Oh man. Allll the way back when I'd reached this chapter, having finally finished the previous one (short as it was), I conceived of that first scene. But because I was something of a coward and also didn't feel equal to it, I just-- didn't. Write it. And so it always felt to me that ONOW was missing something kind of vital, something that bridges properly Scotty jumping to save his ship, and what happens with Corry in the next chapter. So, a much more skilled author at this age (no shade on my younger self, she still told a great story), I finally wrote it. And it made it all-- work. Not only in bridging between the leap and the roar, but also closure on Scotty's rivalry with Sean, and what kind of men they both are. In fact, all three; Sean going, "I see you, in the way only I can, because I also jumped and because I loved wolves." And Corry with his head on the bunk. And Scotty, at the heart of it, with that other name he earned, and all the things that go with it.
You're right, it's a very fundamental conversation. It absolutely does define so much about who he is, both past and future, all the way to his own ending; the same thing that has him leap into the ocean is the same thing that has him kill in defense of his brother is the same thing that literally gets him killed, trying to protect Nyota Uhura, and later almost killed while telling Spock to jettison him to save the ship and crew. Carry it through to ST:III, both in stealing the Enterprise and then standing below watching her burn across the sky. And whether he lets people in or not -- often not -- all of those are still acts of love and service. They all spring from this innate thing woven right into his very make. Even the gruesome one.
(We see it in the RR, too; him trying to protect his otherself, even when he's practically in pieces on the ground himself.)
I am definitely curious to see what you have to say about the flipside POV in Forty-Eight versus here! And yes, someday Scotty's going to have to make those hard calls, and to his credit he does. But when it comes to Corry, he learns over time that in most circumstances, he'd choose his brother first and everything else second, regardless. I know we've discussed before how far that might go, so we know there are some circumstances where he'd hold firm -- including in Seamark -- but at least in most cases, he would never be able to choose what Starfleet would want or expect him to.
LOL! I had fun with Maya's "Can confirm." Re: The guns. And Scotty finding Cor's taste in coffee criminal even back then. Thank you. <3 Thanks to that opening scene, this actually became one of my favorite chapters in this whole tale.
Thank you so much for such a lovely and insightful comment, it was a joy reading it!
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SLWalker on Chapter 25 Tue 10 Oct 2023 09:53PM UTC
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