Review – A Single Step
Single step indeed!
Background
In 2012, Trek BBS held a monthly fan fiction challenge called “Meet the Neighbors”. The idea was to show a first contact.
I decided to pull in a few elements and bring them together. They are from canon and fan fiction, films, and television.
In the Star Trek First Contact TNG film,
the Borg almost assimilated us before we ever got the first Warp One ship in the air (the Phoenix). Furthermore, it shows, at the end, Zefram Cochrane and Lily Sloane joining hands.
In the Original Series, Zefram Cochrane is later found on Gamma Canaris. He’s single, and he is older. But he is kept young by a mysterious companion. In the Animated Series, there are the Caitians, but their First Contact is not in canon. Furthermore, I have a non-sentient original species called the Derellian bat. This bat has been in all sorts of places – in Reversal, Temper, Throwing Rocks at Looking Glass Houses and Intolerance, just to name a few.
Plot
The story begins with Lily and Zefram, an aged couple living their final years on the Alpha Centauri Colony. But all is not right, as Lily coughs a lot, and tires easily. She’s dying of lung cancer.
Lily Sloane Cochrane (Alfre Woodard)
There is a light in the sky, and a crash. They go to investigate, and it turns out that an alien ship has arrived. The hatch is opened. And there is a most curious creature. M’Roan looks like a cat, but he’s wearing clothing and he’s about the same size as Lily and Zef. He’s also bipedal. He has a small wound. So the Derellian bat shows off a little minor empathic healing qualities and closes up the wound.
M’Roan sees too deeply into Zef’s life, but that is the basis of a friendship. And, in the end, he and Zef take the bat and take off, for “the second nebula on the right and parts unknown“.
Story Postings
Rating
The story has a K rating.
Upshot
M’Roan, a Caitian
I enjoyed putting this one together, and I liked the portrayal of an older couple very much. This is also, currently, one of the few death scenes I’ve written where the dying character does not see a transition. Or at least she does not describe it.
I also think the wrapping together of the film, the three series, one film and fanfiction all works together. Jonathan Archer also gets a shout out, making this story, in reality, a quintuple crossover. I really like it.
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I like the plot! I wrote the first contact with Caitians, too, given I love cats :). In my story, set after “ST:Ent – Terra Prime”, Trip Tucker ends up in a Dyson sphere, where he meets several aliens, one of them a female Caitian called M’Ral. Enterprise rescues them and brings M’Ral back to her planet. Later, M’Ral’s sister, F’Ral joins Enterprise’s crew becoming the first Caitian in Starfleet. >^.^< Meow.
Oh, thanks! I decided that dogs needed equal time, so I created the Daranaeans. But I do love the Caitians. They also get a showcase in The Further Adventures of Porthos – The Stilton Fulfillment where the ambassador has a painfully shy little daughter who takes to Porthos and becomes very saddened when she helps him overdo it on the cheese. He breaks wind and she’s afraid she’s horribly injured him.
Off to check out your story, too!
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[…] the Trek BBS’s monthly challenge on first contacts, I submitted A Single Step, which takes place in the movies universe, more specifically, it’s a sequel to Star Trek: […]