fanfiction #fanfic #star trek #The Next Generation #star trek the next generation #Geordi La Forge

[fancoloredglasses]

[RERUN] Yesteryear (Time travel that doesn’t necessarily mess up the timeline)

[All images owned by Filmation and Paramount. Please don’t sue me]

Possibly one of the most powerful episodes in The Animated Series was a call back to The Original Series episode The Guardian of Forever...

...which featured a portal capable of sending individuals back in time. Following the episode was to have taken place, the Federation put restrictions on the Guardian’s use to avoid altering the timeline (a “Temporal Prime Directive”, if you will)

Which brings us up to speed. If you would like to see the original review, you may do so here. If you would like to see the episode, it’s available on Paramount+, or if you don’t have a subscription it’s available on Internet Archive.

[Quick note: One thing I didn’t mention in the series review was the cost-cutting measures for the voice cast. First off, Filmation originally just wanted William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley (those three for obvious reasons), James Doohan (who, thanks to his versatile voice (he gave over half a dozen accents when auditioning for Scotty before Roddenberry settled on the Scotsman), could convincingly voice any male character the producers needed (including Lt. Arex and all but one of the supporting male characters in this episode), and Majel Barrett (for the female characters, including Lt. M’ress), but Nimoy refused to join the cast unless George Takei and Nichelle Nichols were brought in as well. Poor Walter Koenig gets no love.]

The Enterprise is assigned to assist a team of historians using the Guardian to study Orion history (the military on an academic mission? What could possibly go wrong?) While McCoy assists the historians, the Guardian (voiced by Doohan) announces the return of Kirk, Spock, and a random redshirt...

(Thanks to CBS)

And this is why you don’t use a time vortex unsupervised, kids!

The scientists admit they were scanning Vulcan history while Kirk, Spock, and the redshirt were in Orion’s past. In the new history, Spock’s younger self died during the kahs-wan maturity test. Spock recalls he was saved from an attack by a wild animal during that time by a cousin named Selik.

Kirk and Spock concluded (through some wild speculation) that “Selik” was Spock, gone back to the past to save himself (which couldn’t happen since Spock was already in the time vortex when the historians viewed Vulcan using the Guardian. Does your head hurt yet?)

Spock prepares to return to Vulcan to repair the damage (hopefully without changing history further). Thelin realizes this will mean he won’t be on the Enterprise after the repair is made (so? You’ll probably be First Officer on some other starship, no doubt still with distinction), but wishes Spock good luck.

While this isn’t the first visit to Vulcan (that happened during the TOS episode Amok Time), it is the first glimpse of the Vulcan landscape (Amok Time just showed a mountaintop that spanned the length of a soundstage).

(Thanks again to CBS)

Geez Sarek (voiced by Mark Lenard, who played Sarek in The Original Series), no pressure or anything!

Spock recalls that he had gone into the desert as a “practice run” for the kahs-wan on the day he was attacked.

Of course, he remembered after his younger self left (with I-Chaya following)

“Selik” catches up with Spock as the boy is being chased by a Vulcan carnivore known as a La Macha.

I-Chaya manages to fight off the beast until “Selik” could subdue it. Spock then has a heart-to-heart with himself (confused yet?) and reveals that Vulcans aren’t emotionless, but merely learn to suppress them in favor of logic and reason (the first time this is ever mentioned in Star Trek)

In the middle of this revelation...

(Thanks to St ar)

Forgive me, I have a bit of loss of innocence in my eye *sniff*

Spock returns to the present to see all is back to normal (including McCoy being his usual semi-racist self toward Spock)

Filmation, upon reading the original script, didn’t want to have I-Chaya’s death in the episode, but Roddenberry insisted they use DC Fontana’s script as written, and it made for an important lesson in dealing with loss for kids.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go have a good cry now.

#star trek #i hate reruns #Fan Colored Glasses

[gar-trek]

please share what you have to say about food cubes!!

I was feeling a little apprehensive about releasing the TOS Food Document™ because it is so damn long…. But since you asked anon

DISCLAIMER:

This is focused solely on food as it appears in the original series. Whatever explanation of food synthesizer/replicator that may come in later series does to apply here. I am also not a Star Trek expert. I’m sure there is some super fan out there who knows everything there is to know about food in TOS, but that person is not me. This is just my thoughts as I’ve observed instances where food is shown or mentioned in TOS. If my thought process is flawed, or I make some claims that don’t really make sense, I am sorry. The food canon is very complicated and vague, so this is me just trying my best to make sense of it. I’d also like to mention I did not explicitly cover the meal scene in What Are Little Girls Made Of? Or the ice cream scene from And The Children Shall Lead, but I do make reference to them. I’m sure there are other food scenes I didn’t get to cover here, so if I’m missing a few pieces, I’m sorry.

Anyway… let’s get into it!

The original series, food, and other things that keep me up at night

I don’t care about continuity or plot holes in Star Trek: The Original Series, and if I did, I think the show would become rather unwatchable. It’s not about what happens to get us from plot point A to B, but more important that we do get there (ie, who cares how or why Spock’s brain has been removed from his body, it’s more important that we do get it back inside).

This being said, there is one aspect to TOS that baffles me to no end, and its something I just cannot overlook: the food. Food, the entire concept of it as it appears in TOS haunts me. Each time they show or mention food it makes less and less sense. It’s a never-ending nightmare and I spend every day trying to understand what goes on in the Enterprise Cafeteria. Today I would like to explore a couple food instances on TOS, and hopefully make a little sense of what is happening.

The first chilling incident: The Man Trap (S1E2) - Rand is a thief

In this episode, we see Yeoman Rand on her way to deliver Sulu his meal. She is carrying a tray of colored food cubes (which is what I will be referring to them as here, because there is no official name) and what we can assume to be some kind of alien variant of celery (earth celery with some red crap stuck on top). While waiting for the turbo lift, Rand eats one of the celery sticks intended for Sulu. My question is why. Like literally why does this happen. Sulu never mentions it (maybe he doesn’t notice). She never mentions it to him, which means we can assume she doesn’t want him to know. So why is Rand stealing food? Does she not get enough to eat? Is the limits for how much you get to eat on the Enterprise that strict you need to turn to thievery to get a proper meal? and if that the case, she’s shorting Sulu on his allotted food. In this same scene, we see Ensign Green (who is really a salt-sucking monster) make a grab for the tray as if he too is going to steal Sulu’d food. However, Rand slaps his hand away and asks “who do you think you are?”, a hypocritical statement considering Rand is also in the act of stealing food. So Rand, I must pose the same question to you. This scene has no resolution, so any interpretation is up to the viewer. Whether you think Rand's actions make her a girlboss or a thief, is up to you, however, one thing is undeniably true: Rand eats food off other people's plates.

