A Study in Green

Fanfiction
Title:	A Study in Green
Author(s):	Augusta Elton
Date(s):	1986
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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A Study in Green is a Kirk/Spock story by Augusta Elton.

This story was published in the print zine First Time #7.

Ambassador Kollos is spelt "Kolos" throughout.

Summary

"After Spock links with the Medusan Kolos, Kirk's jealousy threatens to drive Spock away, until he finally admits to what he is feeling."

Excerpt

"In the place where Kirk would have expected the fireshrine to be, stood a satiny metal box. The lid must have made the tiny noise he heard, for it was open slightly and from beneath it flooded the quaking, pulsing blue radiance which he had somehow confused with the flickering red flame. As he watched, realizing what it was, the lid began to rise and the intense blue glare brightened and spilled a light too bright to see over the sleeper."

Reactions and Reviews

1996

This story was printed in the issue of First Time that didn't list the authors' names. We were supposed to guess who wrote what.

[...]

The story explores Kirk's jealousy after what he perceives as Spock's betrayal in giving himself to Kolos. Kirk has always desired Spock, and prevented himself from acting on those desires due to what he sees as Spock's sexual inexperience and reticence. Perversely, he now blames Spock for allowing Kolos the greater intimacy of allowing him into his body via the meld. In dreams he sees himself watching as Kolos, taking humanoid form, seduces an adoring Spock.

There are some marvelous descriptive passages here, such as this one of Kolos:

"At first, he thought, the creature's hair was blown by a breeze, then he realized that it was not hair at all, but a crown of thin, electric blue snakes, each with eyes as white as stars, writhing and knotting themselves together like curls in a surging mass of life." Or "...[Kirk] saw the tip of a pointed tongue worship the straining head of the erection and then looked up. At exactly that moment, the creature turned its face to Kirk and he gazed into the pitilessly beautiful countenance, and the bright, mobile silver of eyes like Gary's, and saw the huge, perfect lips curl in a smile, vengeful, merciless and absolutely corrupt."

Wow! And this one, as Kirk, unobserved, watches Spock work out on a balance beam at the gym:

"He crossed and re- crossed the strip of wood, the weights at shoulder height, at arm's length - Kirk watched the muscles tense in his arms and the hard grip of the hands and knew there was no element of display in this, as there might have been if he had done it: it was pure and self-contained, for Spock alone. Knowing that he turned away."

This is not a characterization of Kirk that everyone will either like or recognize. It will make some Kirkies uncomfortable, but I found it a fascinating look at the darker side of Kirk's passionate nature.

Kirk becomes consumed with jealousy because of Spock's link with the Medusan ambassador, Kolos.

This terrific story explores all of the myriad emotions that Kirk feels—hurt, anger, sadness, guilt and regret. Especially effective are Kirk's detailed fantasy/dreams wherein he commands and dominates Spock sexually. These dreams are vivid and thrilling in a terrible forbidden way.

Some really marvelous scenes such as when Kirk questions Spock about his motivation for linking with the Medusan. Kirk painfully asks what the experience was like and wishes he could have given that same experience to Spock.

Kirk is so filled with pain and hurt as he imagines Spock getting such an intimate connection with someone else, that his behavior seems totally justified. We watch him struggle with his jealous thoughts as he tries valiantly to put them aside.

The scene in the gym where Kirk watches Spock workout and then the scene in the pool where Spock just stands there left me breathless. Both scenes were so strong and so real that I really felt Kirk's agony. Just thinking now of the water dripping on Spock's feet and how Spock just says " 'Excuse me. Captain. " and leaves makes me just ache for Kirk.

Great scenes abound in this wonderful story. Kirk has too much to drink and he touches Spock as he asks what happened between Kolos and him. So tense and so poignant as Kirk hoped that "...the Vulcan was too naive to know that his captain had just made a clumsy, drunken pass at him."

I put this story on my list of all-time favorites.

1998

The first time I read this story, I thought that Kirk's characterization had elements of the mirror Kirk, or at least my individual interpretation of what Mirror Kirk would be like from the few glimpses I got—that streak of cruelty a prominent feature. What I sensed in Spock as portrayed here was a weakness. I don't have any degree in psychology, but I doubt that Kirk could feel drawn to him unless Kirk is someone who derives a sense of power by subduing people, that way getting a confirmation of self."