Beside the Wells

Fanfiction
Title:	Beside the Wells
Author(s):	Susan Legge
Date(s):	1996, 1997
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:	REPOST: Beside the Wells (TOS,K/S) NC-17!!! 1/2; REPOST: Beside the Wells (TOS,K/S) NC-17!!! 2/2
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

first page of the story, from "T'hy'la" #18

Beside the Wells is a Kirk/Spock story by Susan Legge, written as responsefic to stories in which Kirk is a slave to Spock in Ancient Vulcan.

It was one of the first K/S stories posted online.

It was originally posted to alt.startrek.creative in 1996, and later published in the print zine T'hy'la #18.

Winner of An Award, After Some Shenanigans

This story won an ASC Award, but it was complicated.

Someone sent an email to Stephen Ratliff, pretending to be the author, Susan Legge. That email stated that the author did not want "Beside the Wells" to be in the running for the ASC Awards. The honor was then given to Frankie Johnson for their story, Father to the Man. When it was discovered that UK Jess did not actually send the email, the prize was dually awarded.

Frankie Johnson: Dear Stephen, I've just been to look at the archive and I see you've got my story Father to the Man down as the ASC Awards TOS winner. Wish it was true but that was won by Beside the Wells - a much better story all round. - Frankie

Shannara: It's no mistake, Frankie. The author of "Beside the Wells" made it plain when the contest began that she was withdrawing it from consideration for the contest because she was not reposting it because it was going to be published in a zine. Stephen forgot about that until he was reminded.

ShannaraAnd not being a slash fan, I much preferred your story, which was extremely well-written -- not to say that "Beside the Wells" wasn't, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

ShannaraSpeaking of TOS, sure hope to see more stories from you, [Frankie].

Susan Legge: This is all news to me - I can't say I was bothered about the winning and losing aspect, the comments were much more welcome, but I never turned the award down. I wouldn't be that rude.

Susan LeggeI understand someone has been playing silly beggars, through no fault of Stephen.

Shannara: Not unless somebody posted under your name, Susan. The message written said you couldn't be considered for the contest because you couldn't repost the thing. It wasn't that you refused the award after it was given. The message (posted before the contest ended) said you withdrew from consideration. Aw, hell! Now, we're really confused! Stephen, better change it back. Jess apparently changed her mind. Was there a separate award for K/S? There wasn't, was there? Not enough nominations, right?

Shannara: Three cheers for Frankie who spoke up saying he thought UK Jess had won the general TOS awards. There was indeed a message posted -- we thought from Jess -- saying she was withdrawing her story for consideration. So we handed the award to the runner up, Frankie. After Jess posted the above message, I contacted Stephen who did some investigating (or maybe he already had) and discovered some American university student had forged Jess' origin address and posted that message saying she withdrew -- a really mean thing to do. Jess never "changed her mind" because she never REALLY withdrew her story. Reposting the story for the awards was NOT a requirement to win. Just sorry it took this long to find out what happened, Jess. Belated congratulations to both you and Frankie. Cool that two UK residents took the top two awards in that category. Stephen said he is changing the blurb on the web page about which story won the award.

Shannara: Last year, there weren't enough K/S stories for a separate category in that. I don't think that will be a problem, this time, because there have been a lot of K/S stories this year. Mind you, I'm not speaking in any official capacity. I was a counter, last time. K/S stories had to be combined with general TOS stories. "Beside the Wells," a K/S story, garnered the most votes in that combined category. Unfortunately, there was a practical joker in our midst that caused some headaches, representing himself as Jess, the author of that story, and saying she withdrew from the nominations, but it's been taken care of. Stephen reported the kid to his university sysop.

Summary

"A/U: A Vulcan takes the human Jim Kirk as slave, but never owns him."

Two Versions

version 1

Version 2

The Author's Words

1996

This story contains adult material of a same-sex nature. If you are offended by the subject matter or if you are a minor - READ NO FURTHER

"Beside the Wells" is not for archive, reposting, republication or passing around although I cannot and do not object to a single copy downloaded for er.... personal use.

Other than that - enjoy and if you think of any comments that might help I'd be more than happy to hear them. This is particularly true of criticism - I got none when I posted this to ASCE and I refuse to believe it is entirely devoid of faults.

