Date: 01 Sep 2013 09:38 Title: XV. The Future
I just finished this story, one of the few I made sure to get onto my iPad for my trip out here and finally got around to reading and I have to say...
That is one helluva way to send off a character.
I was a little confused in the first chapter, not going to lie. I think it slipped my mind that this story took place in the MU when I downloaded it last month, so it was odd to see Scotty, not on a freighter, but with a family that he was taking care of. I thought maybe it'd be some long lost family of his that was never talked about but perhaps hinted at in TOS (I can honestly say I haven't watched a lot of TOS; I started with TNG). Once talk of Empires and rebellions started, I got my head around it and was fine.
You brought into this story a very heavy overlay of not just survival, but not just revenge either. Scotty had been not just hurt, but completely seemingly de-humanized. Jumping back and forth between his early days in Starfleet to his last days worked phenomenally; it didn't lose the reader, but rather explained MUCH of what had just happened in the previous chapter, or explained why he said something: like telling McCoy that his father did amazing things, and then showing exactly what McCoy did for Scott, as well as for his own family to make sure they were as safe as he could make them, as well his work in the rebellion from within the fleet. I almost wonder if Scotty killed David because he asked him to, but alas, the Scot is dead so can't ask him.
I wonder what made Scotty feel the need to sabotage Spock's own sabotage of the Empire. Spock was going to bring an end to the Empire as it had been known, forging alliances with oppressed aliens to create his own little version of a Federation. I don't really understand why Spock felt so threatened by Scotty that he had to kill him; he had to have had some intuition that Scotty was on his side. Unless of course it went back to the point you made in this last chapter; Spock was still an emperor of an Empire, so there could be no true peace until the Empire was completely wiped away.
The thing I loved most about this story and setting was that you didn't just slap a goatee on everyone and call them "evil" because they were in the MU. We see not just the worst of humanity here (the Empire), but you also show real, compassionate, merciful human beings (the rebels, David McCoy, Scotty) trying to hold onto whatever shred of humanity they have left in defiance of the Empire. Too often than not I feel like the MU is just an excuse to make an evil twin of our characters - I've fallen into that trap, and STO does it a lot - rather than an opportunity to show that just because there are a few over-zealous, ambitious, blood-thirsty cowards in this universe, not everyone on that side of the mirror is that way. I think you executed this brilliantly, and I loved it. Time to go read what else you've got lying around here!
Author's Response: Yes, Scott took David McCoy out on request; David was dying and wanted to insulate his son, as well as put Scott further away from suspicion. As to the Spock v. Scott question: Spock aimed to take over the Empire and move it towards a more fair model slowly. Scott wanted to outright end the Empire, the same goal he'd been born into.
It's always been important to me to get to the heart of what makes people or defines them or otherwise, and the MU is definitely a chance to study nature v. nurture. And very gray-area characters. Was Scott a hero? A villain? A terrorist or a freedom fighter, and how thick are those lines in the end? I'm so glad you liked it, and thanks so much for the review.
Date: 04 Jun 2013 01:20 Title: XV. The Future
And hope goes on; just a little bit, and something might come out of this after all.
Marvelous, exciting, believable story - really page-turning and magnificent.
Kudos in spades.
Author's Response: Aye. Thank you for reading it -- it remains a favorite of mine, and one of the times I managed to plot something intricate and pull it off with grace.
Date: 04 Jun 2013 01:15 Title: XIV. Finality
It's one final act, not of kindness, maybe of nostalgia, to eject the antimatter and save the planet. Certainly little else is salvaged.
For the Empire, well, it doesn't necessarily end it, but this no doubt cripples it. But Empires can survive even this, I believe. This kamikaze act have dealt a heavy blow but power will rush into the vacuum. Maybe the Romulans, or the Klingons. Or another species not yet known to the Empire, like the Borg.
Or maybe it'll be corruption within the ranks of the rebels themselves.
Author's Response: Deep Space Nine actually provides that answer; Spock manages to ascend to power, and bring about a new Republic, which then falls to the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. No easy answers here. Humanity becomes enslaved, then. And rebels rise again. Thank you.
Date: 04 Jun 2013 01:06 Title: XIII. Echoes
I have become Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds.
Scotty knows that he's not who he was, and all he can do is tell Jenna - if there is a Jenna - that she isn't tainted by what he has become.
