Desires

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Desires
Author(s):	Andrea Arat
Date(s):	1984
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Desires is a K/S story by Andrea Arat.

It was published in the print zine Daring Attempt #1.

Reactions and Reviews

A ten year old prospective ruler of a planet and her betrothed come aboard the Enterprise, and the man sexually abuses and rapes her. I've always been disturbed by this story, not by the rape and abuse, but because the Enterprise folk assumed that the cultural standards of the planet from which these people were from matched their own. Maybe on that planet what had happened was commonplace, accepted, right. Now, as it tuned out. it wasn't, but our guys applied Federation standards in a very high-handed way.

This early story is disappointing because, although the plot is interesting, and event follows event, they appear to have little connection with each other. There is no thematic integration in this story.

Even though this short story sort of reads like two plot lines in one, I still find it a very effective tale. In the beginning, Spock says "damn" while he's on the bridge. Well, that's definitely an attention getter! Seems that the crew and the ship is very much in need of shore leave, and Spock is really aggravated that a particular part with which he's working is defective. We see the scene from Uhura's point of view, which is effective and not gratuitous in part because her point of view plays a role later in the story. Although not as much as I think it should have. Anyway, Kirk is able to calm Spock down, more or less, but Spock still refuses to go with Kirk on the shore leave that the crew so richly deserves and so much anticipates.

Alas, Starfleet has different plans, and less than a day into Kirk's retreat to the beach, Spock must find him to relay the news of another important mission. This section is nicely done, slowly, with the tension between Kirk and Spock and the thoughts that lie beneath the surface richly drawn.

Then the second half of this story begins as the Enterprise transports a group from a planet that might be joining the Federation. This group includes a young girl of ten who serves as the Child Priestess, basically the leader of the planet. Among the others with her is a man who is her betrothed husband. Yes, this is that story! The one where Kirk discovers that the husband is forcing himself sexually on the child and has been for years, even though they are not to be officially married until she is fourteen. I find this a really interesting storyline, but it falls short because the plot assumes that the standards of the Federation against child sex are shared by the culture in question. That is never quite made clear, although there are a lot of assumptions. I would have really liked to see that this is the norm for that culture, and seen how our fellows deal with it. Oh, well.

Of course, this section serves as the springboard to introducing an intimate relationship between Kirk and Spock, though I don't think it works as well as it might. There really isn't a connection that I can see, and the scene in the observation deck where the fellows finally talk to one another, and do more than talk, too, could have been linked to any number of stories.

So, not the perfect story, but a really interesting one with some nice emotions well drawn.