The story is a reply to a lot of old-style K/S stories set in some form of unreformed Vulcan in which, after a brief and usually perfunctory resistance, Kirk settle down quite happily to a life of servitude, apparently forgiving the rape that tends to occur en route.

I found this scenario superbly unlikely, whatever one thinks of the character he was the most determined individualist and I think you'd have to be a saint to forgive rape - so I wrote this story.

2007

"It was written as a protest against a plethora of zine stories in which Kirk, of all people, ended up as Spock’s slave and, after a little perfunctory resistance, ended up liking it. I loathed the premise, especially as applied to so rampant a libertarian as Kirk. I loathed the rare story where the ownership was the other way round just as much.

I put it online because I didn’t think any zine editor would want it, (a) because I had no confidence—it was the first slash I’d written, and I had no idea if I was any good at it—and (b) because it seemed a rather weird story with a weird premise and a weird language, and I wasn’t sure anyone but me would get what I was trying to do. I’d had gen published before, but this was totally different. It got a lot of very positive reaction. Unexpectedly so because there was so little K/S online, I had no idea how many readers there would be for it.”

It was voted best story on the alt.startrek.creative (ASC) newsgroup that year. “Beside the Wells” was also the first K/S story online to play with some of the fluidity of electronic publishing, the ability to make changes to the online work. A few months after posting the story, says she, she thought of a clever ending she liked, though perhaps not so much as the first. But what the heck? It wasn’t like there would be a stack of zines to waste and reprint. She posted it to the newsgroup as a “Version 2”. Now readers have both: one story, two endings.

2008

I once read a small skip full of K/S zines in about 2 days and was revolted (nope, not to strong a word) at the number of stories in which one of the chaps gets enslaved to the other. Usually, it was Kirk (yes, "give me liberty or give me death" Kirk) who was the slave and who, after token resistance, settles down to a life of sexual servitude. Sometimes, as a sop to human/vulcan rights the last couple of paragraphs has them going off to join some unspecified resistance in "the hills" or "the desert" and once, delightfully, in "the dessert".

I've never been able to see why anyone would find this erotic, let alone plausible given the characters involved. Then, one day, I was stuck in an epic traffic jam on the M25 and the first couple of lines of this came and stuck. The rest came remarkably quickly.

There are two versions of this story. PLEASE read version 1 first. Version 2 is merely a jeu d'esprit and can be left for another day.

Two Discussions at Two Venues

1997 alt.startrek.creative Discussion About "Beside the Wells" and "Surrender"

In 1997, fans on alt.startrek.creative discussed the topics of rape, bdsm, consensual sex and trust, and more in relation to "Beside the Wells" and the then-recent story by Killa called Surrender.

The author of "Beside the Wells," Susan Legge, wrote:

Beside the Wells most definitely does *not* glorify rape and I deeply resent the suggestion that it does. BtW is all about how power corrupts even the best people, and how a slave society will lead a good man into what he genuinely does not perceive as rape, but which most definitely *is* the foul thing we know it to be. A fact that even the rapist learns to his shame by the end.

Shannara: This is as out of character as you get. Spock would never rape Kirk, would never force himself on Kirk. Rape is an act of violence. It's not about sex and it's got nothing to do with love.

Jeanita: I think we're dealing with different levels of understanding here. In _Beside the Wells_ ... the situation is entirely different. Bear in mind that Jess's story is an A/U character study in which the protagonist's inability to to see the similarities between himself and his slave(s) is examined and put to the test. The A/U Spock *would and did* rape his slave because he didn't believe that there could be such a thing as nonconsensual sex between a piece of property (Kirk) and a sentient being (himself). This was not an attitude specific to Spock--he was reflecting the beliefs of his culture. The point of Beside the Wells was that Spock eventually was able to learn that the privilege of selfhood was not his to keep or give away. He was able to transcend his conditioning, learn this lesson and act on what he'd learned, even though it was certainly too late for any kind of rapprochement between himself and Kirk.

Joyce Harmon: The Spock in Beside the Wells was an A/U Spock, behaving in ways that his culture found appropriate. Yes, he was wrong, and knew better by the end of the story, to his infinite regret.

*But* if you think the Spock in Beside The Wells was supposed to be a *hero*, doing things that the author *approved* of, you obviously missed the point entirely. Suggest you read it again.