Author's Response: Nailed it. He wanted to give her closure, on her seventeen-year-old lover; something to hold onto, that he died then, with her name, loving her. And what's left isn't him.
Date: 04 Jun 2013 01:01 Title: XII. One
I am thinking the J stands for Jenna (sorry, I've forgotten the kids' names).
I was wrong about Spock wanting to cross over - it's power that he wants. And Scotty's in the way. And, I am figuring, this is a barrier that the Vulcan will be incapable of crossing.
Author's Response: Not quite. The code is very specific, and it does refer to someone, but not Jenna. Should you ever figure it out, I'd be trippy -- no one else here has on their own. Spock wants to bring about a new Empire, aye. He wants to end the bloodshed and wars. He has idealistic notions, no doubt. But... that was never the point. Thanks!
Date: 04 Jun 2013 00:55 Title: XI. Betrayals
This works beautifully well, the explanation as to who was chosen to go to Halka, and why. After all, for an MU captain, bringing a Communications Officer or a doctor wasn't logical. It would have made more sense for those two roles to have been filled by Security personnel - and possibly Scotty's role as well.
The dovetailing with canon is seamless here.
Author's Response: That's exactly what I was aiming to do -- thank you!
Date: 04 Jun 2013 00:49 Title: X. Watchtowers
And so (I think) Spock wants to make the leap over the pond, and cross over.
Not so fast, and not so easy. But to leave it all behind - it's certainly attractive.
Author's Response: He definitely has his own plans, aye. Thank you.
Date: 04 Jun 2013 00:44 Title: IX. Patterns
And so the device is found, and the agreement to install and perfect it, too.
I've read theories on the Tantalus Field, whether it beams people away, or it vaporizes them, it hardly seems to matter. In actuality, a transporter that stops in the middle, and just leaves its victims in the pattern buffer, is probably good enough. They're either dead or, if they can have any consciousness at all, they sure wish they were.
Author's Response: I figured as much! That it's basically a compact transporter with some interesting intuitive tech, and never re-materializes the victim.
Date: 04 Jun 2013 00:40 Title: VIII. Vanish
And Len goes rogue - for a good cause, but still!
I see this as a very viable way out of the Empire's madness, to go off the grid, as completely as possible, and go native, if necessary. They won't care so much about poor people in ragged clothes in shantytowns, or who live in caves. Even if those people have engineering schematics or medical textbooks in their heads.
Author's Response: It is. Scott sent him off for multiple reasons, and it was definitely effective. Thanks so much!
Date: 04 Jun 2013 00:35 Title: VII. Wraith
Lots of great, memorable touches in this chapter (and I'll have nightmares about the last couple of paragraphs - eek!). Quiet, slow, deliberate, a build up and then a very fast denouement, probably much like the victims had.
The information about Number One and Pike works well (a lot of people 'ship em; hell, the Talosians did, in canon) and very believably.
Author's Response: I love Number One in this universe. No Captain's woman -- the exec, here. And brave, a rebel. Pike never got over this loss. Thank you.
Date: 04 Jun 2013 00:25 Title: VI. Waiting
In Mirror, Mirror, there is the smallest, shortest shot of MU Scotty, and he's arguing, along with the others, in the Brig, on our side of the pond. That's it. Then again, only MU Kirk seems to get any lines when in our universe. And even then, it's just to comment that Spock's beard is gone.
So we have nothing on the MU Scotty, Uhura or McCoy, and nearly nothing on the MU Kirk.
But now, intriguingly, tantalizingly, there is some sort of a report. Or, maybe, there are three reports (MU Kirk is dead so, unless he dictated something earlier, forget his observations). But the others?
Is this - along with his father's acts - one of the driver's of Len's acts? Did Len see a better way? Or just something to poke fun at, or look down his nose at? MU Hoshi in ENT was very uncomfortable with her counterpart's fate; MU Archer was jealous of his. Scotty claims to not have an opinion, but can that truly be the case?
Author's Response: Time tells, with Scott. And McCoy, in a way. And everyone, honestly. He had a specific reason for speaking up the way he did in the brig, trying to be heard over all of that noise, and that gets mentioned too. I hope it's satisfying, when you get there.
Date: 04 Jun 2013 00:17 Title: V. Grace
Suicide by Scotty!
And it helps - possibly - Len, or at least it might be a chance, for Len to have a bit of a soul.
How do you have a soul in the MU? How do you have morals? Can you?
