#4 (1980)      
 

"Rape of a Rock" (p. 11-45) / Bonnie Guyan

[Reprinted from Nexus - unstated issue/date.]
Starfleet sacrifices Spock to the Klingon mind-sifter in trade for an ambassador. McCoy's farewell soliloquy to the shell that is left of Spock when they get him back triggers just enough memory recovery for Vulcan healers to do wonders, and Kirk and McCoy are pleasantly surprised months later to find a healthy (but memory-blank) Spock on Vulcan. The three go camping together. Spock is irritated by the others' demands on a friendship he cannot feel until he must nurse McCoy through the effects of an attack by a carnivorous plant, and that forced contact gives him considerable, though incomplete, memory recovery. Plot is generally good (marred a bit by an overly convenient ending entailing revenge on the Klingons and the handy death of Spock's replacement) and the characterization excellent. It could have used more editorial attention - oddly used vocabulary, lots of misspellings, etc. throw the reader out of the tale.

 

 

* "Side Effects" (p. 49-57) / Joyce Tullock

Nice mood piece on the Spock/McCoy relationship. The pair are quarantined in Sickbay after McCoy is poisoned by tangling with a thornbush. [McCoy is having a hard time with the botanicals this issue...] A little spaced-out from the toxin, McCoy -- almost tenderly -- points out Spock's fears of becoming attached to vulnerable, short-lived humans and argues the resiliency of the species, urging Spock to "Just stick with Jim. The more you observe him, the more you'll understand the nature of our strength... and you won't mind us so much."

* "Survival of the Fittest" (p.64-78) / Rayelle Roe

Rayelle's typical delightful combination of a perfectly good story with hysterical dialogue and devilishly tongue-in-cheek characterization. Harry Mudd strands our heroes on a planet. When McCoy professes to have cheated his way out of mandatory survival training at the Academy, Spock punishes him by giving him all of the "unskilled" grunt work while Spock weaves and Kirk fishes. A few of this tale's fine moments... Kirk: "Stark naked, he resumed his position on the rock, praying that he would manage to catch their supper before his aft engines became sunburned." Spock & McCoy engaged in a mud-fight. Kirk turning out to be a "snuggler" when sleeping with company. And Harry Mudd turning hero to rescue the Starfleet boys from the Klingons.