Other food-related things of note in this episode is that Sulu sprinkles salt on the celery sticks. This means they are either bland or that's just his personal taste. Also, when Rand gives him his tray, he says “may the great bird of the galaxy bless your planet” and this has nothing really to do with food, I just thought it was kind of badass.

(Sulu’s food tray with 3 celery instead of 4 because Rand ate one)  

Incident two: Charlie X (S1E3) - synthetic meatloaf

In Charlie X, we see Captain Kirk make this comment in passing:

“Today on earth it is Thanksgiving, if the crew has to eat synthetic meatloaf I want it to look like turkey.”

This statement leaves us with a couple undeniable truths:

1. Meatloaf is a meal option on the Enterprise.

2. It is synthetic, meaning the meatloaf may not contain any meat at all.

3. It is not shaped like turkey, but it is possible to do so.

if the meatloaf served on the Enterprise is synthetic, then it very well could be made out of the same stuff the colored food cubes are made out of. Also, (and this is pure speculation so take it with a grain of salt) since we never hear anyone refer to the colored food cubes by name, they could literally be the “synthetic meatloaf” that Kirk is referring to here. In this case, the term synthetic meatloaf would not mean a synthetic version of the popular American dish meatloaf but instead loafs of synthetic meat. Since we do not know exactly what synthetic meat looks like, it very well could be brightly colored cubes.

In either case, Kirk is asking them to turn synthetic food from one shape to another. We understand this is possible through the food synthesizer, however, if all the food they eat on the Enterprise is synthetic anyway, then why did Kirk specifically mention synthetic meatloaf in the shape of turkey? would the turkey not instead be made out of synthetic turkey? why must the synthetic turkey be made specifically out of meatloaf? isn’t every single food that comes out of the food synthesizer made out of the same thing? It would have made more sense for Kirk to say “it's thanksgiving so can you made the food synthesizers produce turnkey?”. However, Kirk is like, a really cool guy, so it is possible that the meatloaf comment is just a fun joke. Either way, we know that synthetic meatloaf is a standard menu item on the enterprise, yet we have never seen anyone consume it.

Incident 3: The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E11) - Green leaves

In this episode, Kirk goes in for a physical, and Doctor McCoy reports that the captain is 2 pounds overweight. In response to this, the Doctor changes the captain's dietary card to help him lose a little wight (🙄). We later see the captain served a “dietary salad” in place of his usual meals. The existence of dietary salad is interesting for many reasons. Most importantly, we understand that dietary salad is somehow better for you than what is usually served on the Enterprise. It most likely has a lower caloric intake than say, colored food cubes. However, as discussed before, most if not all the food on the Enterprise is synthetic. If the food is created, and not naturally made, then one can assume its caloric value can be controlled. Would it not be possible to make a lower-calorie version of colored food cubes? one would assume that the cubes are made to have the perfect amount of nutrients to satisfy yet keep humans a healthy weight if they are in fact a form of synthetic man-made food. How would the captain overeat, if portions are pre-determined by dietary cards? Is Kirk somehow going rouge and consuming food that is not created by the food synthesizer (the captain's secret cookie stockpile??).

The existence of this salad also begs another question: is it synthetic as well, or are they growing fresh salad on the Enterprise? We do know that they are able to grow things on the ship, however, there has never been any discussion of growing crops specifically for consumption. If this is the case though, it may explain why we often see crew members eating celery sticks. Perhaps things like celery sticks and dietary salads are grown on the Enterprise, but all other food is synthetically created. In which case, who’s job is it to harvest food and prepare it for meals? Did Rand have to put that dietary salad together all on her own?

One more interesting point about the Salad: When Kirk first receives it, he asks

“what in the devil is this? Green leaves?”

which prompts Rand to explain that it’s a salad. It is very possible that Kirk genuinely has no idea what a salad is. He may have never had one, nor heard of the food in his entire life. Later we see him eat the salad with his hands, which further proves the point that captain kirk doesn't know what salad is. Why captain Kirk would somehow have no knowledge of salad is up to speculation.

Incident 4: The conscience of the king (S1E14) - Cry over spilled milk 

In this episode, Lieutenant Riley is served colored food cubes and a glass of what appears to be milk. There isn’t much of significance here, other than the fact we know it is possible to get a glass of milk with your meal on the Enterprise. Unlike Sulu, Riley doesn’t have any celery sticks but seems to have a larger serving of colored food cubes as compensation. We also learn that milk is served in a large glass, something that seems very impractical on a starship.

Riley proves my point moments later when he spills milk on a control panel and shatters the glass. This begs the question, who is going to clean that up?

Incident 5: Tomorrow is Yesterday (S1E20) - Chicken noodle soup

In this episode, the Enterprise accidentally beams a 60′s army man abroad their ship (for the second time). This random chad ensign asks the man if he’s hungry because he’s a troll I guess and he wanted to flex their cool future food machine. The army captain guy is like sure, I could go for some chicken soup right now (a very natural response to being beamed onto a spaceship for the first time). Chad ensign has like three cards in front of him, and I guess one of them just happens to be chicken soup because he puts it in the machine and the soup appears. Grant it, we never actually get to see the soup with out own eyes, but the army captain does seem to be pretty convinced that it is chicken soup just by the smell. This opens up a couple possibilities:

-The food synthesizer can make almost anything you want, and the card is maybe like a very broad category, like a dinner card, and when you put it in you can pick any dinner food you’d like.

or

-The food synthesizer can only make what is specific to each card, and the ensign just got extremely lucky and happened to have a card that was the exact food the army captain wanted.

More evidence, which we will go over later, points more towards the theory that one card is equal to one specific type of food. In this case, it is unclear how the synthesizer food cards are distributed, or how you get your pick of what food you would like. It is also more likely that options would be limited. This does make sense, however, it makes this scene very confusing, as, as I’ve pointed out, the ensign had a very limited number of cards, but exactly what the captain had asked for. Pure luck? what mind game was that Chad ensign trying to play with the poor man who was abducted from earth... we will never know.

One more very interesting thing is established here: The transporter room has a food synthesizer. Why this is is purely up to speculation. In my mind, having a food synthesizer in the transporter room would be like having a full kitchen where you park your car. Seems pretty useless, but maybe the guys in the transporter room requested easy access to snacks? Why the transporter room would get this special privilege is again, up to speculation.

Incident 6: Space Seed (S1E23) - Dinner with Khan

In Space Seed a special dinner is put together to welcome Khan onto the Enterprise. We see that they are being served colored food cubes and celery sticks. Doctor McCoy walks into the dining room and comments about how the display is “very impressive”. However, this seems like a very unusual comment considering we are shown the only food we have ever seen consumed on the Enterprise. What exactly makes this food “impressive” as compared to other celery sticks and colored food cubes? Is there some way to tell this particular food is better that we don’t know about, but is obvious to everyone on the Enterprise?