A lot of people write the MU as all sex and violence, or they write everyone as the slapdash opposite of what they are in prime universe. Klingons are pussycats, Spock is ruthless, whatever.
But I think what you see in the MU is that it's a far more complicated society than that. For this society to work, and for them to get anywhere at all, there has to be some small degree of cooperation. People have to work together, at least a little bit. Otherwise, everyone hits puberty and dies, pretty much, as petty jealousies make them slash each other and there is no justice and no mercy and no one cares. Or they live long enough to have children, but are too self-centered to care for them, and the infant mortality rate is staggeringly high.
In order to avoid those things (as a much smaller population would not have been able to get far enough past simple survival mode to be able to develop warp drive and other advanced technologies), the denizens have to, at least sometimes, work together.
Compassion in the MU is a rare gift. Foresight is another. Loyalty (not through intimidation) is a third. They need to be doled out sparingly, like controlled substances.
These little controlled substances in their tiny paper cups being handed out - by you, the writer - are very, very believable.
Author's Response: I could never buy the idea it was just some kind of opposite. I definitely took it as a study of nature v. nurture -- that there are good people, and bad people, and that when pressed like this it brings out different facets of their natures. But never a polar opposite parody. David is yet another gray area character in that mess; a good man, but was what he did right? Should he have ended that boy then? I don't know if there's any easy answer there. Thank you, this review was insightful and awesome.
Date: 04 Jun 2013 00:07 Title: IV. By the Numbers
A kindness repaid - to David (and, a bit, to Leonard) - maybe. This might be a bad thing for Joanna all around. We shall see.
Author's Response: Aye, indeed. Thanks. <3
Date: 03 Jun 2013 23:57 Title: III. Merciless
Ah. Scott's already a rebel (at least, that's what I recall of Chapter 1), but here's something else.
This is the toolkit, or at least a part of it.
You write the Empire as being a harsh, totalitarian state, and I agree with that assessment 100%. The MU is Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia and it's Rwanda in the '90s, and El Salvador and the Viet Cong and any others you want to conjure up.
So how do you fight it? It's too large to tackle on your own. You'd need ships, and the construction of ships is too difficult to hide from spies and the like. Instead, you fight from within.
This is concentration camp prisoners peeling potatoes for the guards more closely, and giving the thicker scraps to their starving comrades. This is the gulag, where people are burning logs in their grates just a little longer, to stay a little warmer for one more day. This is Rwandan refugees pouring across the border or sleep in holes and ditches while trying to get to the border. This is the Underground Railroad.
Author's Response: You nailed it in one, jespah. Scott was the rebel on the lam, as well as generations of others, out there. But David McCoy was the rebel on the inside, doing exactly that -- peeling the potatoes more closely. Carefully, quietly. Thank you! This was a horrible chapter to write.
Date: 03 Jun 2013 23:47 Title: II. The Art of War
I think that, for anyone with a shred of decency, that the MU is a place where you can easily lose your soul. It makes sense to me that a character could and would dull his or her senses with alcohol, to try to numb it away, and help to justify it (you've got McCoy, I've got Susan Cheshire).
Scotty, of course, did what he had to, and he did it well and without help. Being without bodyguards is all well and good (and you don't have to appease them or share glory with them or try not to piss them off - they have weapons, after all), but it does paint a big, fat target on your own back. Right now, Scotty can handle things and can take care of himself. But one illness, one injury, age, or a new family could change all of that.
We don't see older people in the mirror. While that's a casting decision, I think it also makes sense in-universe. Who would survive that long? You've gotta be awfully wily, or competent (which McCoy is). But a slip up means that that won't matter, in the end.
Author's Response: At least in Starfleet, I'm pretty sure most people don't die of old age there, no. Thank you, very much.
Date: 01 Jun 2013 01:09 Title: I. All Through the Night
Beautiful, gripping, and very real.
I want to review the other stories on the list but I will get back to this.
A few comments -
You don't introduce the idea that it's the MU until quite a while has gone by, and that's great. It makes more sense to tease the reader along, and give them a chance to guess or at least form some opinions. Not every bit of action needs to be spoonfed to the reader; I think a lot of writers miss that.
Non-stereotypical children! Hallelujah! Very young children, inevitably, in fan fiction, seem to be either wunderkinds or lisping Cindy Brady types. These three are not. While they're not differentiated too well yet (understandable, as it's still early in the story), they feel like actual individuals instead of sketches painted with overly broad brushes, or limp attempts at humor.
