Debriefing (Star Trek: TOS story)

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Debriefing
Author(s):	Katherine Cooke
Date(s):	2001
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Debriefing is a Kirk/Spock story by Katherine Cooke.

It was published in the print zine Beyond Dreams #3.

This story has a sequel called Slow Spring.

Summary

"After being a slave to an amnesiac and unstable Spock on a Vulcanoid planet 5000 years in the past, Kirk must try to find peace within himself and his need for Spock."

Reactions and Reviews

I wish I could say that this story was a pleasure to read, but for me, that wouldn't be true. I was wary before even beginning, because I knew there would be violence. I don't generally avoid that in my fan fiction, because I sometimes find violence interesting and it can spice up a story if it is written well. Also, if an "outside" party, as in an enemy of the Federation performs the violence, I feel more "comfortable" with it.

I generally don't like it when the violence is between Kirk and Spock, inflicted by either of them to the other, which is the case in Debriefing. Despite this, I enjoyed reading this more than I expected. The whole idea and the imagination that went into this story, because it was unusual, took me in.

What I didn't enjoy as much were the characterizations—and Spock's character especially. I love stories where you can truly recognize the players that we know from the show, and where you can see and believe the strong relationship and love that is there between Kirk and Spock.

The feelings of loyalty and love are certainly true for the Kirk and Spock described in this story, because there is a strong bond between them, but I loathe seeing Spock as the sometimes violent, often insecure and cruel master. There are reasons for his behavior, and I buy these reasons whole-heartedly. The author has made a very strong case as to why Kirk and Spock behave the way they do, and still, I don't like it. I really feel uncomfortable with the Spock portrayed here.

And yet, Debriefing is well written, and Kirk's therapy sessions show that the author has a lot of insight into human reactions and behaviors. I found that interesting as well as a little tiring, as the parts where Kirk's dialog tells what he and Spock went through are a bit dry.

I must say that I have mixed feelings about this long and very well-written story. It's impressive in many ways, thanks to the author's imaginative plot and attention to detail. Time travel and mysterious alien artifacts lend a nice sci-fi touch. I also like lo, the original character from whose point-of-view much of the story unfolds. The overall structure of lo's first person narration alternating with flashbacks in third person POV is generally handled well and advances the story without distracting from it.

However, the fact remains that I have read this story twice and have had a hard time coming to grips with how I feel about it. Not only do I have misgivings about some of the elements of the plot, but my overall reactions were quite different during my first and second readings. I initially read 'Debriefing' at KiScon, and at first it most definitely pulled me in. Despite its violence, I found it engrossing, erotic, and believable. My enjoyment did begin to wane as I neared the end and began to tire of the pervasive violence. Still, I found the story powerful and certainly very memorable.

When I read it a second time, however, I did not enjoy it nearly as much. I think just knowing what was coming was part of the problem, especially where the violence of the plot was concerned. So much physical violence—and while it's always integral to the setting and the plot, I still found it hard to take after a while. On rereading, the planet's society also struck me as somewhat odd. It's mostly depicted as medieval, so things like the mechanized transportation and the women's flyers seem rather out of place.

'Debriefing' came up during a discussion at Shore Leave, and someone in the group made a comment that finally brought this story into sharper focus for me. (I apologize for not giving credit to the person who made the comment, but I don't remember for sure which of several people it was.) Essentially she said that the character of Spock was so radically altered that the story really seemed to be about an entirely different person. How true that is! This is not a Spock who simply loses his memory while his basic personality remains intact. Were that the case, we would have seen him struggling to fit in to an unfamiliar and violent society—adapting his behavior to its norms in order to survive, perhaps, but always with an underlying sense that something is wrong. Instead we are shown a Spock whose personality has been utterly obliterated by contact with an alien artifact. Not only does he have no trouble fitting in, he behaves like a founding father of this cruel and sadistic society! This is, of course, a perfectly legitimate plot device, and what it does is set the stage for an examination of how Kirk reacts to finding his first officer and friend in such a condition. In my opinion, he reacts very well indeed, by which I mean that he remains wonderfully believable and in character. While trapped in the planet's violent past, Kirk never yields to Spock or enjoys his sexual attentions. Instead he remains focused on the thorny problem of rescue. In the process, he himself is debased and continually put in harm's way, but he seems able to keep everything that happens to him in perspective. Of course he also comes to recognize his own sexual attraction to Spock—a bit of a stretch, perhaps, given that this Spock is a truly despicable character. But the author makes it clear that intimacy with the "real" Spock is what Kirk really wants, and he never gives up trying to find evidence of the Vulcan he loves beneath his altered exterior.

