Chameleon (Star Trek: TOS story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Chameleon
Author(s):	Pamela Rose
Date(s):	1982
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:	Online here
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Chameleon is a K/S story by Pamela Rose.

It was published in the print zine Out of Bounds, Too.

Reactions and Reviews

1982

... wherein Kirk tries to rescue Spock, stranded on a planet with another Vulcan and a human. To avoid attack by a monster it is necessary for him to have had recent sexual activity (see what I mean about contrivance?) and he eventually settles on Spock rather than the other human. He does not appreciate Spock's, thereafter, increasingly proprietary attitude and seeks solace (under the influence of drugs) with Jason, the aforementioned human, whose tales of his predicament have softened Kirk's heart. The story continues tor elate, how and why, after their escape, Spock and Kirk resolve their differences.

"Chameleon" by Pamela Rose was the one which impressed me the most, since I tend to favor long well-developed K/S. Pam comes up with yet another novel and entertaining idea of how Our Heroes deepen their friendship bond into a physical one when they are captives planetside, along with a beautiful young hustler, a stiff-necked full-Vulcan, and a lustful Gornlike alien. There is a certain choppiness in the writing style which needs a heavy editing hand, but this is always a problem when writers do their own editing.

1998

I’m getting to know this author’s work and so far I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read.

This terrific, well-plotted story is no exception. Kirk crash lands his shuttlecraft as he tries to rescue Spock, a young human male, a Vulcan and an alien creature. It’s the alien who causes all the difficulties because it will kill anyone who hasn’t recently engaged in sexual intercourse. Despite how strange or funny this might sound, it was presented very well and Kirk and Spock’s dilemma is highly involving.

The human male, Jason, is protected by his relationship with the Vulcan and Vulcan’s are exempt anyway. So the only way to keep Kirk safe from danger is to engage in sexual activity.

The first solution is for Kirk to have sex with Jason since he’s a prostitute and a very willing partner. Jason reveals his past to Kirk and all this is well-thought out and nicely detailed. After Kirk couldn’t go through with having sex with Jason, Jason tells him: “What about Spock? At least you know him. Maybe it would be easier. He already looks at you like you were his own bit of heaven.”

Of course Kirk denies all feelings for Spock or any other male. But then the scene between him and Spock where they have sex had just the right amount of angst. Their lovemaking—if one could call it that—was poignant and filled with unexpressed feelings. Spock, who had admitted his attraction to Kirk, was forced to have sex with him as an unwilling and unresponsive partner. This was so sad and poignant. Spock was so thrilled because at last he held his love in his arms and all Kirk was cold and fearful.

But after Kirk realizes that Spock loves him, he’s consumed with guilt. Spock thinks Kirk hated it so Kirk reaches out by asking to make love again. Even though it’s clear that Kirk is fighting his own prejudices and fears, the change is way too abrupt and rushed. But the scene is still beautiful as they hold each other and Spock tells Kirk to go to sleep.

When Spock brings up the subject of bonding, Kirk is horrified and not at all ready for such a committed and permanent relationship.

Kirk eventually recognizes his love for Spock through Jason’s expression of feelings with excellent, realistic dialogue.

Then in a shocking scene, Spock comes back and finds Jason in Kirk’s arms. He flies into a jealous rage and hits Kirk breaking his wrist before dragging him away. He says: “You are mine. I claim you!” and rapes him.

Later, Jason gives Kirk a drug to help the pain and they end up making love. Spock continues to be angry, jealous and brutal, which we, as the readers, don’t know the reason.

Finally, Spock and the Vulcan escape and when the others are rescued, McCoy finds out it was zeenite that affected them. I thought this was an imaginative idea.

Later, the situation with Jason escalates and the moment when Kirk doubts Spock’s word for the first time ever in their relationship. is tense and exciting. Jason had told Kirk that Spock had used him sexually and even though Spock denied it, Kirk wasn’t sure. This established a lack of trust between the new lovers that they’d have to eventually overcome.

More happens with Jason and although some of it related to Kirk and Spock, it was a little too much extra plot.

I loved the ending of the story as they walked along a deserted beach and spoke of the future of their relationship.

2010

I‘ve been paying more than my usual amount of attention to the news lately so for reasons that I hope will become clear, I gravitated to Pamela Rose‘s Chameleon for this issue. Chameleon is a deceptive piece. It‘s a cave story with an involved, fully fleshed out plot. The setting instigates sex but for none of the reasons that are probably running through your mind. Kirk is brash and daring but also driven by knee-jerk reactions his conscious mind doesn‘t fully recognize, much less understand. This Kirk is more human and fallible than most portrayals. And Spock is accepting of what he doesn‘t understand without the need for incessant analysis. Chameleon is a study of trust, manipulation, acceptance and racial profiling that made me stop and think about real world things. With one, relatively minor exception, this is noteworthy TOS with very down-to- earth, realistic characterizations. These people know their limits and strive to live within them.