Engineers are often a lot more like Scotty than they are like Trip Tucker, who I feel was always way too well-adjusted and so therefore not a true to life character. Engineers, generally (there are exceptions of course) tend to be visual and hands-on and very non-verbal. The idea of Scotty trying to do a version of Tech Support via communicator was amusing but also very telling and instantly relatable. Of all of the engineers I have ever known, or people attached to engineering in some fashion, they have all been exactly like that.
I will take this up again later, and I want to. This chapter is giving me the itch to read more. Excellent.
Author's Response: Thank you! Josh and Kayla don't get much of a part, sadly, in the greater arc. But some. Never and Always talks more about them, in the side arc. And yes, Scotty's so much better at doing than telling; that goes for Mirror or Canon. Thanks so much for the comment! I look forward to hearing what you think.
Date: 29 May 2013 19:12 Title: XV. The Future
And so ends this tale of Mirror Scott. I suppose, at the end of it all, Scott’s actions weren’t justifiable. Looking at the long term and the disaster that would strike Spock and what remained of the Empire with the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, Scott’s actions may have led directly to humanity become enslaved. But then again the Empire had it coming to them. Scott may have hastened the end but he may have been right to do so … get on with it already so a better life could be found. It’s a back and forth in me, a thought I can’t quite shake: was Scott helping or hurting?
He killed so many with his actions. He did a lot of damage. He didn’t bring down the Empire but he gave freedom so some worlds. He gave them that chance and maybe, in the end, the chance for freedom is worth anything. Certainly, I have a few characters who agree with Scott. Freedom is worth anything … even if it means having to do horrible things.
It was good to see McCoy again, good to see him sober and at work as a doctor again. Healing the sick and injured, caring for those less fortunate than himself. The ending to the story, with Jenna showing back up and the way Scott, the one who loved her so dearly, still lives on even after all these years … it was an appropriate ending with a great callback to that very first chapter, where we meet Montgomery Scott, the young not quite an adult engineer who has a happy life and a home. All that was taken from him. All he loved was cut out of him, some by the Empire and some by his own hand.
But he was still there, that Scott, in some form. Still living on.
Still singing that song. Well done, and a good read.
Author's Response: It was definitely meant to get the gears turning. I don't know what to feel about him myself. Except that he is a tragedy. I love him, of course, but there's no absolution to be found for his actions. I don't know. I don't know if he made it better, or worse. I'll leave that for others to think and decide.
Date: 29 May 2013 19:01 Title: XIV. Finality
Wow. What a master plan. Scott singlehandedly crippled the Empire in one swoop. One command built bit by bit over thirty long years. The masterstroke was amazingly executed and incredibly satisfying. But even at the end, Scott knew this wasn’t really enough. That there was no real way to undo the massive damage the Empire had done, that there was no way he could insure his actions would have guaranteed a better life.
“It’s too late” is pretty much the catchphrase for the mirror universe. There’s no saving it. There’s no fixing it. There’s no surviving it, really. It’ll just hurt you and go on hurting you. Spock and Scott’s final exchange was filled with such layered meanings. It wasn’t about that just one action, Spock’s question of “Was it worth it?” but about every action Scott ever took. Every action Spock himself took. And “no” was the answer.
Scott allowed himself to feel in those last moments, so profound his feelings had to have been after years of suppressing them. I mean … after everything that was done, everything that he did and others did to him, to finally pull this off and come away feeling like it was just a waste? I don’t know what to call that … some form of low level agony I guess, a numbness to everything.
But wow, what an ending for Scott and the Enterprise. A blaze of glory.
But in the end, it was too late.
Author's Response: I don't think Scott felt it was this one action that was the waste, though it clearly was, but that everything the Empire had wrought was the waste -- of lives, of joys, of everything good. It wasn't worth it. None of it should have ever happened, but it did, and that leaves only what you make of it, or break of it, and Scott wanted to end it.
Date: 29 May 2013 18:49 Title: XIII. Echoes
And so we have the other side of the coin of “Mirror, Mirror.” I always wondered what happened aboard the USS Enterprise during that time, how Spock addressed the situation there. He had to have help in trying to get the crew back but that help had to have come from the mirrors. Judging by how they all behaved in that one brig scene, it didn’t seem like any mirror was in any shape to help Spock but Scott’s explanation of what he was trying to do (talk some sense into a clearly mad Kirk) makes a lot of sense in the context of this story.