With that said, here is what I think makes this story ultimately unsatisfying for me: it is essentially a tale of Kirk's quest to rescue Spock in which Spock barely appears. Certainly the emotional distance between them is staggering. Kirk and a healthy Spock never appear together in real time, only in a flashback to the early part of the mission, before Spock disappears into the past. Clearly this flashback is intended to establish their friendship and working rapport, but for me it simply is not enough to give a real sense of their prior relationship. Virtually all other information about their feelings for each other comes from what Kirk later tells the Starfleet psychiatrist, and I'm left wondering what—if anything--Spock felt for Kirk before the events of the story. Then once they're in the planet's past, it's essentially about Kirk and a stranger wearing Spock's face. In fact, to me it almost feels like a story in which Spock is held captive by some evil character. Kirk tracks down the villain, but the action revolves almost entirely around what the bad guy does to Kirk, who refuses to go away because he knows Spock is being held nearby and endures terrible things because he believes it's the only way to rescue his friend. Again, a legitimate story line, just not one I would find terribly satisfying to read—at least not in a work as long and involved as "Debriefing.

Then there's the ending, which I find utterly bleak and depressing. The implication is that Spock will go off to recover at Gol, after which we all know he returns and Kirk eventually regains command of the Enterprise...but I'm afraid I find it hard to believe given the circumstances of this story. To me it feels more like the absolute end of the lives they once knew. I also did not care for the device of concluding the story with a "surprise" revelation about lo's sexuality. After such a lengthy and intense examination of Kirk'sfeelings for Spock, it seemed odd to be left with the focus so sharply on a different character.

This is a difficult story; I both liked it and didn’t.

