coprime_recs | Entries tagged with star trek: tos

All The Best Things, Come From Russia (Chekov/Ivanova | G | 1,161 words): Pavel tries his luck with Ivanova. There is something inherently delightful in the idea of Pavel Chekov interacting with a bunch of people who know Alfred Bester. And Pavel is very charming in this story.

Excerpt:
"Forgive me," he murmured, glancing pointedly sideways at the drink nestled by her elbow. "I thought you were off duty." She opened her mouth to argue, and he rushed in his invitation before she could. "And it is Pavel, my lady. For one such as you, my name is Pavel only."

She blinked, and paused, mildly stunned by his temerity, and the courage he seemed to miraculously pull from nowhere. On first sight, she would not have credited it to him. "Pavel," she echoed, half contempt and half curiosity, and he smiled happily as if he had won a great victory.

Mother Tongue (Amanda/Sarek | G | 1,041 words): Sarek and Amanda and the difficulties of raising a half-human, half-Vulcan child on Vulcan. Everything in this is delightful, from Amanda's Vulcan putdowns to Sarek realizing that maybe that time he punched his cousin as a teenager was not as illogical of an action as he had thought to the two of them being a supportive, united couple.

Excerpt:
"I notice your wife speaks Standard to the child," said Skorr.

Sarek found himself remembering the summer he had spent at Skorr's parents' house, on the edge of the mountains, remembering them with a vividness he had thought impossible. He had been an adolescent, gawky and not yet wholly the master of his emotions; he remembered his shame at the irrational dislike he had felt for Skorr, and his battle – his losing battle – to overcome it.

He suddenly wondered if the dislike, shameful though indulging in the expression of it had been, had really been that irrational.

"It seemed unreasonable to deny the child the advantage of learning Standard as a native speaker," he said, levelly. "I speak to him in Vulcan."

Such Enormity Moving With Such Grace (Gillian Taylor | G | 927 words): A vignette on the life of Gillian Taylor, the whale scientist from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. This is a beautiful love letter to Gillian and to every person with a passionate, all-consuming interest. Gillian's love and care for whales shines.

Excerpt:
Gillian is in fourth grade, and in the margins of her composition book, while Mrs. Nicholas drones on about some boring war, she is drawing whales and stars.

She always draws them the same way, not creating the image so much as perfecting it.

Saccharine (Uhura, Sulu/Chekov | R | 2,652 words): Uhura watched over animated, candy versions of her crewmates. The story is fairly saccharine, more so than I usually enjoy. And yet, whenever I remember this story, it's with a great deal of fondnesss. There's something extremely enjoyable about the idea of four inch tall, walking, talking, candy versions of the crew. Uhura gets to be smart and sensible, which is great to see. And the overall focus is on her, Sulu, and Chekov, three characters whom I adore but who don't (as far as I know) get written about much.

Excerpt:
She was just starting to wonder what was in the rest of the box when, with a crisp rustling sound, another piece of cellophane flew up into the air and a little Sulu, with some effort, hauled himself out of a dent in the molded-plastic liner of the box. He was made of something dark brown and faintly translucent--she thought it might have been the soybean candy he'd once given her and Chekov to eat with his traditional Japanese tea. She wrinkled her nose at the thought. Nasty stuff. She wasn't be any means curious enough (or heartless enough) to try to find out.

Soybean (?) Sulu knelt immediately, though, peering anxiously into the next dent. First he pulled out another piece of cellophane; then he dragged out by the hand a very disgruntled Chekov, who shook some white hair out of his eyes, put his hands on his orange hips, and said something she couldn't hear. Probably something about the Russian invention of cellophane, or possibly of candy corn.

Unless You're Us (Spock-Buffy | G | 1,242 words) has Buffy and Spock meeting at a conference-type thing. They're very different characters, but I could see them interacting like this. Plus, there are also several refences to other shows that are fun to spot.

Excerpt:
No demon ping, no vamp ping, but there's definitely something otherworldly about the old dude, even by Sunnydale standards and even given all the givens. "If you don't mind me asking," she says, "how did you end up here?"

Another sip, another grimace. "My friends brought me back to life against my will. You?"

"Same here. How'd it happen?"

"I committed a selfless act."

"A selfless act," she says, and mostly succeeds in keeping the bitterness out of her voice. "That'll do it, all right. I jumped off a tower to save the world."

Done (Anya-T'Pring | PG | 3,362 words) has Anya doing her thing in the original Trek episode where Spock goes through Ponn Farr. This story works in a really delicious way. And Anya certainly is good at vengeance.

Excerpt:
"He--it is a biological imperative."

"God, men are the same all over the damn universe, aren't they?"

"Are you saying that this--this condition affects males on other worlds?"

"Condition? Well, if you mean that when you want him he's never around because he likes being with his friends more than he likes being with you and he's always, 'I've got to patrol with them,' or 'they need me to do some research,' right up until he decides, 'ooh, sex, uhhh, mmm,' and then you'd better be there ready and waiting, emphasis on the ready, or otherwise it'll all be over before you even--is that what you mean by 'condition'? Because if you do, then yes. The same."

T'Pring's eyes widened. "I had no idea."

But Your Chains (Uhura/Chekov | PG13 | 535 words) is a look at Uhura and Chekov, two very underappreciated characters. This story is very poignant and rings true. It gives Uhura and Chekov a more fully fleshed out characterization than they ever got onscreen.

Excerpt:
When he's drunk he sings songs in Russian, passionate songs that seem designed to echo across the tundra. He sings them quietly though, because he knows he shouldn't really be singing them. The Federation anthem would be acceptable, but Spock would probably raise an eyebrow at lyrics suggesting various methods of desecrating Joseph Stalin's corpse, most of them obscene.

You don't mind though, it's nice to hear a human language that isn't English. You think about teaching him Swahili, but you doubt he has the patience. When he lies next to you in bed, he tells stories about old women who played the balalaika. He talks about Sputnik and Gagarin and wishes things could have been different. You stroke his hair and tell him that everyone gets homesick in space. You were never meant to be so far from home.

Letter Home (Kirk/Spock, Sarek/Amanda | PG13 | 1,755 words) has Spock writing home to announce that he's now bonded to Kirk, which causes a bit of excitement back home. Sarek and Amanda are absolutely adorable together as they try to figure out why their son would choose to bond with Kirk.

Excerpt:
Normally, for the benefit of the calmer and more logical neighbours, she would have carried the PADD slowly and with dignity. Normally, it would be a PADD, if it didn't come by subspace radio in the first place, and not a paper letter, carefully sealed into a paper envelope, something she had only seen a couple of times before. She tried, but this--a letter from her son--was not normal, and it was simply too exciting to allow her maintain the semi-Vulcan facade.

"Yes, my wife?" Sarek enquired, appearing from his office.

"A letter! A paper letter!" she told him excitedly, waving it in his face as the door banged shut behind her.

Sarek's expression subtly indicated that yes, she was quite correct about that, but that he failed to perceive the reason for such behaviour.

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Xover (Babylon 5/Star Trek TOS): All The Best Things, Come From Russia by icarus_chained

Star Trek TOS: Mother Tongue by tree_and_leaf

Star Trek TOS: Such Enormity Moving With Such Grace by pauraque

Star Trek TOS: Saccharine by cim

Xover (Buffy/Star Trek TOS): Unless You're Us by Kathleen Dailey

Xover (Buffy/Star Trek TOS): Done by Kathleen Dailey

Star Trek TOS: But Your Chains by nostalgia

Star Trek TOS: Letter Home by Am-Chau Yarkona