So, Scott to see the primeverse Andy in that episode it seems. What a surprise that must have been to him. But those pictures seemed to be the driving force behind this final play, behind this final move by Scott. The last messages he sent out was Scott preparing the way for whatever came next, fail or not … you could almost hear the finality of it all. I think the last message was to Jenna. I don’t know if she’s still around or not, I don’t think Scott does either, but the last words he sends to her (or to whomever it is) are telling and sad.
Author's Response: As I said, Scott actually had some... not affection for Kirk -- Jim Kirk -- but something. I think he did regret Kirk's descent to madness, and his death. Yes, Scott saw Scotty's life, and that this man who had once loved him lived here, and grew, and had a family, and was a part of this Scotty's life, even if in a wholly different way. And yes, the last message was to Jenna. He couldn't give Andy anything more, but he could offer Jenna closure.
Date: 29 May 2013 18:42 Title: XV. The Future
So Jenna and her children never died! That was one twist I never expected! And it makes me think about how Scotty was broken when he was tortured back in 2239, did Kirk senior (father of James Kirk) lie to Scotty and say that Scotty's close family was dead?
All in all that was quite a story, and it had a happy ending of sorts (even if the Alliance was to conquer the Terran Empire and also the worlds occupied by the rebels) but as for the ending. For the most part I thought you were trying to redeem Scotty, I thought his grand plan was to help the rebels and kill a lot of Terran officers and soldiers. But I never expected it to directly result in the destruction of San Francisco, and though your chapter mentioned once what the rebels thought of Scotty. I don't think there is any redemption from him and after Scotty sided with the Rebellion, is last act for them was to carry out a deed as horrendous as any atrocity the Terran Empire has committed.
I'm also surprised such an act brought about this new-found stability though that may be temporary. So while the build-up was good, the pay-off was... I dunno, it felt inconclusive, as if the story was going in this direction of trying to redeem Scotty when in all that he had been plotting for years this horrific plan.
I think your stories conclusion came in this line; 'In their minds and hearts, that name belonged to someone else, a young man who had died in 2239.'
Scotty died in 2239 and that seems to be the only truth in the story, and that happened just around chapter three or four. So all that build-up feels like it was for nothing, except you gave a theory about how the Terran Empire collapsed and how Spock took it over. So to me the ending felt a little odd, for some reason it lacked a bit of emotional delivery.
So about eight percent of the story, the first eighty percent is great and has one amazing build-up, but the payoff didn't quite hit the mark. While the development of Scotty's character now seems non-existent in light of the ending. But for the most part it was a good read.
Author's Response: Oh, Ln X. There are worse things than death. What was done to Jenna Richmond was one of those worse things, in earshot of her seventeen-year-old lover, and it wasn't killing her that shattered him. It's what Kirk did to her, that he couldn't fight, couldn't stop, couldn't do anything but listen and beg and die inside himself on the wall. For awhile, it is... not a happy ending, but an honest one. The Alliance does come, the rebels do rise again. I wasn't trying to redeem him; I can't begin to absolve him of what he did, nor would I. It's up to the reader to decide which he is -- martyr or monster. Or just what he is. Or, a young man who died and left behind a walking genius of a weapon. No, it was never meant to redeem. And it didn't.
Date: 29 May 2013 18:40 Title: XII. One
Game over Spock. That’s the phrase that echoed in my mind as I read this chapter, as Scott continued prepared to make his play. Scott was in the know, knew Spock was here without orders, and knew this was his shot: his opportunity to bring down the Empire. It was going to come soon enough and here it is. And Scott’s plan involves using every design he ever submitted to the Empire, all for one glorious plan … whatever that plan is.
Spock has no clue what’s about to happen. He’s about to make a big move on his part but it has to fail. If we’re basing this off canon then in DS9 the Terran Empire falls and, no doubt, Scott’s plan has that effect on the Empire. If we’re going by canon than Scott’s plan also acts as the first domino to fall in preparing the way for the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance (and they’re awesome symbol of power).
I kinda wish that Scott’s plan doesn’t work, if we’re going by canon. The KCA is a bad, bad group of people that make the Empire pay a thousand times over. I mean, Scott’s plan has to work, right? Right?
You could throw in a twist though … reading on.