My sole objection is the plot set-up. While Kirk was recuperating at a Starbase hospital, the shuttlecraft carrying Spock and his team was lost investigating a planet with very unstable magnetic fields. As soon as Kirk returns to the Enterprise, he hands the ship over to Scott for the next month while he goes alone in a shuttecraft to discover what happened to his close friend, Spock. Under the circumstances, I expected a master tactician, skilled diplomat and experienced explorer like James Kirk to get back to that planet a) fully prepared for whatever he might find and b) without putting his career so flagrantly on the line. After all, he had plenty of time to come up with a sound plan. But I can forgive the first page because of what‘s contained in the next forty-three.

Kirk fights his shuttlecraft to a safe landing and finds a group of nonhumanoid natives industriously disassembling the one Spock had commanded. He‘s promptly captured. In this case, there‘s a reason critical to the plot. The natives are telepathic and easily pick up on human thought. We‘re never told what the native‘s experiences with extraterrestrial visitors have been but to avoid reoccurrences, intruders are immediately thrown into a extensive, exitless cave labyrinth along with any salvage from their equipment which might be useful for day-to-day living.

Soon after Kirk enters the cave system, he is attacked and regains consciousness in Spock‘s care. Spock is the only survivor of his mission but he has three companions, the middle-aged Vulcan trader Solek and a young man named Jason with a cheery, upbeat, personality and a worldliness beyond his years. Both have been stranded in the cave for more than a year. The third is the creature that attacked Kirk, the third gender in a Reecan ̳family‘, the barely sentient instigator of their sexual functions. It‘s driven to ̳instigate‘ whenever it doesn‘t sense recent activity. Unfortunately, a second exposure to its enthusiasm and skin secretions would be fatal. The Vulcans are strong enough to ward it off. The humans are not.

Solack and Spock are busy tunneling out. The humans are unable to help. The natives might detect their thoughts and prevent the group‘s escape. Jason and Solack have become a couple so that Jason is safe while Solack is working. With less than a month before the Enterprise returns, Spock and Solack need to redouble their efforts. Kirk expects Spock to offer to protect him but Spock directs him to Jason instead. In an icebreaker conversation over coffee, Jason tells Kirk about growing up on Venusport, a lawless backwater, how his prostitute mother used to pimp him out occassionally, about running away to turn tricks on his own at sixteen and finally getting off planet by hooking up with a trader a year later. Kirk likes the kid and admires his pluck. In many respects Kirk may see his younger self in Jason but he can‘t connect on a sexual level. Jason deftly comments on Spock‘s expression when he looks at Kirk before he sends him back to Spock. That scene is very well done as is the subsequent meeting between Kirk and Spock.

Spock does want Kirk, of course, and readily tells him so but a few attempted same sex pick-ups when Kirk was younger have firmly and to date, irrevocably put Kirk in the heterosexual camp. Kirk really doesn‘t have a choice though. Their first encounter is distasteful to Jim; hence, very painful emotionally for Spock. But Jim does love Spock, deeply and platonically, feels guilty about manipulating him into intimacy and desperately wants to heal the rejection he‘s caused him to feel so he persuades Spock to try a repeat. Afterwards he confesses to Spock that he loves him. Unfortunately, he‘s referring to the love that drove him to search for Spock and this miscommunication and the necessary repetition of intimacy will eventually trigger an intriguing, ̳humanly‘ flawed chain of actions by both parties compounded by zeenite gas liberated by the tunneling and exacerbated by Jason‘s behavior.

The title refers to Jason, the unexpected linchpin of the story. It is never clear whether Jason is a pathological liar, a sociopath or a young man like Spock, unable to live within the constraints of his birth but unlike Spock, unable to successfully break free, or whether he‘s some combination of all of these. He does persistently insinuate himself into Kirk and Spock‘s intimacy, attempting to push Spock out and assume his place. Perhaps Jason‘s actions are sincere, perhaps they are pure manipulation born of boredom or self- centeredness, or an innate response to a challenge.

Chameleon is very densely plotted with lots of detail that nicely advances the story and creates a rich, reading experience. Upon rereading, the story becomes a very interesting vision of what Kirk seeks and needs in his private life and what he‘s willing to trade to achieve it. There are no big revelations but in this author‘s hands it seems new. Depending upon your interpretation of Jason, the story changes subtly but in unexpected ways that can lead to profound, fundamental changes in the reader‘s interpretation of Kirk.

Jason does manage to convince Kirk that Spock has lied and continues to lie to him for purely personal reasons. Kirk believes his fellow human, he‘s profiling based on his experience of the rigidity of Vulcan culture (from ST:TOS) and Jason‘s description of Solack‘s and Spock‘s behavior before Kirk arrived. This attitude, it turns out, is not an aberration caused by the zeenite gas. It persists after rescue even though Kirk and Spock‘s relationship is proceeding well along the path to bonding. The reader can easily believe that this relationship could segue to ST:TMP.