Alara Rogers: Beside The Wells was *not* saying rape was romantic. Far from it. In BW, in an *alternate universe* where the Vulcans had never had Surak, Spock had been raised to believe that his power and privilege allowed him to own people, and that these people should be grateful for the privilege of being owned by him. This is a *real-life* dynamic. Read some histories of slavery in the US.

He wanted the au Kirk, and projected onto him his own desire. That is, since he desired Kirk, and did not see Kirk as an independent entity but as an object he owned, he could not understand why Kirk could not desire him. He thought he was in love with Kirk, but in fact, because he couldn't see Kirk as a person, all there was was lust.

In the end of the story, Kirk (who, the entire time, has resisted giving Spock what he really wants, which is reciprocity), takes control and has sex with Spock in such a fashion as to imply that he likes it. Spock considers this an expression of love. The next day, he finds that Kirk has escaped, and has left him a message saying that last night was a taste of what *could* have been if Spock had not believed he could own people, if he had wanted to be a lover and treat Kirk as an equal instead of being an owner and treating Kirk as property.

The whole thing is anti-slavery, anti-rape, and very realistic. Kirk does not fall in love with his owner. Spock realizes, bitterly, that trying to own what he wanted lost him it forever. It is an alternate universe, so saying "Spock isn't a rapist" is like saying "Kirk isn't an assassin"-- he's not, but in the Mirror Universe, he was. And your continued insistence that "This story is WRONG!" when not only haven't you read it, but you have totally misunderstood its point, is really rather irritating. Beside the wells is not a romantic rape fantasy, it is an anti-slavery story.

Frankie Johnson: ...the point of Beside the Wells (or one of them any way) that in a slave culture Spock wouldn't be Spock, not the Spock we know, the one formed by a decent, logical, ethical society. In the story, Spock is a decent man by local standards, he is not a sexual sadist, and therefore, so far as he is concerned, it's not rape and he is honestly unable to see that it might be so considered by his victim. He thinks that is love on his part (although even he asks at one stage "was it love or avarice"), but what he describes throughout reads more like sexual obsession. He seeks love from Kirk, he never gets it and at the end realises how bitterly he has been hated.

The rape is unexplicit, unerotic and all the more horrible because of it.

As for it not being in character, Spock learns from his experiences and he acts on the knowledge and self-knowledge he has gained. I can think of no more Spockian characteristics than that.

1998 K/S Press Discussion About "Beside the Wells"

Susan Legge, the author, wrote a long letter to fans in the print letterzine, The K/S Press, taking many of their comments about "Beside the Wells" to task:

Like a number of subscribers, I've been getting increasingly worried by the tendency to describe or comment on stories in terms of what is and what is not K/S. The consensus seems to be that the genre is or should be limited to stories in which, after troubles shared and halved and after detailed and intricate sex, K&S enter into a successful sexual relationship. This is, of course, a perfectly acceptable and enjoyable type of story (I like to read them and I like to try and write them); however, there are a number of problems with adopting this as the dominant or even exclusive pattern for the K/S story:

(a) those of us who have and will write stories which do not fit this pattern find ourselves labelled as writers of not-K/S. I hesitate to number myself amongst such august company but really, any definition which seeks to exclude Killashandra and Eva Stuart seems to me to be in need of urgent overhaul. Not only is this potentially insulting or hurtful, it may also affect sales of the zines we all wish to see continue; and

(b) the definition has led certain writers and readers to make the assumption that K&S always belong together under no matter what circumstances, this not only destroys dramatic tension (if K and S always belong together then no difficulty is insuperable) it also leaves readers who hold the assumption feeling cheated by stories which do not abide by it; and

(c) the existence of the assumption leads some readers to insert a subtext into stories, for which there is no evidence whatsoever, often in the teeth of what evidence there is. I have had correspondence with people who tell me that of course the human in Beside the Wells regretted leaving, because the Human is K and the Vulcan is S and K and S belong together, when I had done everything in my power to make it plain that the human hated nearly every minute of his stay and left with relief.

My alternative definition? If the story (or poem or filk) deals with a recognisable Kirk and a recognisable Spock with a recognisable sexual content or context, I suggest it's K/S.