Author's Response: It's definitely huge. Spock is a master chessman too. But he hasn't spent thirty years engineering the end of the Empire, either. XD Yes. Scott's actions, as well as Spock's, do lead to the KCA. Scott cripples the Empire, which allows Spock to take over; Spock turns it into a Republic, and it falls. Then we're in DS9. In the long game, does humanity eventually triumph? I don't know. But I'd like to hope so.
Date: 29 May 2013 18:21 Title: XIV. Finality
Okay a little implausible that Scotty had secretly sabotaged all those ships and no one detected anything amiss or that Scotty single-handedly brought about the end of empire, the perfect revolt if you will.
But for what Scotty did, he killed millions of people and I don't see anything which can redeem Scotty for his crimes, in fact he committed genocide sending the Enterprise crashing into San Francisco and the resulting thermonuclear reaction (from the impulse engines) levelling the city.
But at least you explain how Spock came into power, and after such chaos and destruction I can see why now. Still Scotty must have known he would kill millions of people when it was unwarranted and if he realised that Spock would be initiating a coup, perhaps the Rebellion could work with Spock?
One thing is for certain, the blood of millions is in Scotty's hand and I think it makes Scotty far more evil than either Kirk, or all the ruthless captains and commanders of the Enterprise who went before Kirk.
Author's Response: Not so much, if you really think about it. He's an engineering genius. This is established canon. He's spent thirty years designing for the Empire, and his master plan is literally thirty years in the making. If you had thirty years with which to slowly build your end game, three whole decades, and you were an engineering genius, wouldn't you go for something catastrophic? XD
I don't honestly know. I never tried to absolve him of it, for certain. I leave it to the reader to decide how to feel about him.
Date: 29 May 2013 18:12 Title: XI. Betrayals
Ah, a wonderful little bit here about Kirk’s first few years in command. It seems like Kirk, once got command, became an affable guy. Cruel to his enemies, nice to his crew, he seemed to genuinely enjoy being the captain. It seems like that enjoyment led him to denial … no one could be that nice and inspire that kind of loyalty. There was no way his crew wouldn’t try to kill him at least once. And they tried a few times and something in Kirk snapped.
He became that hating Kirk again, the one that had taken care of every obstacle in his way when he rose to power. It wasn’t a real surprise to see that come back but what he did to Sulu … wow. That was a surprise. That was the highlight of the chapter for me, Sulu’s scar story. Nasty, nasty stuff … poor Sulu. No wonder he was such a different being in the Mirror universe.
Kirk was beginning to lose it before the Halkan mission. He was beginning to be like Pike, who just shut himself off from the crew and isolated himself in order to make him feel safe. Kirk had the Tantalus Field, I guess he was safe in a way, but all those disappearances would have caught up to him.
I imagine Spock did when Mirror Kirk got back.
Author's Response: I think Kirk always was affable, but good at doing what he needed to do. Command was always natural to him. And his own idealism broke him, here. And you nailed it. Him closing himself off could only lead to an ending. Oddly, I think Scott regretted that.
Date: 29 May 2013 18:07 Title: XIII. Echoes
So this chapter explains the genesis of both Scotty's plan and the start of Spock's plan to control the Terran Empire for himself. So all the pieces have been set if you will!
Author's Response: Not the genesis. That's been in the works pretty much from the time he was seventeen and a broken half-grown man left to be molded into a weapon. Scott literally started engineering this the moment he was able, and that was way back when he was in his early twenties.
Date: 29 May 2013 18:02 Title: X. Watchtowers
Spock’s plan is now in motion. Spock has made quite a few changes to the Enterprise since he took over. McCoy’s disappearance has prompted Spock to move his plans up it seems and now, of all the things he can do, he still can’t get rid of Scott. It wouldn’t be logical. And that logic makes Spock predictable. It seems that Spock’s goals are not to do away with the Empire, but change it … not start fresh but try to fix what has been broken for so long. Scott’s an engineer and I’m pretty sure he’s determined by this point that the Empire can’t be fixed.
It has to be done away with. Now that the two goals are apparently separate, Scott is going to have to be extra careful. Spock knows something’s up but can’t act on it unless Scott gives him a good reason too … man, it’s a lot of machinations at work here. I wonder how Scott is going to end this all. He’s been working at it for so long it has to be big, right?
And I wonder what happened to Bones. I’d like to see him followed up on … I have a weakness for the good doctor.
Author's Response: Oh, it's big. And you do get to see McCoy again, as you now know.