#tarsus IV

[a-trek-trough-the-stars]

Barry Trivers and Gerd Oswald dropping “The Conscience of the King” on December 8th of 1966, only to never elaborate on Tarsus IV and Kirk’s past there

[xiaq]

New Fic Alert!

It was a last ditch effort.

Then again, everything Jim tried at that point was a last ditch effort.

[ilovefredjones]

i have not stopped thinking about tarsus iv ever

[major-comet]

bones and spock both strike me as people who are likely to skip breakfast in the morning. they both know better, of course, but some habits are hard to kick. maybe it’s morning nausea, maybe they’re trying to squeeze just a bit more work into their day - who knows

they both notice, however, that jim seems to be a bit twitchier on the days where spock skips breakfast to go to the labs for a bit before reporting to the bridge. or mornings where bones shows up just to have some coffee and nothing else. it’s not super noticeable, they probably only notice because they pay a Lot of attention to him, but he’s just a bit jumpier, a bit more distracted

maybe they discuss it with each other, maybe they both notice it independently. maybe it’s something they noticed about him even before the 5 year mission, but just really fell into place after they semi-established their breakfast routine. he’s usually fine after lunch anyways, and he doesn’t generally get like that if they just skip lunch or dinner. spock tested this, of course. logically.

so it’s probably not worth worrying about; just a weird little quirk of their captain’s. but they start trying to be a bit better about making themselves eat at least an apple or something with jim before work every morning. it seems to get better, and the new habit is mostly sticking, so they kinda stop thinking about it

that doesn’t last, of course. ‘conscience of the king’ happens. they learn about jim and kodos and tarsus, and now all of a sudden the prospect of jim being in a weird mood whenever the two of them skip breakfast seems to be a much higher priority.

because if they skip breakfast, jim has no way of knowing for certain if they’ve eaten anything until at least lunch - if not dinner, if they’re too busy to have a proper lunch break together. jim, who probably regularly went without food to make absolutely sure that kevin riley and the others had something to eat, because making sure everyone else is okay is far more important to him.

i don’t think they really talk about it, after. at least not for another few years. but they stop skipping breakfast.

[ironicandpunny]

Recently been obsessed with the idea of Jim being just a little chubby. Jim, always finishing his food, always saying yes to dessert, always agreeing to cafe and meal arrangements, and gaining a little weight cause of those habits, and he loves it. Loves his body, loves the way his thighs touch and his arms jiggle, all because of Tarsus IV. All because he can remember a time where he could easily count all of his ribs, where even just staying awake was a struggle, cause he had no energy, cause he hadn’t eaten in days.

That’s just me though

[kaffkanya]

must write something about spock just *observing* jim, noticing his habits bad and good. like the way he kind of waits for everyone to finish eating first to finish his own food (as if hes waiting for someone to say "im still hungry" and then share what he has. spocks sure jim doesnt even notice hes doing it). like how he always faces death as if it was something he already knew intimately (he does, spock learns later). how he likes to sleep with a leg dangling on the side of the bed and is a *very light sleeper* (this is just something spock cataloged, doesnt mean anything. its just. a thing. a jim kirk thing), and so on and so forth. but slowly, spock realizes, hes finds himself falling in love with jim. no, not falling. but getting to the logical conclusion that, yeah, it makes sense hed be in love with jim. He Is The Man. spock shall be his Companion.

[fanlore-wiki]

Featured Article: Tarsus IV

This Featured Article, we’re landing on Tarsus IV - a planet mentioned in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Conscience of the King".

Tarsus IV is well-known as the location where teenaged James T. Kirk witnessed the massacre of thousands of colonists. However, since the details of what happened there are somewhat vague, it has encouraged many fans to fill in the gaps. There are several different fanon, fan theories and tropes surrounding the events of Tarsus IV.

Are you curious? Head over to Fanlore and learn more!

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We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!

[2063april5]

Every time snw producers say they're gonna do something completely new that has never been done in trek before I think "like address the Tarsus thing?" and I remain hopeful to this day

[princessprotectorhornet]

I don’t think it’s far fetched to assume that after the events of Tarsus IV, Jim’s parents might show him some favoritism. As a result, I don’t think is unfair to assume Sam might grow some resentment because of this.

But Sam is a Lieutenant on THE Enterprise, the flagship of the federation! That’s a pretty big achievement. Then Jim becomes the youngest captain in Starfleet history. Then Jim captains the enterprise.

And to top it all off, Jim is dating a man that Sam worked with and hated.

New idea for a fic if I’m honest

[smilingscully]

Star Trek after dropping the most important part of Kirk’s backstory in one episode and never bringing it up again 😹

[pinazee]

Do you think part of the reason Sam is so resentful of Jim is because he was there on Tarsus IV and during the great divide Kodos decided Jim was worth saving but he wasn’t, but the reason jim is a witness and not sam is because Jim told them he was Sam and took his place so now Sam has both inadequacy issues and survivors guilt (and daddy issues because of all the attention it brought jim later)?

[orangexmachina]

"So signed Kodos, Governer of Tarsus iv."

Episode: The Conscience of the King Song: August Underground by Ethel Cain

[bergamont-trek]

nobody will ever understand the way tarsus iv fics have fundamentally changed something in my brain.

[wizard-amulang]

highschool au Jim Kirk 💛

Here I decided to draw different highschool!Jims. In fact, they are all perfect, nerds, traumatized by tarsus. It's just different for everyone

Let me know if you want something similar with Spock

[major-comet]

thinking about tarsus and the mirror universe, and wondering in what ways the events may or may not have differed between the two. how can an already nightmarish situation have been twisted even worse - and what kind of effect would that have on young james?

our jim likely came out of tarsus with an even deeper sense of compassion for his fellow man - kindness forged in fire. he’s been through such hardship and pain that all he wants to do is alleviate that in others - his idea of “let me help” perhaps being even more romantic than “i love you” being cultivated there

and what the mirror image of that must be. any sense of trust or heart mirror!kirk may have possessed as a child completely shattered - kindness quite literally starved away. he’s been through such hardship and pain, so why should everyone else get off easy?

[emptyjunior]

Undergoing the 6 month cycle where I can't stop thinking about Tarsus IV and baby Jim

Oh James, his father's fancy ship and fancy medals couldn't save him