There is also a chance that Doctor McCoy is just very easily impressed with food, and upon seeing any food spread he is likely to comment in wonder. Note the way Scotty is looking at McCoy. His face is a mixture of confusion, judgment, and pity. Perhaps Scotty is thinking to himself “bruh, it’s literally just colored food cubes chill out man,”. There is no explanation as to why Scotty is giving McCoy such a look, so this very well could be the case. Even though it is a silly explanation, I don’t think it should be ruled out that one of McCoy’s personality traits is being overly excited about food of any kind.  

Incident 7: Journey to Babel (S2E10) Party food

Much like in Space Seed, in this episode, we get to see a meal put together for a special occasion. All the diplomates are getting down at a mixer where a spread of food has been provided. These snacks seem very similar to colored food cubes, however I do think they differ. They may be the same type of food, but different in some way. In which case colored food cubes is an overarching category of food, and here we see two different types. The smaller more brightly colored cubes can be put in drinks, though if this is what you are supposed to do with them, or just the preference of that one alien species I do not know. Though I must point out, we have seen colored food cubes served in brown sauce in What are Little Girls Made Of? (S1E8) so it is not completely unheard of to have your colored food cubes served soggy.

The other type of colored food cubes we see are a lot larger and more pair shaped (in reality, they probably were just skinned pairs dipped in food coloring, but for this essay, it’s important that we completely ignore the fact there is another life outside of Star Trek). Now to me, these are very interesting, because the dull color and apparent texture are a lit more similar to standard colored food cubes we have seen thus far. I would even go o far to say that this is the same exact food, just sans the cubed shape. So really, standard colored food cubes are just the cubed version of whatever this food is. This, again, is just speculation, but it does point us to the fact that colored food cubes are not naturally cubed (I’m going somewhere with this is promise)

Incident 8: The Trouble With Tribbles (S2E15) The trouble with Chicken sandwichs

Here we see Kirk attempting to order a chicken sandwich and coffee. What he gets instead is a plate full of tribbles,  hilarity ensues. I think this scene is interesting because we can add to our list of food items that are on the menu at the enterprise cafeteria: chicken sandwich. However, this is another food item we do not see. There is no way of knowing if the Enterprise's version of a chicken sandwich is what we would imagine a chicken sandwich to be. Much like the meatloaf and the soup, because we do not see it, there is no way of knowing if the food exists in the way that we as 21st-century people understand it. The events of TOS take place more than 200 years in our future, so to speculate that food could change a lot during that time isn’t a stretch. I don’t know, just some food for thought (lol)

Incident 9: By Any Other Name (S2E22) Living deliciously

In this episode, an alien taking the form of a human enjoys some colored food cubes. He makes a comment about how they are good they are while enthusiastically eating his food. This is a very important moment because it tells us that colored food cubes do taste good. In fact, they taste really good. Just before he eats, the alien comments on how humans could just take pills that give them all their nutrient needs and give up food completely (think the Jetsons cartoon). On the Enterprise, they do not eat just to live, but because they enjoy their food as well. This tells us that colored food cubes are at the very least, worth eating, and at the best, very delicious.

One more interesting thing: Spock is eating some kind of soup while everyone else enjoys colored food cubes. This could be a Vulcan preference, however, we know that Spock is vegetarian. This could be alluding to the fact that Colored Food Cubes are made out of meat.

Conclusion:

Yes, I asked a lot more questions than I answered. There are some things that make absolutely no sense to me, primarily, the food synthesizer and diet cards. Some evidence points to the fact that the food synthesizer can make practically anything (see Tomorrow is Yesterday, And the Children Shall Lead). However, one dietary card is equal to one specific food, which would mean they would have to produce a lot of these dietary cards if there is many meal options. How these cards are distributed, and what their limitations are, we do not know. And although we do not know the limits of what the food synthesizer can create, we do know these food have been served on the enterprise at least at one point:

-colored food cubes (variety)

-celery

-synthetic meatloaf

-synthetic turkey (Thanksgiving Special)

-Dietary Salad

-Milk

-Chicken Soup

-Chicken Sandwich

-Mystery Soup

-Ice cream (variety of flavors)

All of this food (except for maybe the dietary salad and celery) are synoptically created, so what they are actually made up of, I cannot say.

And finally, I would like to make a point about the colored food cubes. I think upon first inspection one would assume colored food cubes is a dish created specifically for space travel (think the food created for modern-day astronauts to consume in space). However, we learned that there is possibly a variety of colored food cube dishes. Since there is such a wide variety of food on the Enterprise, why would they also need to create a food specifically for space travel? I think that colored food cubes are actually a common dish, not intended specifically for space travel. Perhaps it was an alien food that got popular on earth, maybe it was a dish developed later in Earth's history by humans. I can only speculate, but I do think it is more than just boring space food. Everyone seems to have a preference for it, so I think it’s a dish you can eat over and over again and not get sick of. What colored food cubes taste like is completely up to speculation, but I would assume they are a savory food, considering we often see people enjoying them for their main meal.

I still have more to say, but for the sake of everyone, I’ll end it there. This was a lot of thought dumping, so if some of the things I said made no sense at all, I’m sorry. I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on TOS food! please share with me what you think colored food cubes would taste like :)

#star trek #tos #star trek tos #the original series #anon reveal yourself so i can kiss you #please #whole ass ted talk #sorry this is so long #colored food cubes #kirk #james t kirk #spock #bones #leonard mccoy #journey to babel #space seed #yeoman rand #sulu #hikaru sulu

[deannaroxannewrites]

Tropetember Day 8 - 5+1 / 3+1

You're in my sickbay again...

Pairing: Leonard McCoy x GN!Reader

Fandom: Star Trek (I was writing it as AOS but pretty sure it works for TOS as well if that's your jam)

Rating: Teen and up

TW: Mentions of torture, mention of injuries

AN: Day 8 of @tropetember. Not a massively in depth fic, more like snapshots of situations that occur through the relationship.

3 times Dr McCoy didn't want to see you in his medbay and 1 time he did

Find this story on Ao3 here.

Word Count: 1.3k

1

While you hadn’t been expecting to be beamed directly into the quarantine suite in the Medbay of the USS Enterprise, after three months working with Captain James T for Trouble Kirk, it wasn’t totally surprising either.

Kirk had been invited to a celebration feast in a system you were exploring, but had only been allowed to bring one guest. As Chief Security Officer or CSO, you had been volunteered for the position.

You had done everything you could to keep the Captain away from anything questionable. Sadly, conversations with him usually went something along the lines of:

“Jim, no”

“Jim, yes”.

It was something you regularly discussed in your sessions with the ship's newly appointed counsellor.

