war games [star trek xi, kirk/spock, e]
Fandom : Star Trek XI
Title : War Games
Author : seperis
Rating : explicit
Characters & Pairings : Kirk/Spock
Length : 110,000 words
Warnings : sex and violence
Summary : The Federation and the Romulan Empire have been on the verge of war for what sometimes feels like forever; this is the place where what passes for peace might end.
My Rave Review :
I feel a bit like I'm stepping on toes, recing Star Trek fic in this community, where there are so many awesome Star Trek recers! But I can't hold it in! It took me all week to read this story, and I am so, so glad that I took the time to read it slowly. War Games is the sequel to the Kirk/Spock Reboot-verse pon farr story of my heart: You'll Get There in the End (It Just Takes a While). That story is wonderful; in addition to being a great pon farr story, it fills in the gaps in the movie between Nero, and Kirk ending up as actual, non-field-promotion, Captain of the Enterprise. It's a great story, and I highly recommend it; this one is better. Read them both!
The thing about this story is that in addition to the epic, complicated, incredibly interesting action-adventure plot, and the phenomenal characterization, and the brilliantly-written original characters, and the Federation politics, and the Vulcans, and the Romulans, and the Orion Syndicate, and the telepathy -- all of which are wonderful -- it's really the story of how very different this universe is from the TOS universe we know and love. In being the story of that difference, it made me love these versions of Kirk and Spock and Uhura and the Enterprise that much more. This universe is wonderful, too, but it's harder, and it's damaged, and that's important; these characters are up to the challenge of making it better.
Jim really doesn't want to go there. "Rayiyah, what the hell did you think I could do?"
"Stop this war, of course." Rayiyah looks at him in genuine surprise. "That is why I came to you. Was I incorrect?"
Jim licks his lips, feeling the warmth of T'Prina against his shoulder, the cool of the table beneath his hands, and thinks of the thousand times he'd stood on the bridge of the Enterprise, feeling the hum of potential in the tips of his fingers in every Romulan engagement, every time he'd felt himself hover on the edge of giving an order that would change the shape of their galaxy, and every time that he let the moment pass.
What Nero had done to them can never be forgiven or forgotten; the Federation was wounded in a way that can never fully heal, a scar that cuts through what they are and all they will ever be. Jim knows, perhaps better than even the Ambassador, the true scope of what was taken from them; they learned too early to be afraid, and if Jim's an explorer now, he was a soldier first and he always will be. Every cadet who watched Vulcan die knows that to their bones.
He doesn't see, may never see, what Pike sees when he looks at the Federation; that doesn't mean he will ever stop trying. "No," he answers, voice rough. "You weren't."
Honestly? I'm not even sure I can do this story justice in a rec. It is really, really good.
Title : War Games
Author : seperis
Rating : explicit
Characters & Pairings : Kirk/Spock
Length : 110,000 words
Warnings : sex and violence
Summary : The Federation and the Romulan Empire have been on the verge of war for what sometimes feels like forever; this is the place where what passes for peace might end.
My Rave Review :
I feel a bit like I'm stepping on toes, recing Star Trek fic in this community, where there are so many awesome Star Trek recers! But I can't hold it in! It took me all week to read this story, and I am so, so glad that I took the time to read it slowly. War Games is the sequel to the Kirk/Spock Reboot-verse pon farr story of my heart: You'll Get There in the End (It Just Takes a While). That story is wonderful; in addition to being a great pon farr story, it fills in the gaps in the movie between Nero, and Kirk ending up as actual, non-field-promotion, Captain of the Enterprise. It's a great story, and I highly recommend it; this one is better. Read them both!
The thing about this story is that in addition to the epic, complicated, incredibly interesting action-adventure plot, and the phenomenal characterization, and the brilliantly-written original characters, and the Federation politics, and the Vulcans, and the Romulans, and the Orion Syndicate, and the telepathy -- all of which are wonderful -- it's really the story of how very different this universe is from the TOS universe we know and love. In being the story of that difference, it made me love these versions of Kirk and Spock and Uhura and the Enterprise that much more. This universe is wonderful, too, but it's harder, and it's damaged, and that's important; these characters are up to the challenge of making it better.
Jim really doesn't want to go there. "Rayiyah, what the hell did you think I could do?"
"Stop this war, of course." Rayiyah looks at him in genuine surprise. "That is why I came to you. Was I incorrect?"
Jim licks his lips, feeling the warmth of T'Prina against his shoulder, the cool of the table beneath his hands, and thinks of the thousand times he'd stood on the bridge of the Enterprise, feeling the hum of potential in the tips of his fingers in every Romulan engagement, every time he'd felt himself hover on the edge of giving an order that would change the shape of their galaxy, and every time that he let the moment pass.
What Nero had done to them can never be forgiven or forgotten; the Federation was wounded in a way that can never fully heal, a scar that cuts through what they are and all they will ever be. Jim knows, perhaps better than even the Ambassador, the true scope of what was taken from them; they learned too early to be afraid, and if Jim's an explorer now, he was a soldier first and he always will be. Every cadet who watched Vulcan die knows that to their bones.
He doesn't see, may never see, what Pike sees when he looks at the Federation; that doesn't mean he will ever stop trying. "No," he answers, voice rough. "You weren't."
Honestly? I'm not even sure I can do this story justice in a rec. It is really, really good.