It’s a very rich story and I just plain admire Katherine’s imagination and her ability to put ideas into creative and graciously readable prose. This author obviously has some varied experience in difficult subjects that made this a good story, or else it’s good imagination and research. One thing in particular I liked is the structure, as far as showing Kirk’s present-time sessions with the debriefing officer, Io (in her POV), interspersed with real-time scenes of what happened with Kirk and Spock in the past Spock had inadvertently slipped into. I think it wouldn’t have been as effective if the whole story had been either the telling of it by Kirk to Io or the past-time scenes. This is a really long, slow story. Long and slow isn’t a criticism per se; probably most K/S’ers like stories this way. I tend to like things more pared down to the essence, though; but I admired the writing throughout this story anyway. I liked from the beginning how it unfolded in a very natural feeling way, what we learn and when we learn it. I see from my notes I even felt at one point that it was a relaxing story to read, the parts in Io’s POV (she’s a good therapist). However, by about two-thirds through it I found myself getting impatient for the end. Actually, that’s about when I realized it was slow in the way that therapy is slow, and I tried to just give in and go with the process: with Kirk’s progression of small admissions, discoveries and realizations, his deep soul-searching for answers, as he relates the events and his feelings to Io. The story has to do with a visit to the planet Xon. Kirk, Spock and McCoy had just returned after six months there, and Spock is still in sickbay. Spock had gone back first, by accident, and lost his memory. Xon is a Vulcanoid world with a human or humanoid minority. Now they have peaceful relations, but their past was barbaric, the humanoids subjugated. The slaves revolted 1,000 years ago...and this is the past that Kirk, Spock and McCoy went into. This is funny: I didn’t know what a “diadem” is, and I kept meaning to look it up in the dictionary but didn’t, so I spent the first part of the story being bugged by not being able to picture what the heck this diadem was. It was referred to as a “circlet” also, so I knew it was round anyway. I admire, too, Katherine’s detailed depiction of the society, both their present and, especially, their past. I couldn’t help drawing parallels; this “tribal” society she depicts bears resemblance to certain south Asia countries of our recent acquaintance. She also made the effort to show global connections and implications. (So often we read stories where a whole planet is like one culture or society.) Of course I was interested in how she depicted the women of the society–all the strength and wherewithal behind those veils. Except in this society they practice outright slavery. It was written very visually, also; it was easy to picture the scenes. An interesting aspect of the culture was their having starship and other technology but not using it. Also, there is a class of unowned humans; they’re not all slaves. The ruling classes are intensely cruel. Human males are sex slaves also; human women are merely breeders. When Kirk and McCoy find Spock back in the past, he’d already been there a year, and was one of the three First Lords. He had walked out of the desert a year before with the diadem, been accepted as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Well, Kirk gets himself bought by Spock, to be his personal slave. There is a great story-line: the slave-rebels Kirk gets involved with, the rebellions in this past that were the beginnings of the enlightened society we know grew from them, that we saw in the planet’s present. How Kirk convinces Spock as ruler that it’s in the best interests of the future of his society to let go of the wasteful old ways. It’s all quite good; but I’m skimming over all this to discuss the more questionable issues. I know this story has and will generate strong feelings. It’s a terrible–and drawn out–depiction of cruelty and degradation, but one undeniably good and likeable aspect is that this Kirk is such a shining example of James-Kirk- ness. We get to see the full range of his personality, his motivations. By the way, he walks around naked through most of the story. It’s also a hard look into the dynamics of S/M, D/S, etc., and the Stockholm Syndrome (is that right?), where the captive starts having strong feelings toward the captor. As master to Kirk in this decadent society, Spock practiced some appallingly humiliating behavior. He could by turns be tender, or violent. Kirk explores all of his responses and feelings in these sessions with Io. However, I didn’t get a feeling of “our” Spock. I think this is what made me realize I didn’t feel fully positive about this story. At the end I was left quite wanting. The Spock we know was never quite shown. As to his cruel and degrading behavior toward Kirk, this I’m sure is not to everyone’s liking; but others have and can discuss this better than I. I didn’t care for this depiction of Spock, but I think not for the same reasons others might have–such as character misrepresentation. Yes, there are some lovely little moments of tenderness between Kirk and his master, where maybe we can see a tiny glimmer of Spock there. We can see that Spock is a tortured soul who desperately wants Kirk to want him. I don’t want to spell everything out, but I liked how Spock never used Kirk sexually except just the once at the beginning. So when they do come together toward the end, with Spock no longer master (but just before he gets his memory back), it’s very sweet and strong and erotic. (There is also some “interesting” group sex at other times during the story–imaginative and hot, in my opinion.) Earlier, at a point when Spock wanted to meld with Kirk, I wasn’t really convinced that Kirk would not do it. They do do a meld toward the end, almost as a second thought; but why would Kirk have refused earlier, when it might have tripped Spock into some recognition of who he really was by seeing it in Kirk’s mind? When Spock joins forces with the new people, he surrenders the diadem. “It was responsible for his madness.” Does just this little sentence, which I could have missed if not reading carefully, explain the entire scenario? I would have liked to be left with more of a sense of their reconciliation, but we end with Spock back in the present (though we never actually “see” him), absolutely mortified and devastated by what he’d done in that life back in the past, especially to Kirk. Now I understand there is a sequel. This is good. If this story had been a novel and we didn’t have to wait for the sequel, I might have been left less wanting. In fact, I realize now that my feelings about the story changed when I learned there was a sequel. Taken by itself, I have more criticism of the story than I would have had if I knew at the time that there was more to come.

And the very end of the story didn’t end with Kirk and Spock, but with Io and a little surprise Vulcan girlfriend—I liked that of course, but was aching to be left with Kirk and Spock, if just a tiny moment.... Now I get to look forward to those moments.