Since quarantine procedures were only instigated when the transporter detected an anomaly in the crew members being transported, and assuming it was due to Jim, you just sigh to yourself and shake your head.

“I told you to watch him closely!”

The southern drawl didn’t soften the accusation, even deadened as it was by the plexiglass divider that separated Quarantine from the rest of the medbay.

“I did! I don’t understa…”

You trail off as you have a sudden realisation and groan.

“I found him with his tongue down the Princess’s throat.”

Dr McCoy gives a long suffering sigh.

“I’ll have to run tests on both of you. The transporter team couldn’t definitively tell if you both have it.” He pauses and looks you up and down. “I expected better of you Lieutenant Commander”

“Yeah, cos you’re so much better at this than I am. It was Orion herpes last time, wasn’t it?”

The CMO just smirks and tells you to stop pointing fingers before sauntering off towards the storage cupboard. You respond by flipping him off. And you maybe watch his ass a little.

Turning to the Captain, who has been uncharacteristically silent until this point, you channel your inner McCoy.

“Goddamnit Jim!”

Jim decides that you and Bones are spending too much time together.

2

When Scotty had called to warn Dr McCoy of an incoming victim of an explosion in engineering, he had not expected it to be you.

“You’re in my sickbay again sweetheart.”

He uses a sing-song tone that he doesn’t employ with the rest of the crew. Nurse Chapel, who is at the other side of the bed, takes note to check in with the Captain as to the state of the betting pool. She believes she may have lost.

You nod in response to the doctor’s enquiry. You’re in far too much pain to think of anything more complex than that in response.

“What were you even doing in Engineering?” he grumbles to himself, moving around in the space to grab hypos, bandages, burn salve and a dermal regenerator. “You’re almost as bad as Jim and Spock.”

You try to focus on him but you’re struggling to stay conscious. It’s not aided by the painkillers he dumps into your system.

McCoy gently moves you to be laying on the bed. He’s concerned at the extent of the damage done and the nerve trauma to your arm. To ease your pain, he hits you with a sedative and you’re out like a light.

-------

You groan as you come back to consciousness, the light of the medbay hurting your eyes.

“Welcome back darlin’” you hear.

Smiling despite yourself, you squint in Leonard’s direction.

“I was helping with the repairs on the lower decks. I assumed it was safer than an away mission. Apparently I was wrong.”

Surprised laughter bubbles from the grumpy doctor as he agrees.

“Well, get yourself rested up. I’m serious this time. I don’t want to see you back in my medbay.”

“Sure” you agree, both of you knowing it won’t last for long. Occupational hazard. “Dinner and a movie on Saturday if the mean Doctor lets me go?”

3

It made a change for a mission to go wrong due to something Spock did but in a culture that valued feelings as much more important than logic, it was not that surprising.

Most of the crew had made a successful escape but yourself and Dr McCoy had been taken hostage during the initial skirmish. You’d been thrown in a cell together and that had been that.

Or at least, so you’d thought.

You’d been dragged from the cell, questioned and beaten in front of McCoy in an attempt to find out details of the Enterprise and it’s crew. You hadn’t broken, but by the time you’d been rescued, you definitely had at least a couple of broken ribs, a black eye and various assorted cuts and bruises.

Len was quiet as he helped to repair your injuries. Where you were black and blue, his torture had been psychological. He couldn’t get your screams out of your head.

Noticing his distracted state you grasps his jaw gently, disguising the wince it bring when it pulls a little, and raise his eyes to yours.

“This isn’t your fault.”

His eyes dart away but you stay firm.

“I am trained for this, Len. I’d do it again to protect you. But you’re going to need to let the guilt go.”

He sighs heavily.

“I’ll try.” He pauses to run the regen unit over your upper arm. “You’ll need to do me a favour though.”

“Anything.”

“Go on a date with me?”

Mr Spock had been on his way to apologise for the consequences of his actions but is distracted by the fact that he has won the betting pool. He better inform the Captain and come back later.

1

You’re still not sure how it happened. As CSO, your main responsibility was the Captain and when things went wrong, his safety was paramount. You couldn’t check on everyone else. You just had to trust that your team was doing their job.

You hadn’t even realised Len had been hit until you landed on the transporter pad.

There had been so much blood.

Now, you were pacing outside the OR. It had been hours since the beam out when finally M’Benga pops his head out.

“He’ll be ok. He won’t be working for a few weeks but he’ll be ok.”

Your knees give out from under you and you land heavily on the chair behind you. Tears of relief escape without your permission and you drop your head into your hands.

M’Benga gives your shoulder a squeeze, letting you know where Len is being moved to and giving you permission to stay with him, before heading off to finish cleaning himself up.

You take a deep breath and approach Len’s bed. His larger than life presence is softened in sleep and you can’t help but notice how fragile he looks.

Taking his hand, you place a kiss on his knuckles and then rest your head against the mattress. After nearly 36hrs awake, you’re out like a light

-----

You wake to the feeling of fingers running through your hair which you automatically nuzzle into. It’s nice. Comforting.

It takes longer than you’d ever admit to orient yourself, but when you do, you raise yourself and meet Len’s eyes. He has a soft smile on his face that you can’t help but mirror.

“Sorry for dropping in, I know you didn’t want to see me in your medbay.” It’s a cheeky comment but it widens his smile into a grin. You pat yourself on the back for lightening the atmosphere.

“I’ll let you off this time.” His voice is a bit scratchy from lack of use but it sounds like the finest music to your ears. How could you have been so close to never hearing it again? He continues, “care to join me for dinner? I’m afraid there’s only jello.”

You laugh at the silly grump of a man in the hospital bed. Your best friend. Your favourite person. The love of your life.

“I’d love to.”

#tropetember #fanfiction #star terk #star trek aos #leonard mccoy x reader #leonard mccoy x you #leonard mccoy x y/n #dr mccoy x reader #captain james t. kirk #3 + 1 #torture mention #injuries

[starkiller1701-a]

Spock’s Calculator Project #1

Stardate: 2112.28

So I had this idea ever since I rewatched “That Which Survives” (TOS S3 E17): In the episode Spock is in command of the Enterprise and for a great part of the episode he is carrying around an interesting device

Now I’ve looked it up and prop reference sites identify it as “Spock’s calculator.”

I found it interesting because throughout the episode you can see the commander just fiddling with the device, but as it does not have any visible character read out I thought it was curious that they referred to it as a calculator. So I think it would be interesting if it was in fact not a calculating device at all but rather a sensory toy like the ones that are so popular now adays, and essentially that is what my project will be, recreating that prop as a sensory toy. 

