That was bloody brilliant! And your first TOS fic? Excellent stuff.

Such an interesting and fun technique to build up a story. I would love to see more like this ::insert begging here:: I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks so much for writing and sharing.

Nutty
(so happy to come across such a great piece at 3.50am in the middle of insomnia)

Author's Response: Yay! Nice to know it worked so well. Hopefully I'll get my hands on some more of those intraship messages in the future! --infiniteviking (glad to have written something that cheered you up!)

I really enjoyed this. A nice glimpse into a little of the team's 'real life' in a sense. We normally only see the drama and the action. It is nice to see a quiet moment, that we can all appreciate having had them ourselves.

And it is good to see the other four characters getting the spotlight, too.

Thanks for writing and sharing.

Nutty
(4.46am and counting)

Author's Response: Thank you for reviewing this one as well! I'm really glad you enjoyed it - for all that I love reading and writing plotty adventure-type fic, it's nice to be able to play with some downtime as well. :)

I found this chilling in both atmosphere and content. Intensely descriptive and powerful, it has me dreading the end of this fic, but like watching a car crash I can not turn away and stop reading.

I'm not a fan of end of five year misson fics in general as I prefer a happy ending that the canon scenario can not supply, but your set up and continued depth in writing the characters has me enjoying the moment despite the ending far in the distance. I'm several chapters in and am loving it. Just thought I'd drop in a line while I'm still cruising through.

Thanks so much for writing and sharing.

Nutty
(who printed it off to read away from the computer)

Author's Response: Well, canon is canon and there isn't much I can do about it, hard as I may wish to. ::sighs:: The story indeed doesn't have a happy ending, but I'm glad if you can find some redeeming qualities to it still. It hasn't been an easy tale to tell, but it had to be told nonetheless. Thank you very much for commenting and I hope you'll enjoy it.:)

So where do I start?

I have to say that I prefer this one over all the other written reasons why the big three would have split up.

You have so many instense scenes in this.. Of course, my favourite has to be the final encounter between Kirk and Spock. Spock's passionate statement about McCoy was revelationary (is that a word?). It made me stop and think. My god, if McCoy knew, perhaps he does, it is just so major a revelation. Beautifully done.

The scene in the zero G facility was amazing. The energy, the passion...in fact it was the passion through out the entire story that defined it. Between each of the characters, beyond the requirements of duty, there was this passion, this solid friendship that was bent to breaking point.

And it broke.

You wrote all of this so wonderfully. For all of them. No one got left out and no-one was sidelined with a trite second rate plotline, you gave all of them their reasons and solid time throughout the story. And emphasized why we so love them all.

At the end of the story, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Kirk. Knowing what was to come in the movies (bar the rumoured second five year mission between 1 and 2), he was entering a period of his life that was full of pain. The movies were not kind to our big three, particularly Kirk. They took everything away from him and at the end of your story, that was all I could think about in regards to what happens next.

Your bad guys were very bad guys. Their method of execution and our crew's reaction got me asking questions. I briefly wondered why such a seasoned crew would be so astonished. But then with a bit of thought I realised that despite having been through war zones and other nasties, the majority of deaths they would have seen would have been cleaner than that. Zap and the body is gone. This was an entirely different thing.

And Kirk's final decision to not let Kramer take Spock formed the crux of the reason why Spock had to leave. Though I have to say that through out the fic, you made excellent use of defining the relationship between Kirk and Spock using actions rather than simply writing it out in words. A great technique that also kept me glued to the page.

I was pretty much glued the entire time :D

Thanks for writing such an involving fic. Enoyable, thought provoking, lovely and long, and explanatory in a way that fits perfectly into canon, and actually adds depth to the onscreen interactions between our characters. Thanks so much for sharing.

Nutty
(I'll stop babbling now :D)

Author's Response: Thank you very much for such an in-depth review! I'm glad you enjoyed the story even if it does indeed open the gateway to far less sunny times. Kirk and Spock are my passion, and I'm happy if what I write for them is engaging. AH is indeed a rather lengthy story. I'm grateful that you survived through it till the end.;-)

::giggle:: Poor Jimmy. I so empathise with him. It's okay to be good at what you do, but all of us have to file tax returns and most of us aren't good at that (I'm with the majority on this one :D).

Spock, I have to say, brother-in-arms and all, should now volunteer to do Jim's taxes every year. It would probably take him no more than two minutes anyway.

I do love the wounded dog sound. I grinned myself silly. Poor Jim.

Thanks for an amusing read.

Nutty
(heading to bed with a grin on her face)

Author's Response: Thanks for reading it! I'm surprised at how many people like this one. LOL! I guess taxes really are universal.

Poor Scotty. That is just evil :D

Though I have to admit that I was almost expecting him to shout the woman down.

