A Perfect Arrangement

Fanfiction
Title:	A Perfect Arrangement
Author(s):	Anne McClean
Date(s):	1991
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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A Perfect Arrangement is a K/S story by Anne McClean.

It was published in the print zine First Time #29.

Summary

"A soon to be appointed command team are on the Enterprise to study Kirk and Spock but turn out to have plans of “swapping” command partners."

Excerpt

"James Kirk was in love. To anyone who knew him, it was blindingly obvious: his bouncy stride, his ferocious joviality, all spoke of a man totally content with his lot. But more than that, to those who knew him well, it was also clear that hebelieved this one might be special the relationship he had been searching for, perhaps all of his life."

Reactions and Reviews

1991

Except that I don't think Kirk would be that blind to Spock's loyalty, I thought this was a well written story that kept my attention.

I thought this story had one flaw. I can't believe that Kirk would treat Spock in the manner depicted, even considering Kirk's infatuation with his current lady-love. To berate him in such a manner in front of the woman wasn't believable to me. However, I will say that I enjoyed the rest of the story thoroughly. I always like a touch of jealousy and this story certainly delivered on that point. I liked the way Kirk 'stole' Spock away from his intended bondmate after finally realising who was really important in his life. I thought the story was very well written and held my interest. Hope to see more from this author.

For me, this was by far the best story in In fact, quite the best story I've read in some time. Ms McClean shows an excellent knowledge of how relationships can be made air tight again with words..."I'm sorry" and how complete forgiveness can remove even the most drastic scars.

I can't say that I was very happy with the way any of the characters conducted themselves in this story, though I think it an all too likely scenario. I'm not sure where Kirk's all-consuming desperation comes from, but assuming it's a given, this was an impressive bit of writing, asking for a tightly-written, absorbing story. I especially like the way the author shows hesitation and stuttering in the dialogue — it reads quite naturally. I also liked the way it started and ended with the same sentence. Now, if only this excellent new author can use her skills for happier stories....

1992

I couldn't hardly stay with this one at the start. My heart kept screaming out "no, no, don't do this!" But it was, I began to see, a realistic and believable approach. Characterization was very good — I came to like and respect Hal Garron and was sorry to see him hurt. After my initial discomfort, I found this to be a catchy story worthy of anyone's attention. And don't back out... you'll never know what you missed! Nice use of words at the end, too.

A unique, meaningful, realistic scenario to bring Kirk and Spock together. Interesting, just for a while, to have Kirk with a woman. Very genuine inner motivations, etc. Soae quite good language, images. Effectively painful was Kirk's spurning Spock's friendship. Perfect little details about their early friendship. I like when someone else is in love with Spock. Powerful: Kirk kissing Spock in desperation; some really nice erotic language. Sometiies it fits that they should do so, but it didn't seem in this scenario they would have actually fucked (ok to say that in here?) this particular first time. But, hot stuff anyway. Perfect when romantic, perfect when erotic. Flawlessly written.

This story was a lot of fun. The author created a very interesting scenario in which Kirk, in mid-pursuit of yet another woman, is stopped in his tracks by the unexpected threat of another male pursuing Spock. The characterization isn't serious and isn't realistic (especially as regards Kirk's dressing down of Spock in front of the woman), but that's okay, because this is a lighthearted parody, not a serious story. And yet it's also a parody that manages to stay sufficiently in touch with the real characters -- with Spock's self-doubt and emotional confusion, with Kirk's propensity to become "driven" -- to conceal hidden depths.

It's also tremendously well-written, from the deliciously ironic title, to such wonderful lines as "Spock hasn't figured out heterosexuality yet," and descriptions like the one of McCoy as "with his neck stuck out like an angry rooster." Finally, there's the very deft way in which the last line echoes the story's first line... thereby coming neatly full circle, and of course, implying the beginning of yet another story. This is sophisticated, witty writing, and easily the best in the zine.

This is a 37-page very unusual story. I loved and hated it. I wanted to kick Kirk in the rear! I'm afraid I got rather involved in this anything BUT perfect arrangement. Sondstrom I despised: Garron, I pitied.

Both Spock and McCoy were realistically portrayed. I felt Kirk was unbelievable at times, but then he wasn't acting the way I WANTED him to until, of course, the very end.

The writing I enjoyed. Here's an example which taken out of context isn't as effective.

"Well what?" It was the wrong answer. Kirk's face turned puce. "What do you fucking think, Doctor?"