It may be bad K/S (Spock is the Dominant Vulcan with the Great Big Todger and Kirk is the Weepy Submissive with the Teeny Todger who needs to be Looked After by the Stronger Man) it may be good K/S (stories about two recognisable and differentiated adult males, their lives and their sexuality) but it is still K/S - even if the chaps never have sex, have bad sex, part for ever, can't live with each other or murder each other during a particularly vigorous game of Twister.

K/S is potentially a genre of limitless possibilities, we are not even bound by the limits of human psychology or geography, the universe is (or should be) our playground. If a particular story is not our cup of tranya, perhaps it's time to stop saying, "this is not K/S" and time to start saying, "this is not the kind of K/S I like" or even "this is K/S which would have been better if...."

In case anyone is worried, I am not particularly bothered by the suggestion that Beside the Wells is not K/S - in my experience the only criticism that hurts is the criticism you know is right and I disagree fundamentally with that - I do however think this tendency is dangerous and we should all think seriously about nipping it in the bud.

Susan Legge: Maybe I misunderstood some of the discussions about what is or is not K/S, but I didn’t think anyone has said (and I know I haven’t) that there is only one type of story that is defined as K/S.

I think the issue has gotten blurred and confused. When I looked back on past LOCs (mine and others) I never once read anyone’s criteria for K/S except the intention of a sexual relationship. All the other definitions and assumptions you described have been only likes or dislikes with readers—such as Kirk and Spock leaving each other or staying together or even that they must have sex.

There has been a concurrent discussion of sad endings, Kirk and Spock unable to stay in the relationship, and most of all, death of one or both. But those are opinions of taste in K/S, not definition.

Your definition of K/S—“a recognisable Kirk and a recognisable Spock with a recognisable sexual content or context” is exactly what was expressed as a definition. Like I said, all the other issues were taste and opinion.

As far as your story, “Beside The Wells”, as the author, you get to say whatever you want, of course, but we, as readers, get to interpret what we read. Some of our views of Kirk and Spock are quite strongly held and often we tend to read a story through the perception of that view. I know I do—as an example would be my ideas of Kirk and Spock in relation to slavery.

I still maintain that we’re not writing about “real” slavery here! My goodness, if all the scenarios we put Kirk and Spock in were “real”, we’d be writing serious treatises on serious subjects. My interest in Kirk and Spock as master/slave doesn’t mean I think slavery is fine and dandy! Because I like reading stories where ravishment or rape is involved doesn’t mean I think rape is okay! I don’t mean to get off the subject, but I think this relates to the K/S definition.

If you chose to write that Kirk hated being with Spock and wasn’t in love with him one iota and only wanted to get the hell out of there, that’s your prerogative. But it’s our prerogative to argue if it does indeed fit the definition of K/S—after all, are they recognizable Kirk and Spock if they don’t ever love each other? However, there is a sexual context, albeit a one-sided affair. It’s still personal taste—I prefer my K/S with a strong dose of cosmic love for each other, regardless of the circumstances.

Please don’t mistake my discussion here as a reflection of your writing — it’s excellent and I said so in my LOC.

Lee Burwasser: Unless you're planning to cut it loose entirely and sell it as an independent story, you might think twice about archiving it.

Susan Legge: Thing is I've been asked to send it to the editor of a print zine and if I'd spent 20dollars plus on a zine I'd be pretty miffed to find it full of stuff I could have downloaded for free.

Lee Burwasser: It is, after all, a striking story, and *impressions* of it are going to be around, perhaps turning up again after you thought everyone had forgotten. The best thing to counter such impressions is the story itself.

Susan Legge: I'm not sure what you mean by this - are the impressions you have in mind of the "oh yes, Susan Legge/jess - she's the one the wrote the pro-rape story"? In which case I might change my mind.

Lee Burwasser: The archaism almost works. If (this being a send-up) you meant to evoke "mighod, another one of THOSE stories" then it does work.

Susan Legge: No unfortunately the thing is meant in all bloody seriousness - which worries me more than somewhat. It has an over heated edge to it which makes me squirm slightly.

Lee Burwasser: Idle curiosity: did you have any particular parallel in mind for your narrator? He reminded me a bit of the usurper in Poul Anderson's rendition of the _Hrolfs Saga Kraki_, who (as near as I can recall) "tamed the queen, not by blows, which would have roused opposition, but by skilled lust and unbending will." (Except that at the end she and her sons kill him, she dying too for the sake of her own good name.) Of course, he also parallels Kirk's own siege of Spock; a good demonstration of the vital significance of context.