My idea is to have the keys in the center of the device be actual mechanical keyboard keys, that way you would get the most out of the touchy-fiddly satisfaction of a sensory toy, and there’s no better way to stimulate that than through click-y keyboard keys. There are three knobs on top, my vision is to have each one do a different mechanical motion so as to expand the selection of sensations, as well as with the white button on the side. For that button I envision something like a pen button, having it click into place and clicked again to release. So the end product would be a similar looking prop that also has the sensory functionality with it. 

I first looked around the interwebs to see if this had been done, granted I have a specific vision in mind, but why reinvent the wheel. I did find a person that sells 3D printed replicas, but as far as I can tell it is a solid piece and the keys don’t move, although I am not entirely sure, so I did ask the seller, and as of now I am waiting for a response. 

This is that model. It looks to me as though maybe the side button might be actionable, but we shall see. I will include links to everything I mention so as to catalogue everything, as a reference for me to look up later on, but also incase anyone is curious or wants to follow along. (Ebay) Besides the this replica probably not working as envisioned, the knobs on top are not screen accurate, which I admit is a nitpick, as I myself will be changing a couple things since the keys don’t look like keyboard caps, but funny enough I was able to find someone that sells the screen accurate silver knob so I think at the very least I should try to stick to that if I can. 

Now, I mention screen accurateness because I found some reference photos of the prop. (YourProps)

I will definitely be referencing these when building my model. An interesting fact about this device though is that it is not the first time it has been used, in fact it was one of the very first Star Trek props out there. The device itself is based on the body of the communicator seen in The Cage (First Pilot).

Clearly visible is the same general shape and the same knobs on the top, the only thing missing are the other buttons. But on that note I am obliged to mention the other use this prop saw in the series, which happens to be in the almost worst episode, Spock’s Brain (TOS S3 E1).

(YourProps)

This version of the prop is missing the side button, but we do get a better look at the shape of the footprint which will surely come in handy later on. 

As I mentioned earlier I managed to find the silver knob in the middle, so at least that part is covered. (eBay)

The black side knobs seem very familiar, common enough but I will have put a name to the face and get some for this project. (If anyone knows what they are actually called and where I could find them that would be an amazing help.) 

As for the other components, I was able to find just want I needed in terms of keyboard switch testers: a 2 by 5 keycap switch tester module. (Amazon)

This part I wasn’t to worried about but having this will make things easier. I plan on basically building the rest of the device around this, and because of that the dimensions will depend on the size if this module. I don’t think it will deviate much from the apparent size of the original prop, although to be honest I don’t actually have the full specs on the original prop, that is definitely something I hope to find as I work more on this.  Custom solid colour keycaps should be easy enough to come by. So far I found a site that makes them, although I am sure I can find a better source (again, any suggestions are welcomed). (WasdKeyboards) One cool thing about this toy will be that it will effectively double as a switch testing module for when I launch myself fully into the keyboard hobby. That leaves the white side button, which I will look into further later on. 

My main Idea is to create a 3D model of the main body of the prop and then have it 3D printed. This will help me get familiar with blender, and I am confident that I will be able to find someone that can help me make that happen. Apart from all of that it’s basically a matter of gathering all of these parts and putting then together, which should not be too challenging. I expect that the 3D printed component(s) will add to the cost, but I am interested in seeing how much this will be overall, because if it’s a reasonable investment I think it would be cool to be able to make others for people that are interested. I don’t expect the demand to be terribly high for such an obscure prop, but you never know, plus I do think the functionality that I will build into it makes it that much more valuable.  Again if you happen to get to this point, any input at all would be appreciated. I’ve never done anything like this but I think it will be a fun challenge to accomplish hopefully within the next year! 

(Since this post is massive enough already I will add further updates on to #SpocksCalculator to make it easier to find; I don’t expect there to be many posts under that tag lol) 

#Spock's Calculator #SpocksCalculator #Spock #that which survives #The Cage #Spock's Brain #Star Trek #TOS #The Original Series #props #mechanical keyboard

[a-stitch-in-time-and-space]

ok i agree w/ everything you said about those ladies besides, lwaxana gives s*xual pr*dator vibes and that is why i dont like her.

I can see that reading for sure and all things are subjective. I do strongly disagree, but hey, fandom is a space for that! Super chill.

to go a little more into this though, since it's not really so much about what any of us feel, but more about how we engage with female characters (and I'll use your example of why you don't like her - not to drag you, your dislike is totally fair, she's fictional, she won't mind, but just because it's a single line that kinda puts her in a box. And not a very nice box to be in, that's for sure...)

a little tw for mild references to some of the shadier writings of star trek vis a vis sexual assault and otherwise sexist and/or strange relationship dynamics

okay so you know how Riker has like. two? episodes that're suuuper shady in terms of his treatment of women and the rest of the time it's pretty chill. and he's one of my favourite characters, but I have gotta skip those episodes, because whatever they were trying to do, they Did Not Succeed - and there's a reading of him that incorporates those elements and if you do you've gotta contend with the character being quite probably someone who's assaulted women.

or how Worf at times espouses sexist shit that makes me roll my eyes outta my head and you're either gonna say "I don't fucking like this character" (and again, totally fair, I've seen people who don't Vibe) or you've gotta find a way to make this work for you if you want to explore that character - or both of those things, you can dislike a character and want to write about them

Or some of the weird shit the writers have Geordi do (which, Geordi is my favourite character in TNG, but sometimes ya gotta breathe and go "the writers are fucking dumb, the writers are fucking dumb")

or - the spiritual successor of Geordi, Julian Bashir (my favourite character from DS9 - clearly I have a Type). You've gotta go: This is stupid writing. I can make it work with my own read of the character, but first and foremost The Writing Is Dumb!

Or hell, Q - since we're talking about Lwaxana and I assume her interactions with Picard and Odo, let's not forget to mention Q, both in TNG and on VOY with Janeway - some of the more urgh-inducing scenes between Q and Janeway are, I think, meant to be charming and funny? And I'm a massive QCard shipper here, okay, I actually vibe so hard with him as an alien who doesn't get shit about boundaries (this mostly with Picard, with Janeway I have gone: "Hm. This doesn't feel good" a fair few times).

or how the writers of DS9 had Garak be in a very uncomfortable relationship with Ziyal, who was a teenager, then not a teenager within much too short a span of episodes (and actress changes)

or Quark. Remember the episode in which Quark tries to get Kira's likeness so he can put it in a sex-fantasy roleplay that she did not consent to? or how there are two cold opens where his female employees are told they have to sleep with him to keep their jobs

or like... Neelix (okay, I am not a fan of Neelix anyway, but for people who are fans, there are times when you've gotta wonder what in the heck the writers are thinking - not the character, the writers)

what I'm trying to say with the post I wrote is that this same graciousness isn't offered to female characters - especially female characters of colour, but in the case of Lwaxana

she's older, she's an ongoing female guest star, she's very (sometimes uncomfortably) sexual towards especially Picard and for a short while Odo, before they become really good friends.

she's also in-text several times in positions in which men are trying to control her (the episode where she gets kidnapped, the episode in which the guy who's married her is a misogynist) and she uses or tries to use her "wiles" to escape these situations.