Not your grandmother’s master/slave story. There’s so much to say about this terrific, terrifically

written K/S story that I hardly know where to start. Okay—I loved every bit of it. I loved the writing , the characters, the plot, the sex—just everything. What I didn’t like was that feeling of “That’s it. Must put my pen down now. Can’t, couldn’t write like this.” The story opens with the character of Io—an alien, female, self-described non-humanoid, who very cleverly doesn’t get fully revealed until the end, and even then it’s delightfully mysterious. Anyway, this character is Kirk’s therapist and counselor, becoming the narrator of the story. But this is not portrayed in a dry, linear manner—the story changes from the therapist’s POV to present time events that Kirk narrates to her. And this is done extraordinarily well— seamless and riveting—as we are drawn into Kirk’s experiences more vividly than I can ever remember reading. This is a tortured Kirk, but one willing to self-explore and to tell his tale, which forms the entire story. I was going to recount some of the events and tell a lot about what happens (which is a lot), but so much happens and so much is fascinating and wonderful that I can only talk about a few of them. Spock is transported back in time on this planet, Xon, and in the process loses his memory and takes on the persona and life of a warlord in a violent and barbaric society that involves slavery, sex, lords and masters, sex, political upheavals, rebellion, and sex. Some of the sex was indeed violent—there are rapes and that one thing that so many K/Sers love to loathe— Spock rapes Kirk. But it’s not gratuitous. Okay, before you laugh in a sarcastic manner, the violence and the sex are truly integral parts of the story—it couldn’t be told without them. Spock has been transformed to this powerful and brutal lord, but yet still retains elements of the Spock that we and Kirk know and love. Kirk keeps trying to reach that part of Spock and that trying made for some wonderful tension and exciting reading. Just as a side note, it seems that some who read this felt that Spock’s character was unrecognizable. I honestly disagree. This was a Spock with intense inner turmoil because obviously his regression or transformation was not so complete. He had deep feelings for Kirk and the more unrequited those feelings were, the more obsessed he became. And Kirk does make Spock see the error of his ways. It takes a little time, but that’s understandable. Can you imagine Kirk showing up and Spock going oh, okay, I’m cured? And I have to admit to finding many of the sex scenes very hot.

Actually, this was very surprising to me as I have become kind of jaded with my K/S sex scenes—oh, for the most part I still enjoy them, but I haven’t thrashed on the carpet in a long time. Boy! Did I ever thrash. There’s this one scene where Kirk is forced to watch Spock with these two gorgeous male slaves and...then there’s this scene where Spock makes passionate love to a gorgeous, resisting Kirk. The tension that’s created when Kirk tries to resist mightily and Spock is doing all these wonderful things to him is so passionate and so beautifully done that I found it completely enthralling. There’s more to this story than the sex, too—there’s a neat plot filled with details of a society that’s fully realized. All the goings-on in the castle and all the goings-on with the rebels and the history of the society are so involving. All this and lots of K/S even with Spock not really our Spock, he’s still Spock especially when he lies in bed with Kirk and whispers his feelings to him as he grows more and more obsessed with this slave of his. And the ending! So often a great story will have a less than great ending. So many times I’ve been let down at the end. Not this time! It ends almost delicately...after all the excitement, action and intensity, the end has a gentleness that balances the story perfectly. And there’s a sequel in the works!

So in conclusion, I feel “Debriefing” is a finely crafted, well-thought out, exciting K/S story with loads ‘o terrific sex. What else is there in K/S life as we know it?

I'm a big Kirk fan and after being in K/S for so long, it's rare that I would go back and reread a story no less than five times. That's how good this story is. It is an excellent, attention grabbing, emotional roller coaster ride of a story.