1996

Wonderfully shocking beginning as we find Kirk in love and we obviously think it's with Spock—but no! It's with a woman! She's on board the Enterprise to observe "the most legendary team on the stocks—James Kirk and his first officer, Spock."

The plot thickens as the woman, oh so innocently, plants the seeds of strife between Kirk and Spock by insinuating ever so sweetly that Spock is jealous of her. This character, Beth, is beautifully defined—4he kind of person you could never get mad at—she's just too nice, just too kind.

Kirk is expertly portrayed in his anger and pain as he rails against Spock and demands an apology from the Vulcan. What a terrific scene as Spock does what Kirk wants and then stumbles back to his quarters in desperation.

My heart broke when Spock thought: " Jim was not his friend. He had merely taken pity on an alien's loneliness—the loneliness he had battled so hard to hide from those around him. And had failed." McClean captures some well-thought out small moments with precision and clarity. An example is when Kirkoverhears Beth's male friend, Garron, who has set his sights on Spock, laughing quietly with Speck in an intimate moment on the bridge. Kirk tries to be a part of it and is deeply embarrassed.

But one of the best moments is yet to come as Beth announces what she thinks would be "the perfect arrangement"!

This is the guilt-ridden yet strong, willful yet compassionate Kirk of most of McClean's stories. However, (and this is a big however) as strong as the entire first part of the story is, the second part is as weak.

Actually, the entire story is filled with ever- changing points-of-views that become so confusing that you lose sight of who is thinking/feeling what. But the biggest difficulty is tons of telling what Kirk and Spock are feeling, often right before they say it! And some minor flaws like the overuse of an unusual word—swamped—meaning stopped, which I assume is a more obscure definition.

But most of the flaws are in the second part.

And they are even more pointed up because the first part is so wonderful and sets up the story so well, that it's a bigger disappointment to be let down.

The entire scenario of Beth and Garron along with all the emotional drama that was so nicely established, is merely summed up at the end with just a paragraph or two about "what happened". And despite Kirk's well-defined obsession for Spock, the sudden sex remained unjustified. They really do it way too much too soon to believe, especially with Spock who had been defined as virginal in the extreme. I think I'd have to give them about three, no—six months together before they do it this way!

However (and this is another big however), Anne McClean is an extraordinary author. I wish there were a whole bunch more of her stories and I wish she'd write some more.

2000

The only thing I liked about this was the end.

Kirk is a completely unfeeling bastard who says things to Spock that I feel are so completely out of character as to make this an AU story. Lashing out over a misunderstanding is one thing. Stripping a person you've called friend of every shred of dignity and hope for the future is unforgivable. And Kirk does this to Spock with a surgical precision. I don't like it.

Finally driven, not by compassion but by jealousy, Kirk seduces (more accurately, fucks) Spock and all is well. I don't buy that either. Spock of Vulcan is not a fool. And James T. Kirk is not cruel.

There was one tiny shred of evidence we were reading of "our" K & S—a familiar exchange of teasing words and promising gazes. That was it.

A well-written story? Absolutely. A satisfying story? Absolutely not. The Kirk portrayed here didn't in any way deserve Spock and none of it "felt right". Everyone is entitled to her own opinion and maybe Ms. McClean had frustrations and anger to work out—she certainly conveyed them most convincingly! I've never hated James T. Kirk before, and right to the end I loathed him.

2007

In “A Perfect Arrangement,” two new officers are temporarily assigned to the Enterprise. The woman is slated to become a first officer, the man is scheduled to be her captain, but first they are more or less “observing” the way Kirk and Spock do things. What isn’t known to our heroes, though, is that these observers have plans of their own. The woman has been infatuated with Kirk for a while, the man with Spock, and they each initiate relationships...or try to. Their plan is to swap partners: for the woman to become Kirk’s first officer on the Enterprise and for the man to take Spock away with him when he is assigned his ship. When Spock realizes what is going on, he tells Kirk, but his captain refuses to believe that such a plan is motivating his new lover. He rejects Spock in anger, and Spock, disconsolate, has to decide if his best career move— and personal move as well—would be to accept the man’s offer to become lovers and a new command team. What’s arresting in all five of these stories is a harder, sharper, even more brutal characterization of Kirk than is regularly seen in K/S stories. Some fans have joked that the author wrote the same story five times, but that’s not really true, and all of them are of real interest.