08

TIME ENOUGH - Kathy Tipton

His black thoughts were interrupted by the cabin chime. "Come," he snapped, without taking his eyes off the offending message.

His science officer, and second-in-command, Spock, the cool Vulcan, stepped slowly through the door, only to hesitate. Ever since he had been able to give up his encasing shell, even though only when alone with Kirk, Spock had come to bask in the friendship that his captain radiated. Kirk was a human, born of Terra, driven to the stars by the same hunger that drove Spock into those same heavens. Both men ran, whether to or from something mattered not.

They had met as if destined and had settled into co-existing orbits, each shyly feeding the other the bits of friendship undemandingly and unquestioningly. Kirk was completed by the Vulcan soul forever caught between two worlds, Terra and Vulcan that understood the loneliness he was forced into by his conflicting desires to command and to love.

Spock's face was not its usual stony visage, but Kirk was too incensed to notice. Spock waited silently by his captain's side, secretly hoping that Kirk would not notice his presence and for the first time in the Vulcan's career, he fervently wished to be elsewhere. He did not want to discuss this new assignment with the already agitated body that was facing him, the tightly coiled back fairly bristled with hostility.

The tension in the cabin snapped. "Yes, Spock?" Kirk's voice was under tight control.

Spock's eyes widened in surprise. Kirk already knew!

A story about Kirk's realization of his feelings for Spock. When an alien female is hired by Starfleet as a private security officer, Kirk is incensed and confused. With unusual delicacy, the mysterious woman weaves her way into Kirk's heart. Evil is afoot, along with sex and murder.

Kirk must choose between the lovely alien and the Vulcan. . . .

COVERS

ART

November 1986