Spock has spent a year in that era by himself, an amnesiac, who is being told that he is this Anor person, that treating slaves this way is totally acceptable. When in Rome.... How can someone refute something like that when he doesn't have any memories or experiences from his past to know the difference? That's a whole year of brainwashing before Kirk and McCoy arrive to extract him. That's totally believable. I assume that what happen to Spock when he was checking the diadem out is like what happened to Kirk in “This Side of Paradise”. The diadem does have an energy source and probably zapped him when he least expected it. I couldn't imagine Spock acting any other way than how his peers are acting at that time in that era in this story. I do agree, though that Spock wearing the diadem was what caused him to be loco is so lame. That no one ever figured it out throughout the whole story weakened it. She could have come up with a way cooler way of explaining his behavior then as an oh by the way.... This is definitely more of a Kirk story which to me is Hooray , Hooray, Hooray. It's like years since there's been a good Kirk K/S story. Right now there are more Spock writers out there than there are Kirk's. It's like rain after years of drought. I'm so happy that the writer submitted it to a pub instead of on the web. This is a great story because it shows how much Kirk loves Spock, and he is willing to make sacrifices, and dignity, mental, emotional, and physical abuses be damned and do whatever it takes to help Spock remember and take him back to their time. In the scene where Spock just rapes him in public, Kirk didn't let that get to him. He just says "If you think you can handle it" That was like wow, and you knew that this is not your typical cliché slave story. This story could have gone down the same boring road of Spock buys Kirk, Kirk becomes Spock's bed slave and just too quickly go into a mindless sex scene; and Kirk using sex to manipulate Spock, but that never happened. The fact that Kirk never knuckles under and uses sex to manipulate Spock is so refreshing. All throughout the tale, Kirk keeps trying to help Spock, make him see that there are better ways of doing things as a ruler, constantly trying to get through to Spock by telling stories about his past, and keeping him from being killed by the revolutionaries.

The emotional intensity and fast pace drama is one of the best I have ever read. It did my heart good to see someone who can finally write Kirk in the same light that most Spock writers have always written about Spock. The love, the devotion, the three meanings of t'hyla are all reflected in this story. This is how much Spock means to Kirk and the writer did an excellent job of showing it without ever going into cliches. Finally a writer who see Kirk the same way as I do. It's an awesome, kicking ass, taking names, must read around the galaxy story.

"Debriefing" by Katherine Cooke is a 64 page story. Kirk is talking to a debriefing officer named Io about his six months stay on Xon which is populated with Vulcanoids. His return to command is at risk. Also, Spock is in bad condition mentally, and it's unsure if he can cope. He is being attended to by Vulcan healers. Kirk tells the story in 17 (or more?) different sessions with the debriefer. It starts six months prior when the Enterprise visited Xon. Spock is studying an ancient diadem and disappears. Then not too long afterward McCoy and Kirk also disappear (I've forgotten exactly what the explanation was for this but it concerns two smaller diadems and a tricorder) and are transported back 1000 years when humans were kept as slaves for the Vulcanoids. They do not lose their memories. The human males were kept for sex with the Vulcanoid males and the human women kept to breed more human slaves. Spock is a leader called Lord Arnor with no memory of Kirk and McCoy. The diadem is his claim to rule and it also possesses other powers which we find out about later.