Susan Legge: Nope nothing that thought out - it was a reaction to the sort of story I hate myself and the first line came to me in a traffic jam and the rest unrolled with alarming ease. The first sentence brought the rythmn and the rest just followed on - except the end which took 8 months!!

Susan Legge: BTW there is an alternative ending - it's no happier but if there's any interest I could post it.

More Reactions and Reviews

1997

This is a slavery story with a difference, and one interesting, and for me very effective, detail is that nowhere are the names of the protagonists, either master or slave, given.

In some ways it's a fairly typical K/S master-slave scenario, with the master becoming besotted with his slave; what makes this story so unusual, and gives it much of its strength, is that the slave does not respond, never stops resenting his captivity; he cannot resist physically, but he can and does resist mentally, while letting his master see that he can and will form friendships elsewhere.

Everything is done from the master's POV; he can't get inside his slave's mind, can't understand how his slave thinks— it is established early why a mind meld is impossible; but neither can the slave understand the ethos of his captor's race.

JoAnn Bevers found the ending unsatisfactory (KS Press No 14, P11). I did not. I know that Susan does not personally find the "slave falls in love with his master" scenario convincing, and I would agree with her that an adult reared in a society that did not make use of slaves would find it very difficult to do anything but resent the man who had bought him, no matter how well he was treated.

There is an alternative last sentence (which doesn't change anything) which I actually found a more effective, a more hit-in-the-gut ending, and I understand from Susan that while some of the people who have read it prefer it, others prefer the zine ending.

This is not a comfortable read for those of us who prefer the happy ending, but I would certainly say that this is a story designed to make us think; the sort of story of which a writer can be justifiably proud and which will probably be remembered, even by readers who didn't agree with the ending, long after a "This was marvelous!" happy-ending story has faded into "Yes, I remember I liked it, but what was it about again?"

This marvelous A/U story is told from first-person POV of Spock, who has bought a human, who we know is Kirk, as a slave. I loved the technique of having Spock tell the story—very poignant feeling. I loved the feel of ancient times that the author created—how the people live, how they think and their old-world language. And of course I loved that Spock finds Kirk and is immediately attracted to this gorgeous, feisty human. I loved the first description of Kirk: “I also saw beneath the dust and rags that he was beautiful. His hair was short, a yellow-brown that caught the flame of candle and of fire, revealing small and rounded ears that should have seemed deformed and yet did not.” The author really captured the seemingly exotic nature of a human for a Vulcan. This is definitely Kirk—ready to escape, unwilling to surrender easily, gorgeous and willful. (I had to put gorgeous in there.) Beautifully shown as Spock tries and tries to get to Kirk and finally becomes almost obsessed with making Kirk respond to him with passion and love. “Once as I lay on my back, shattered and spent, my heart a mad thing in my side, I saw the shuttered mask that he still wore and fury rose and in my rage I swore an oath that, come the dawn, I’d offer him for sale to all and any.”

I love this style of writing—so perfectly suited to this type of story. The sentences are long and flowing, filled with exotic, other-worldly flavor. “I thirsted for him as I have seen men thirst for water in the desert or for shade in noon day heat, I craved him as men crave for drugs or wine and, like such thirsts, it grew and fed upon the little that I had of him, that little creating of itself a desperate, abject need to have him, all of him, all mine.” This is almost one entire paragraph and it reminded me of a colorful Vulcan scarf flowing in the desert wind. Really beautiful writing. But here, I need to respond to something that Fiona James says in her review of “Beside The Wells” above. She states that the author and herself “...find ‘slave falls in love with his master’ scenario convincing, and I would agree with her that an adult reared in a society that did not make use of slaves would find it very difficult to do anything but resent the man who had bought him, no matter how well he was treated”.

I respectfully disagree with both statements: first, that the scenario is unconvincing, and second that the slave would only resent the master.

I think that the slave falling in love with the master is totally believable — and I can think of many reasons why. But without going into those reasons, we are dealing with Kirk and Spock here. I think that changes the picture considerably. To say that any man would only resent the master is like saying what you think should happen, that that’s the way it ought to be. But the dynamics between a master/slave can be very complex with dominance/submission and control issues. We’d all like to think that if we were in that situation that that’s how we would react — in a righteous manner, respectful to ourselves.