But you're probably right. Considering what the press do nowadays, the thought of what they might do in the case of saving the planet...::shudder::

Thanks for an entertaining read.

Nutty
(still at lunch)

Author's Response: You're welcome. I'm glad you liked it. :-)

Interesting little meeting :D Though I'm having qualms about leaving KJ anywhere like that, but then I'm a hovering freakout kind of mother who really needs to learn to step back before she does get to that age.

Your Scotty is definitely of the shy type. Having not read much of your other work yet, do you delve into why he is so independent and socially isolating himself? I certainly can see this in the character and look forward to finding out how else you build the character up.

Nice little fic. Thanks for writing and sharing.

Nutty
(still a prisoner of Ork)

Author's Response: Thanks for reading! Yep, it gets explained, though it's a very slow process. It literally takes decades for the whole story to come to light. He is shy; he's an introvert, though by the time you get to TOS, he's a whole lot better at interacting with surface friendliness while guarding the rest zealously. And hopefully, you'll continue to like it! :D Thanks again!

Oh god that was beautiful. And I so needed it. Many thanks to steff for pointing me in this direction.

Wonderfully written with so much unsaid said.

The line where Spock thought it wasn't fair that Jim couldn't see the Enterprise was poignant. I adored the tent joke and Spock using quotes to get out of an original description is a idea I had never considered and makes complete sense. He uses quotes so often, and this makes perfect sense as to why.

Thanks so much for writing. This is a wonderful fic and I will remember it fondly (and re-read it several times, I'm sure :D).

Nutty
(this made crawling out of bed before the sun totally worth it)

Author's Response: Wow, thank you so much for your touching review! I'm so glad it worked that well for you, and hope you continue to enjoy it in the future. It was really the stars that made me do it. They seem so close when the air is cold and clear. And oh hi, I remember you (and your great stories) from livejournal! ^___^ Will have to go over and look at your fics when I get time (school is killing my reading time these days). See you around!

And I really enjoyed this one too :D You give good depth to Chekov and Sulu, give them firm character traits and play them out nicely.

Also, I like the concept of them being a little homesick. It is not something I've seen discussed before and it hasn't really occurred to me, but you're right, they, and especially Chekov are liable to be very homesick at times.

Thanks for writing and sharing.

Nutty
(4.56am, maybe I should go back to bed now)

Author's Response: I'm so glad you enjoyed this one - thanks for reviewing! :D It's fun to play with the idea of the crew being a bit more down-to-earth (so to speak).

Uh-hah! After the zero G scene I was sitting there thinking 'just wait until McCoy sees these two!' and was mildly disappointed we didn't get to see that scene in real time. But! You managed to target that exact scene and wrote it anyway :D So now I can read it :D Thanks so much for doing that. I enjoyed this. Though I have to say that Kirk and Spock's pain is a little hard to bear :( They beat each other up so much in 'Absolute Horizon' ::sigh:: Thank goodness we know that they eventually got back together...but not without a great deal of pain beforehand.

A great fic, thanks for writing and sharing.

Nutty
(eagerly onto the next one befroe the washing machine orders me to hang out the washing)

Author's Response: Glad you enjoyed it. It was a scene I was awaiting with much anticipation as well, and was sorely disappointed when it didn't appear. But as fate would have it, both Anna and Steff dared me to write something, and so with Anna's blessing, this is what came from that challenge. Hats off to Anna for such a superb story, and for being gracious enough to allow a novice to play in her universe for a little while. Cuppy (my laundry is done for the day, but I empathize ;-])

Bloody hell that was a great piece of writing. I've never seen a better illustration of the difficulty, no, that is too light a word...trauma? of command. You've done a fantastic job here of working within established canon to explain exactly how Kirk came to his decision and why. You've managed to tie a movie and two episodes together seamlessly and defined Kirk's commanding characteristics in such a clear way as I've never read before.

This is the first fic I've read here, and the first fic of yours I've seen. If this is just the beginning, then I'm in for a serious treat.

Thanks so much for writing.

Nutty
(newbie here)

Author's Response: Wow! I'm floored by your response. All I can say is thanks! The morality of command and the choices someone might have to make if they were thrust into that situation is a topic near and dear to my heart. This is the first fic of mine you've seen, because I'm a newbie, too - thank Anna and Steff for the inspiration and gentle nudge to try my hand at this... Cuppy

Oh god that is chilling. Beautifully executed piece of writing. I know nothing of your original character (I'm a newbie here) and I'm not usually inclined to read much outside of canon type fics, but this was excellent.

The counting drew me in further and further as I tried to work out what she was doing. I also liked the fact she found sports difficult instead of academia, I can so empathise with that :D

But the ending, the ending was the clincher. You gave her mother such character and then got out the axe. Excellent execution (pun intended).

Thanks so much for sharing.

Nutty
(prisoner of Ork)