Spock rapes Kirk in public before he buys him, McCoy, and the whole batch of slaves. Kirk becomes Arnor's favorite (as the slave James) but they don't have sex because Arnor knows Kirk isn't willing. Kirk tries to reach Spock by telling in fable form about the Enterprise and other stories. Arnor/Spock is rather brutal at times and definitely unpredictable; however, brutality is the norm for this time. McCoy even speculates that Spock is insane. Kirk at one point tells the debriefer that he's worried about Spock because of all the bad things Spock did while being Arnor and he worries how Spock can deal with that now. The debriefer is mainly worried with how Kirk can deal with what happened to him as a slave and also how he views his sex with Arnor/Spock. He's only dealing with Kirk's mental baggage. Eventually, Spock/Arnor tells James that he found himself in a desert with the diadem and no memory. James is Arnor's favorite, and they discuss many things, including how to rule the planet and bring stability to it. James is trying to convince Arnor to be a good leader and end slavery and other brutal practices. Another powerful leader Counsellor Agrator persuades James to have a night of sex with him in return for freeing some slaves. This is done without Arnor's knowledge and when he finds James having sex with three slaves at Agrator's orders, he responds cruelly. Lots more happens in the next half of the story, but everything works out or almost works out, but, of course. You know the story will end fairly happily, or at least not too badly, because of the way it's presented—in Kirk's retelling the story as the debriefer guides him along. I frankly would have preferred this story not being, but as actually happening and then there would be a lot more suspense as to the outcome of the story. I think the lack of suspense hurts the story. I do, however, understand why the writer chose to use the structure/format that she did. There's lots of sex and violence in this story and it's a little hard to bear in places because this is not our nice Spock. Spock as Arnor is brutal and evil at times and quite repellent to James because of his actions. And the writer is graphic about the brutality. I normally am really into violent stories with harsh sex, but for some reason this one was a little off-putting at times. Over the years COMMAND DECISION has not been liked by a lot of people because of Kirk's harsh treatment of Spock. What Spock does to Kirk in this is twenty times worse. I happen to like COMMAND DECISION, by the way, and have never understood the bad reputation that it has with some people. Overall I like the story because it's well detailed and quite complex, showing a lot of work on the writer's part. It's quite original, and you are definitely not going to be going, "Oh, hum, this is just another Kirk slave story. Yawn. Zzzzzz." I will recommend it, but not for people with weak stomachs. For some weird reason which I can't explain, the uneasiness I have with the violence and rapes diminished the next day. I think initially it's a shock and then the shock wears off and you can think about the story as a story more rationally after you've have some time to think about it.

Actually I'd allot a whole evening to this story, and then read "Ritual" by J. S. Cavalcante (I review this later in this issue) AFTER you read this story so that you end up with a more romantic sweeter story. That might give you more restful dreams.

I must admit that I didn’t really expect to enjoy this story, as normally I’m not too keen on slave scenarios, but I was very surprised when I found myself enjoying it enormously. The method used was different from normal, with Kirk telling the entire story from his point of view throughout, as he recalls events on Xon while relating his experiences there to a counsellor during debriefing after the conclusion of the mission.

This is a wonderful depiction of Kirk’s strength of character, his (previously unacknowledged) feelings for Spock and the lengths he will go to find and protect him from himself, after he disappears into the planet’s past. I also enjoyed the way in which the author describes the counsellor gradually uncovering Kirk’s hidden feelings and motives, during a series of sessions and getting him to realise for himself just how strong his feelings for Spock have become, simply by her skilful questioning and manner which puts Kirk at ease, not an easy task when he is clearly traumatised by what has happened.

Although this is quite a violent story in parts, I felt that the violence was a necessary part of the plot which was firstly to show how much Spock in this timespan had changed from the one in the “normal” timeline who would never dream of behaving in such a way (even if was amnesiac) and secondly to demonstrate just how much pain Kirk is prepared to suffer in order to try to help Spock regain his normal personality and mental state and return them to their own time.

Although Dr McCoy does have a part in the story, it is only a minimal part as he and Kirk are separated for most of the plot, but it does demonstrate his loyalty as he obviously agreed to accompany Kirk back into the past to search for Spock. It would perhaps have been a good contrast to have a look at what his experiences in that other world were in a bit more detail, but this is just a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent novella which had a lot of twists and turns in the plot before finally reaching a conclusion.

I also like the fact that the story ended on a bit of a cliff hanger with the therapist recommending that if Spock does decide to go to Gol (something which he is considering) she will have to recommend a ground assignment for Kirk, which could have been a good explanation of why Spock went to Gol, if I hadn’t already seen the outline for the sequel “Slow Spring”, which means I already knew the outcome of that particular plot element before reading the story. In spite of this I found this to be an excellent novella which was satisfyingly long and as well as being a wonderful portrayal of Kirk’s strength of character, It was also a well described picture of the ancient slave-based culture of the planet Xon and a plausible explanation of how that culture evolved into the one in the present time.