She's really more of a faded beauty who's putting a pressure onto her daughter (in a rare interesting, complex, fraught mother-daughter dynamic that I loooove) and refuses to let go of the past, because (and here we get into my read, but mildly supported by canon) it's the only way she seems to have learned how to be loved and have relevance. She's terrified of letting that go, because where does she go next, without everything that's defined her? which is why her final episode with Odo is actually so powerful to me.

Picard is never threatened by her in-text. He's not massively fond of her (at first, she grows on him... like a mold), he would prefer to avoid her, but he's not in a powerless situation here. She undoubtedly makes him uncomfortable at times in a way that - like some of the above examples have made me go "mmmmokay" but certainly not the worst example of this in the writing.

With Odo I also don't like how some of her interactions with him go in the first episode they're in together. But once they're friends and you see how easily she accepts him ("I can swim" is always going to be one of my favourite little chuckle lines) that no longer applies. He clearly likes her and enjoys her company. There's something incredibly lifelong platonic partners in their easiness with each other.

You can argue in both cases (and argue well) that there are scenes that are kinda sus. But there are lots of scenes that offer you depth of character. She's not one-note. She's got off moments.

Some of these guys (and others - I haven't watched as much TOS and Voyager so I don't want to misrepresent anyone, but I feel sure that Tom Paris has made me squint once or twice + I've not seen Enterprise yet) have whole episodes that make me shudder.

It's really - within this fandom for sure - open how we interpret characters and I'm not saying anyone needs to read Lwaxana like this or change their minds and like her.

The point of the post is not to say you have to like any of these characters. Or even to say you have to engage with them regardless of how you vibe or don't vibe with them. It's just... I have listened to several up-until-then-enjoyable deeply analytical podcasts where at some point one of the (guys... always guys... I'm guessing white) makes a sneering comment completely dismissing their value within the series.

My point is that Lwaxana (since we're on her) has value as a character within the Trek universe. She added something important. She's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's a big series, we're not all guaranteed to like everyone.

and in the original post I used "shrill" and "cringy" on purpose, because those are descriptors I've heard. And they are absolutely rooted in misogynist dismissals of female characters no matter what shape they take (Keiko, Lwaxana, Michael, and Ezri are radically different from each other and yet all easily brushed aside regardless of screentime, personality, show, age, role/job).

I'm not making points about having to engage with or like characters. I'm just saying we need to be aware of how easily we specifically look down our noses at female characters (and specifically female characters of colour - apologies, this was just because we were talking about Lwaxana, but some of the shit I've heard about especially Michael and Keiko have made me want to bang my head against a wall... or other peoples heads against walls... you know, for a nice change)

so how much sympathy or analysis of behaviour is afforded to female characters vs their male peers. What judgements are we making and how do they compare to our readings of their male counterparts?

sidenote: I hate using male and female about star trek, my brain is just like "why anyone gender? why do this? you're in space? there are aliens? y'all can't chill with the binary for two fucking seconds?"

different post

#lwaxana troi #tng #ds9 #voy #st: tng #st: ds9 #st: voy #star trek disc horse #I don't want to make statements on TOS or Disco guys - I HAVE seen them I just don't rememberrrr too much #i have entirely avoided any and all opinions by white cis dudes on adira and gray btw because I have F E A R #they're not female characters tho but like... tangentially I'm thinking hooboy about them as well #anon just wanna reiterate I'm not telling you to change your opinion or feelings about her

[yourea--stubborn--man]

The link to my AO3 is on my blog, but I figured I’d make a nice and neat post with all my Star Trek fics in one place to reblog every once in a while. 

Edit: every time someone reblogged this post, I got 10+ kudos on AO3 compared to the usual 3, and 2-3 comments a day compared to a couple per week. The first time it happened I almost cried. Likes did not have this effect, as they don’t share the post with anyone. Not going to ask you to reblog, but look what a difference it makes.

Please remember that while I love getting prompts, I’m not accepting any at the moment as I have far too many WIPs I’m super invested in and want to focus on.

To avoid seeing this post again, blacklist #essebificmasterpost

Kirk/Spock:

✨ Ablutions: Mature, Oneshot, 2.4k words, No Archive Warnings Apply 

Jim wakes up after their first night together and watches Spock get ready for the day. Just a little fic about Jim being hopelessly in love with and in awe of Spock. 

Tags: Mention of sex | Nudity | Morning After | fwp (fluff without plot)

✨ Save the last dance: Mature, Oneshot, 3.9k words, No Archive Warnings Apply

In which there is revealing alien formalwear, slow-dancing and out-of-body sexual experiences.

Tags: Slow Dancing | Possessive!Spock | pining!jim | Mind Meld Sex

✨ One of your Earth emotions: Teen and Up Audiencies, Oneshot, 1.8k words, No Archive Warnings Apply

5 times Spock didn’t know what he felt for Jim +1 time he finally did.

Tags: Strangers to Friends to Lovers | spock doesn't know how to emotion | spock figuring out his feelings | spock's pov | Stream of Consciousness | 5 times + 1 fic | spock has a big fat crush from day 1 | self-hatred/shame

✨ Thank God for telepathy: Teen and Up Audiencies, Oneshot, 2.1k words, No Archive Warnings Apply

Based on this post by boldly-yo on Tumblr: "Anyway, Jim asking to kiss Spock followed by Spock leaning his head in as Jim sticks his hand out is, The Best fanfic trope"

Tags: First Kiss | Love Confessions | Getting Together | Friends to Lovers | just a small sweet thing that somehow became 2k words | Touch Telepathy | Jim Kirk can't say the word sex

✨You are my answer: Explicit, Oneshot, 7.1k words, No Archive Warnings Apply

After the events of The Motion Picture, Spock is ready to fully confront his feelings for Jim.

Tags: Post-Star Trek I: The Motion Picture | First Kiss | First Time | Mind Meld | Bonding | set immediately after TMP | Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot | Jim was depressed in TMP you can't change my mind

✨ Mythos: Teen and Up Audiencies, Oneshot, 1.2k words, No Archive Warnings Apply

Spock tells Jim an ancient Vulcan legend. Written for the Star Trek Bingo 2020 for the prompt “mythos/magic”.

Tags: Established Relationship | inspired by tumblr post | Canon Jewish Character(s) | Vulcan Culture | Fluff | mention of nudity | Mention of sex

✨In Vino Veritas:  Explicit, Oneshot, 5.7k words, No Archive Warnings Apply

The Enterprise is celebrating the end of its fourth year in space. At the party, Jim is nursing a bottle of Saurian brandy, afraid he’ll never get to confess his feelings to Spock without scaring him away. Written for the Star Trek Bingo 2020 for the "free space" square. I chose the prompt "In vino veritas".

