To Be Human
| K/S Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | To Be Human |
| Author(s): | Deanna Gray |
| Date(s): | 1998 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| External Links: | |
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To Be Human is a Kirk/Spock story by Deanna Gray.
It was published in the print zine Scattered Stars #11.
Summary
"After a disagreement with his father, Spock flees to Earth where, broke and no place to go, he falls in with a photographer and the young hazel-eyed model who works for him."
Reactions and Reviews
What a fun story. A great A/U scenario I've certainly never heard of before or even thought of. Basically, Kirk and Spock meet up as Playboy-type models (men for men, not for women), with Gary Mitchell as the photographer and magazine publisher. Perfect.... being an A/U story, there's lots of stuff the writer gets to make up about the characters' backgrounds, and Kirk has an interesting one in this story, how he came to be doing this. And a neat thing about him making such big bucks that he can buy a ship, a fantasy cruise ship—I want to go! The drama and the emotion of the story come out of Spock's situation of having to go back to Vulcan and fulfill his duty to the clan. There's good stuff about warrior ways and present-day Vulcan customs; and a satisfying and dramatic high point in the resolution, too. Plus, some shocking revelations I quite enjoyed, about a certain other character usually portrayed as a staid Vulcan father.... Oh yes, and long, long pages of sex, in inch-by-inch detail...lovely. And the incredible high of melding. There's even a great fight between Kirk and Spock, and some sleazy behavior by Gary Mitchell. It's got just about everything you could want. [1]
In this story Spock decides he wants to visit Earth to see something of his human heritage before settling down to life on Vulcan. Getting to Earth leaves him broke and sleeping rough; a chance meeting with Gary Mitchell changes all that (This Mitchell, while still something of an untrustworthy character, is more sympathetic than his counterpart in Where No Man...) [2]
Spock goes to Earth to study and learn and get to know his human side. He becomes involved with Gary Mitchell who is a porn photographer living in a beautiful mansion with many beautiful male models and the most beautiful of all (of course)—Kirk. This is a very imaginative story all woven with references to characters in the episodes and lots of pretty hot sex—which makes for a really lively, fun story. Kirk’s past is quite colorful as he reveals to Spock sordid details of his working as a prostitute, a liaison with Admiral Komack, Cyrano Jones as his pimp, and his dream and ambition to buy a luxury liner and have fantasy cruises for men with stops in exotic ports.I thought all this was so clever and I loved Kirk’s idea of employing Scotty and Uhura and McCoy as part of the crew.
But for now, Kirk is the top model in Gary’s stable and he likes his work. In fact, it seems everyone likes this work—I loved the ingenuousness of doing porno as just another thing to do—like construction work or accounting. No one in the world of porno publishing or outside of it has any qualms or doubts about their participation—like up-close and personal fucking in front of the camera is just fine.
So it’s fine by me and I especially liked Sarek’s role in all this—he’s had an encounter with Kirk before (hmmm...ol’ Sarek is quite the voyeur) and has his Pulse magazines secretly stashed in his desk drawer.
Gary drugs Spock and takes pictures of him and has sex with him, but all is forgiven later because he supposedly didn’t mean to hurt Spock, he just wanted him relaxed. Well, he was relaxed all right and McCoy is called in to help.
Gary Mitchell’s character was never really fully developed—he was alternating nice and mean—but I was never sure what was going on with him because he had very little dialogue andmostly was talked about. Even though he had hidden cameras everywhere that took pictures of Kirk and Spock having sex, no one seemed to care. There was one scene that kind of showed Kirk’s bad feelings for him, but that never went anywhere.
Spock goes back to Vulcan to bond with T’Pring, but Kirk intervenes and they are together. And I loved how Sarek finds the pictures of Spock with Kirk “very stimulating” and how he appreciates his son’s sexuality
Everything ends well and with lots more hot sex.
A few missteps along the way like too many mentions of “to be human”—I think we got it the first time—and some overly-long passages of characters telling their stories. But I enjoyed this very imaginative story and especially after reading and loving this author’s novel, I know I will watch for anything she writes. [3]
"I need to know what it is to be Human. Perhaps only then I will know what it is to be Vulcan".Twenty one-year old Spock is going to explore his Human heritage on Earth. At home the VSA and T'Pring are waiting for him—like the sword of Damokles.... He goes secretly, without the blessings of his father (of course) and his honor as Vulcan tells him that he has to return to meet his duties. But (of course) he meets on Earth Jim Kirk and fate has other plans with him. A long and well written story with some wonderful scenes to remember. My most favourite is when Spock feels Earth for the first time in his life. The ocean and the beach. Yes, this is the way an alien from a hot desert planet would see and feel it! The bombshell for the unaware reader was that proper Sarek knew Cody (Jim Kirk) from the magazine. I liked that. What I didn't like at all(!!!!), was the fact that Sarek got aroused by the pics with his son and that he wondered if there were more of Cody & Spock. Good heavens, Spock is his son!!!! This is not to my taste.
I had also some problems with the fact, that "to be Human" meant for Spock only to be a model and a prostitute. There are more things here on Earth, aren't there. But these things aside, I really enjoyed the story. [4]
Have you ever looked back at your life and thought how different it would have been had you taken a different turn at some point? We have all come to those inevitable intersections in life where we must choose one way or another and the road we take may be entirely different than the one not taken. We never know if it would have been better or worse, but we know it would have been different. What would Kirk have done had he been rejected by the Academy? What would Spock have done if he'd met Kirk before choosing his career path? Deanna Gray’s reasons are so inventive and plausible, making this an excellent read for even the person who professes not to care for AU.I love this cocky, self-assured and obviously very sexy Kirk. I like Spock, too, but find his personality to be just a bit more adventurously sensual than I believe is plausible. It sure doesn’t interfere with my liking this story very much! The instant attraction between them is in keeping with everything I believe about them. Kirk is professional, even though in a profession that is as far from commanding a starship as he can get. He has vision, his plans for the future are well thought out and are much more than dreams because he has worked very hard to make that future what he wants it to be.
The view of Sarek is very, very different. And amusing, so amusing! I love that he has porn stashed in his office! Makes him seem....human. There is one element of his taste that I felt a little strange about, but it didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the story. The ending was great. Satisfying and full of promise. [5]