But aside from debating whether someone would or wouldn’t “give in” to the master or whatever, we are talking about Kirk and Spock. These are our heroes who are destined and meant for each other, aren’t they? So I don’t see why Kirk wouldn’t have fallen in love with Spock.

However, and this is a big however, I thoroughly enjoyed and accepted the ending that Kirk didn’t end up with Spock. I thought the author set her premise and followed it through very convincingly, I just don’t think that just because Kirk was a slave that that would completely preclude his falling in love with Spock. (And I promise not to bring up Command Decision as an example of the dynamics between master/slave and Kirk and Spock. And I won’t mention how excellently that novel dealt with the issue. Nope.)

Anyway, this is a beautiful, haunting story that I truly enjoyed.

Considering how I feel about "happy endings" in the sense of Kirk and Spock's being together at least indicated as a sure thing at the end of the story, I can't really say why I loved this one. The obvious reason is that it's an A/U story, and only from Spock's POV (so we don't really know Kirk's feelings after he left the stage and can surmise what we want); so it doesn't bother me that they're not together at the end, such as it would in a mainline-universe story.

At the end, Spock is an old man who in his youth, before his enlightenment (directly caused by Kirk), kept slaves. Now he only hopes that the beautiful, fiery bed-slave he once owned, once loved, does not remember being "owned" by Spock.

Which of course he never was, owned, that is. Not Kirk.

This is lovely writing, in old-style, first-person desert dweller. Rich, poetic, just beautiful. The erotic parts hot, hot, insane-driving hot. And the sad part (Kirk leaving) so sad.

Also I appreciate the tautness and focus. I call this elegant writing—the most said in a minimum of words. A lovely piece as a whole. And I also appreciate what a vivid picture we get of Kirk, a character who doesn't even speak the language, from his master Spock's POV.

There is even a little plot in this reminiscence, the story of Kirk's coming, then going.... This is the second story of Susan's I've read recently and I hope there will be plenty more.

My unhappiness with the ending of “Beside the Wells” had nothing to do with how the 'slave' theme was handled. Indeed, Susan Legge wrote a marvelous story with a totally convincing end. Yikes! Never in a hundred million years would I favor a scenario that had Kirk submitting to the state of slavery. The only slave/master story I ever found convincing was Chris Soto's “Forests of the Night" and that was because she used Kirk's own personality traits against him. "Beside the Wells" captured exactly what would happen in any attempt to enslave JTK. This is just my opinion, but slavery is the antithesis of the conditions necessary for love to grow. The complete lack of equality and control between the individuals involved precluded a real relationship. Natch, I know this is fantasy and K/S but I agree 100% with you and Susan's reading of Kirk's reaction. My problem with the end? It was too convincing!! I saw no way that those two people could be together. What did I want? Just one little line that said a true relationship was possible. Something like "Spock saw his error and vowed to find Kirk, denounce slavery and live in equality with his lover forever". Well, not exactly that line, but you get the drift. I'm a hope girl. I don't have to see it now, but someday would be nice. I thank you for causing me to consider my words my carefully. In future I'll try to make sure that what is in my mind is what ends up on the page.

"Beside the Wells," in my opinion, would have worked better if the rapist in question was not Spock, but some other individual -- an author-created character.

Actually, the story never says it's Spock. In an alternate ending, it turns out to be Surak. Besides, if the rapist is not a good and decent man, the whole point to the story is lost-- that under conditions of slavery, even a good and decent man can commit rape, *because he doesn't understand it is wrong.* Beside the Wells is all about the main character *learning* that slavery and rape are wrong.

A rather odd story that gives a very interesting twist on the K/S "master/slave" A/U Vulcan scenario. I don't think it's in the archives (or am I all wet), but I think the author is on ASCEM and if we all ask nicely . . .

The feeling that remained with me from this story was the tragedy of how much both participants had lost because each was unable to understand the other; their attitudes were so opposite that there was no possible ground for compromise. As a firm believer in the "happy ending", I would not have wanted this ending changed—to do so would have weakened the story. Another very important point raised is, what constitutes the trigger to bring a person brought up in a society where slave ownership is the norm, to question that upbringing. It happened in our own society, when a few pioneers began the campaign. What motivated them to go against everything they had been taught? The key may have been revulsion at the idea of slavery for an individual, as in Beside the Wells; the next step the realisation that it is absolutely wrong. Susan has shown subtly but very clearly how the mind-set has changed. It's not often that you find such a strong idea in such a short story. It's not one I will easily forget.