Tags: Bones is trying his best in this one but he isn’t perfect | which I think is canon | Mildly Dubious Consent | I guess | by which I mean Jim is very drunk Spock is sober and Jim gets very handsy | Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism | Drunken Confessions | First Time | no actual sex happens while Jim is drunk btw | he just touches spock... A LOT | Leonard "Bones" McCoy is a Good Friend | Nyota Uhura is a Good Friend | Vulcan Mind Melds | Vulcan Biology | The biology of Vulcans | Smut | Angst with a Happy Ending

✨Close to you: Teen and Up Audiencies, Oneshot, 7.5k words, No Archive Warnings Apply

A sudden snowstorm during an away mission interferes with the Enterprise’s transporters and communications, leaving Jim and Spock stranded alone on an alien planet. A small cave their only shelter and huddling for warmth the only way to avoid hypothermia, they are forced to confront their feelings for one another.

Tags: Pining | Huddling For Warmth | Partial Nudity | First Kiss | Making Out | Vulcan Mind Melds | Touch Telepathy | Mention of sex | Love Confessions | Light Angst

Julian Bashir/Elim Garak:

✨Secrets and Lies: Teen and Up Audiencies, Oneshot, 1.7k words, No Archive Warnings Apply

Ever since he was a child, Elim Garak had loved telling lies. Written for the Star Trek Bingo 2020 for the prompt “Secrets or lies”.

Tags: First Kiss | Character Study | Relationship Study | Not ASIT compliant

✨Detective: Teen and Up Audiencies, Oneshot, 1.7k words, No Archive Warnings Apply

Following the Section 31 attempt to enlist Julian, suspecting that Garak may not be volunteering all the information he can to Starfleet Intelligence and suspecting that the two men may instead be working together and exchanging military secrets to bring down the Federation, the Federation sends a private detective to investigate the matter behind Sisko’s back. Said detective uncovers a secret, but not the one the Federation was hoping for… Written for the Star Trek Bingo 2020 for the prompt “Detective”.

Tags: Mention of sex | one (1) swearword | Crack Treated Seriously | Sort of? - Freeform | POV Outsider | POV Julian Bashir | Team Dad Benjamin Sisko

#garashir #spirk #kirk/spock #space husbands #t'hy'la #I doubt this will show up in tags because of the links #but it doesn't hurt to try I guess lol #essebificmasterpost

[hailbop1701]

Curing a Rainy Day

A sort of five times Star Trek gen fic for your viewing pleasure. I mentioned I would write it but please be aware that I wrote this on my phone late at night and I has no beta. Typos and mistakes will be found. 🤣

-H❤🖖

Word Count: 2,166

Sulu:

Leonard McCoy wasn’t a huge touchy-feely type of man. Well, that’s what he really wants folks to think anyway. He was a doctor and that meant it was his oath-bound duty to cure what ails his patients. Whether it was from a physical malady or an emotional one. The first time he initiated his “Rainy Day Cure” --title courtesy of his daughter-- to one of the command crew he was surprised that it was Sulu of all people. If Len were being honest he thought it would have been Jim. Sure he had hugged the kid in the past but he always let Jim be the one to initiate contact. The reason why is complicated and a story for another time. 

When he found him the young pilot was huddled alone in Observation Room Five, his shoulders hunched, his down so his eyes were hidden and mind lightyears away. Leonard had a feeling he knew where. The chaos after Khan and Marcus had caused a lot of damage, and not all of it was physical. They were all still healing even a year later. They had left Kronos not three hours ago and according to the mission report, Sulu’s younger sister was…

Not who she claimed to be. ‘Yuki,’ McCoy recalled her name lamely as he made his way loudly over to the depressed man.

She revealed that she worked for Section 31 and was determined to fix the Federation the right way. Though the term “Right way” is skewed for many folks. War was almost started, again and the Enterprise had to stop it, again. Section 31 now had the last little pebble of Red Matter and was holding it like a…” Nuclear deterrent” as the old saying goes. 

Shaking his head Leonard pushed recent events to the back of his mind and continued on his own mission. Plopping down on the couch that faced the giant window of stars, McCoy leaned forward so his elbows rested on his knees. 

He didn��t offer his apologies or sympathies, he knew Sulu didn’t want them. So they sat in silence. Sulu just shook his head and looked up at the doctor with confusion and betrayal in his eyes. “I don’t - I” he stopped swallowing and the helmsman looked so young Leonard didn’t even think about it until after he had already done it. 

He wrapped an arm over Hikaru’s shoulder and squeezed. Sulu stilled for a moment before relaxing and saying what needed to be said, a weight slowly lifting off his shoulders and his chest. 

Scotty:

Leonard and Scotty were both having a terrible terrible time. The cold sucked in Leonard’s opinion and being trapped on an ice ball of a planet only confirmed his feelings. Looking over at the Enterprises Chief Engineer, Leonard had a feeling that he wasn’t alone in his thoughts and feelings. 

The Scot was curled into a tight ball up against the last running console the entire ‘Fleet base had. He was shivering and muttering to himself, glaring at the distress signal he had rigged up. There was nothing they could do but wait. Rubbing his hands together to warm them Leonard moved toward the console and slid down to the floor next to Scotty. Touching shoulders with Scotty, McCoy tucked his hands under his arms and sighed. There was nothing he could really say to ease the engineer’s anxiety -- which stemmed from Delta Vega no doubt --  so he simply let his presence be enough. 

Scotty glanced at Leonard to see that he was looking back at him with calm understanding. Grunting Scotty curled himself closer to the CMO and let the man wrap an arm around his shoulders. They didn’t speak a word and only moved when they heard the sounds of the rescue party on the other side of the sealed doors. 

Chekov:

Pavel Chekov was the youngest of the command crew, so he was automatically protected and treated like the youngest sibling of a giant family. The navigator understood that his friends didn’t mean to and that it was just sometimes a reflex but he was getting damn tired of it. Today was his birthday, he had finally turned twenty! Chekov was so pleased to find that after the incident with Khan he was being treated like he should. There was one person who always treated him like he was young and precious. 

Pavel found that he didn’t mind so much. Doctor McCoy treated almost everyone that way -- even though he wasn’t that much older than the rest of them --  in an almost fatherly manner. A true caretaker. Chekov allowed the behavior from no one but McCoy. 

Leonard walked into “Rec Room Two” taking in the crowd with a softening scowl. A small wrapped parcel gripped in his hand. He looked down at the present, weighing it in his hands carefully.  With a sigh, McCoy strode through the room looking for the birthday boy. Jim waved at him wildly from the other side of the room a huge grin on his face. Narrowing his eyes, Leonard saw that his captain wasn’t in fact drunk at all. Grunting in approval he smiled at Chekov who was hurrying over to greet him. 