I really enjoyed this refreshingly realistic master/slave story. Kirk was completely believable; Spock’s character did not quite match what we saw in TOS, but the differences seem plausible given the AU setting of this story. The story is told from Spock’s point of view, and Susan’s use of language really helps to define his character. This is a well written, thoughtful story.

This is a slavery story with a difference, and one interesting, and for me very effective, detail is that nowhere are the names of the protagonists, either master or slave, given. In some ways it's a fairly typical K/S master-slave scenario, with the master becoming besotted with his slave; what makes this story so unusual, and gives it much of its strength, is that the slave does not respond, never stops resenting his captivity; he cannot resist physically, but he can and does resist mentally, while letting his master see that he can and will form friendships elsewhere.

Everything is done from the master's POV; he can't get inside his slave's mind, can't understand how his slave thinks— it is established early why a mind meld is impossible; but neither can the slave understand the ethos of his captor's race.

[J B] found the ending unsatisfactory (KS Press No 14, P11). I did not. I know that Susan does not personally find the "slave falls in love with his master" scenario convincing, and I would agree with her that an adult reared in a society that did not make use of slaves would find it very difficult to do anything but resent the man who had bought him, no matter how well he was treated.

There is an alternative last sentence (which doesn't change anything) which I actually found a more effective, a more hit-in-the-gut ending, and I understand from Susan that while some of the people who have read it prefer it, others prefer the zine ending.

This is not a comfortable read for those of us who prefer the happy ending, but I would certainly say that this is a story designed to make us think; the sort of story of which a writer can be justifiably proud and which will probably be remembered, even by readers who didn't agree with the ending, long after a "This was marvelous!" happy-ending story has faded into "Yes, I remember I liked it, but what was it about again?"

This marvelous A/U story is told from first-person POV of Spock, who has bought a human, who we know is Kirk, as a slave. I loved the technique of having Spock tell the story—very poignant feeling.

I loved the feel of ancient times that the author created—how the people live, how they think and their old-world language. And of course I loved that Spock finds Kirk and is immediately attracted to this gorgeous, feisty human. I loved the first description of Kirk; "I also saw beneath the dust and rags that he was beautiful. His hair was short, a yellow-brown that caught the flame of candle and of fire, revealing small and rounded ears that should have seemed deformed and yet did not." The author really captured the seemingly exotic nature of a human for a Vulcan.

This is definitely Kirk—ready to escape, unwilling to surrender easily, gorgeous and willful. (I had to put gorgeous in there.)

Beautifully shown as Spock tries and tries to get to Kirk and finally becomes almost obsessed with making Kirk respond to him with passion and love. "Once as I lay on my back, shattered and spent, my heart a mad thing in my side, I saw the shuttered mask that he still wore and fury rose and in my rage I swore an oath that, come the dawn, I'd offer him for sale to all and any."

I love this style of writing—so perfectly suited to this type of story. The sentences are long and flowing, filled with exotic, other-worldly flavor. "I thirsted for him as I have seen men thirst for water in the desert or for shade in noon day heat, I craved him as men crave for drugs or wine and, like such thirsts, it grew and fed upon the little that I had of him, that little creating of itself a desperate, abject need to have him, all of him, all mine." This is almost one entire paragraph and it reminded me of a colorful Vulcan scarf flowing in the desert wind. Really beautiful writing.

But here, I need to respond to something that Fiona James says in her review of "Beside The Wells" above. She states that the author and herself "...find 'slave falls in love with his master" scenario convincing, and I would agree with her that an adult reared in a society that did not make use of slaves would find it very difficult to do anything but resent the man who had bought him, no matter how well he was treated".

I respectfully disagree with both statements; first, that the scenario is unconvincing, and second that the slave would only resent the master.

I think that the slave falling in love with the master is totally believable—and I can think of many reasons why. But without going into those reasons, we are dealing with Kirk and Spock here. I think that changes the picture considerably. To say that any man would only resent the master is like saying what you think should happen, that that's the way it ought to be. But the dynamics between a master/slave can be very complex with dominance/submission and control issues. We'd all like to think that if we were in that situation that that's how we would react—in a righteous manner, respectful to ourselves.

But aside from debating whether someone would or wouldn't "give in" to the master or whatever, we are talking about Kirk and Spock. These are our heroes who are destined and meant for each other, aren't they? So I don't see why Kirk wouldn't have fallen in love with Spock.

However, and this is a big however, I thoroughly enjoyed and accepted the ending that Kirk didn't end up with Spock. I thought the author set her premise and followed it through very convincingly, I just don't think that just because Kirk was a slave that that would completely preclude his falling in love with Spock. (And I promise not to bring up Command Decision as an example of the dynamics between master/slave and Kirk and Spock. And I won't mention how excellently that novel dealt with the issue. Nope.)

Anyway, this is a beautiful, haunting story that I truly enjoyed.

Considering how I feel about "happy endings" in the sense of Kirk and Spock's being together at least indicated as a sure thing at the end of the story, I can't really say why I loved this one. The obvious reason is that it's an A/U story, and only from Spock's POV (so we don't really know Kirk's feelings after he left the stage and can surmise what we want); so it doesn't bother me that they're not together at the end, such as it would in a mainline-universe story.

At the end, Spock is an old man who in his youth, before his enlightenment (directly caused by Kirk), kept slaves. Now he only hopes that the beautiful, fiery bed-slave he once owned, once loved, does not remember being "owned" by Spock.

Which of course he never was, owned, that is. Not Kirk.

This is lovely writing, in old-style, first-person desert dweller. Rich, poetic, just beautiful. The erotic parts hot, hot, insane-driving hot. And the sad part (Kirk leaving) so sad.

Also I appreciate the tautness and focus. I call this elegant writing—the most said in a minimum of words. A lovely piece as a whole. And I also appreciate what a vivid picture we get of Kirk, a character who doesn't even speak the language, from his master Spock's POV.

There is even a little plot in this reminiscence, the story of Kirk's coming, then going....

This is the second story of Susan's I've read recently and I hope there will be plenty more.

1998

This, I sighed, is another master/slave A/U event—not my favorite—but so tantalizingly written that I wouldn't let it bother me. Lyrical, poetic, mesmerizing. But was it just an A/U? By the time I finished I didn't think so. Was this Master Spock? Not the way I read it. Was the slave Kirk? Certainly. And in the 23rd century, just a captive on another planet Very thought provoking. Told first person in a style that you would swear was drawn from some ancient tome, it is almost like going back to literature class. Never once did this manner of "speech" falter. Listen to this: "I longed to pour myself inside his skin and wear him wrapped around me like a robe ...." But did our Kirk ever submit with anything but his body? No. Held in trust for Spock. You knew this though it was never spoken. Elsewhere in camp his friends were also held captive and he visited them when he could. He learned the language and played with the children, but never once did he belong in any way to the man who would claim him, had claimed him in the only way the Human would allow. When the winds died that held him in the camp, he was gone like the night. The Master reminisces of times long past, as we see his grandchildren are now adults, stopping yet beside the wells. In closing, the Master speaks of painful lessons learned. "For many years I wondered if he ever thought of me and hoped he would remember. But I am older now and wiser far ... and pray that he did not." Definitely memorable."

I'm worn out on most TOS stuff: was before I ever showed up here. It was the first show I loved, and for me it's still the "standard" by which all the other shows are judged, but after thirty years of following the crew in re--runs,movies, profic, and fanfic...so sue me. I'm just plain whipped on them. But Killa's "Bitter Glass" is gorgeous enough to make me care again, as is "Beside the Wells." (I'm embarrassed, and cranky, and cannot today remember which screen nom-de-plume the author used. But it's a knock-out story.)

2000

Darkfic Rating: Espresso: AU. These paired stories have a very bitter bite to them. There are risks and consequences for those who enslave others, as one man finds out.

2005

Alternate Universe stories are a particularly fun part of fanfiction, and for some reason there are a lot of Vulcan-desert-barbarian-slave ones in Star Trek fanfic. This story is a classic exploration of that theme. The author, Jess, describes it as: "On an alien, desert planet a human is captured and sold." But what effect will this human, and his very different strengths, have on his captor? Bitter and lyrical, this short story speaks of regret and that which might have been. There are two versions - read them both and see which you like better.