“Happy Birthday Pavel,” 

Chekov grinned and his eyes widened at the present presented to him. Leonard gestured for him to open it and the young man did excitedly. The wrapping paper littered the floor a long black box in its place. Slowly opening the box the navigator knocked a silver antique pocket knife into his hands. Examining it closely he looked up at McCoy in confusion. 

Leonard shifted nervously on his feet. Clearing his throat he pulled out a similar from his belt. “My daddy gave me this one to match his when I turned twenty. I know your pa wasn’t around as you grew up and so I thought…” his sentence fell into silence. For once Leonard McCoy was at a loss for words. Pavel quickly wiped a stray tear from his eye and grinned at his friend holding onto the gift tightly. 

“Thank you doctor!” he said gratefully and Leonard understood that it was for more than just a knife. A small smile graced the CMO’s lips and pulled the kid in for a hug. 

With anyone else, Pavel would have been annoyed. This was an exception. 

Uhura:

Leonard was tired. He longed for his bed but as he looked around at all of the injured crew he pushed the longing away. There was no time for it. Rubbing the blurry fatigue from his eyes he pushed on. Triage, surgery, aftercare. He really didn’t truly stop to breathe until the middle of gamma shift when the ship was sleepy and quiet. The only noise was the soft beeps and whistles of monitors. His nurses quietly whispering and working. 

Christine hours ago told him to stop worrying and to go to bed already but something in him just couldn’t. Blinking dumbly down at the PADD in his hands he sighed and signed off on the next round of Spock’s antibiotics. During the Enterprises most recent scuffle the bridge took a hit and the science station exploded sending the first officer flying, earning him a ticket to medical. 

After the fight was over and things had only calmed down to a trickle of wounded instead of a flash flood, Nyota Uhura breezed through sickbay’s doors. She waited patiently and even helped where she could. When Spock came out of surgery and was placed in a private room she immediately went to his side and hasn’t moved an inch since. Jim would have been right beside her if he could afford to. But it appears the admiralty wanted words and had kept him busy since. McCoy had barely just convinced him to get some sleep saying that he would call if anything changes. 

That was three hours ago. 

Leonard walked -- though Nyota would say shuffled -- into Spock’s room, his eyes going straight to the monitors above the bed. The half Vulcan was resting peacefully. McCoy knew it was only a matter of time before he woke and would go into a healing trance. Something that should be monitored anyway. Leonard quietly wondered who he would grant the opportunity to slap Spock awake this time…

“Leonard!” 

The sound of his name made the CMO snap his head in Uhura’s direction. Her eyes were fire, filled with frustration, exhaustion, and worry. McCoy winced, “Sorry Nyota, guess my mind wandered a bit,” he said somewhat sheepishly. Her expression softened a flash of guilt passing through her features. 

“You need more rest. You’re going to run yourself into the ground at this rate,” she scolded half-heartedly. McCoy gave her a small smile and a shrug, 

"I'll rest when I'm not needed." He whispered and badly covered up a yawn. The hidden meaning behind his words wasn't lost on the linguist though. She pressed her lips into a tight line deciding not to comment. Instead, she rested her gaze on Spock once more her hand inches away from his. 

So deep in thought, Nyota hadn't even realized that McCoy had left and come back, a tray with a couple of hypos in his always unwavering hands. Catching her eyes he gave her another encouraging smile. He took care to tell her everything he was doing and how it would help keep infection away. Leonard knew he didn't have to explain but he felt it necessary to fill the quiet with "Illogical chatter" as Spock would surely call it. 

Uhura was so tired and so frazzled that she was startled to find the CMO crouching in front of her with concern all over his face. "You need to get some rest Nyota. I can have a cot brought in if you'd like…" 

Uhura, let a few tears fall before she bottled it up again. She shook her head wiping her face, "I'm alright Leo. Everything is just catching up to me…" she mumbled with a watery chuckle. Leonard snorted at the nickname she had given him, 

"Just let me know darlin' " 

And without truly thinking about it he pulled her into a hug. It only took Uhura a second to process what was happening before she wrapped her arms around him tightly. A genuine smile breaking across her face. The first time in hours she felt content, safe, and able to truly breathe. 

Jim: 

James T. Kirk was a touchy-feely type of man. Leonard supposed it may be from a less than stellar childhood. So whenever Jim would pull him into a one-armed hug or slapped his back or even leaned up against him, McCoy would let him. He would definitely bitch but only half-heartedly, Leonard needed to keep up appearances after all. 

So when they found Jim partially dead, hanging from his wrists in a cave all smirks and charm…

Well, no one batted an eye when -- after he made sure that the man would live -- Leonard pulled his best friend in for a hug. Jim just laughed, laid an arm over McCoy's shoulder, and leaned into the hug. 

"I only had to get tortured and offered to an alien God for you to hug me. Good to know," 

"Shut up Kid," 

Spock:

No one ever thought the words McCoy, Spock, and hug would ever be uttered but stranger things have happened on the Enterprise. 

No stranger than an alien device that turned back time. In a physical sense anyway. Leonard looked down at his adolescent hands and sighed with a heavy eye roll. "Not this again," he grumbled with a shudder. 

Looking around the room he saw Jim shouting at Mudd who had bought the alien weapon and decided to point it at him and Spock. McCoy tilted his head, his eyes going comically wide. 

Spock! 

Where was the green-blooded rugrat? Leonard looked around and sighed in relief at the sight of the first officer. He was hidden under a rickety wooden table. Crouching down Leonard gave Spock a small smile, he waved and gestured for the Vulcan to come closer. Apparently the younger you go the further your mind goes with it. Spock had a mentality of a...of well, a toddler. He couldn't have been more than two. 

Spock stared at Leonard intensely before darting out and crashing into his legs. McCoy stumbled a little before he got his footing. Spock looked up at him with wide scared eyes, tears threatening to fall. 'Must have gotten all Vucan-y at four or five,' Leonard thought as he picked up his friend. 

Leonard pulled Spock close, hugging him to his chest whispering softly. Spock seemed confused for only a moment before he buried his head into the young CMO's neck. 

Jim of course saw it all and later under the threat of meeting his end via an airlock kept his mouth firmly shut. The only thing the Starship Captain said -- which everyone agreed-- Doctor Leonard McCoy could absolutely cure a rainy day. 

Tags:

@lauraaan182, @chickadee-djarin, @cowenby2, @bluesclues-1234, @sayuri9908,

#star trek aos #leonard mccoy #leonard bones mccoy #jim kirk #james t kirk #spock #mister spick #nyota uhura #pavel chekov #hikaru sulu #montgomery scott #fanfiction #hailey the queen of typos