From the Dark into the Light

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	From the Dark into the Light
Author(s):	Vivian Gates
Date(s):	1984
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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From the Dark into the Light is a K/S story by Vivian Gates. It was the winner of a 1985 K/Star Award.

It was published in the print zine As I Do Thee #1 and won a 1985 K/Star Award.

Reactions and Reviews

How can you miss with a Vivian Gates story? Parts of the story show that this is not her very best effort, but it's still a compelling tale. Kirk and Spock wake up as captives in a cell, they know not where. They can hear sounds from other places in the jail that tell them other beings of different races are also incarcerated. As captain and first officer sit and contemplate their fate, they overhear a conversation between two Klingons, both male, who have been captives for six days. The Klingons decide to kill each other, but only during the act of love. And as the conversation and the sex progresses, it is clear that these two are lovers, even if the expression of their affection as comrades in arms is not tender. Just after they accomplish their goal, our heroes fall unconscious as they are gassed.

But not before Kirk entertains a stray thought: he and Spock....

But Kirk awakens on the ship. The Enterprise has rescued him, his first officer, and hundreds of others who were captives. As the captain goes through gathering information, making decisions, and providing for the well-being of those they've recovered, he quietly thinks about the possibilities. It's not until he and Spock have a unique opportunity to be alone on a planet while building a prefabricated building that there's the articulation of what he has barely admitted to himself: he wants Spock as a lover.

There are always special touches that mark a Vivian Gates story. Here there's some great imagination: who else would consider having Kirk and Spock declare their feelings for one another while putting up a prefab building? But it's perfect for an opportunity for Kirk to take off his shirt, even for Spock to eventually do the same, and for them both to feel physical. There's also her trademark understated exposition of real life on board the Enterprise for the captain. He wakes up from being unconscious and almost immediately has to deal with a myriad of different details, with several of his officers offering him vital information. I really like that. And I adore the cautious way that she has Kirk and Spock talk to each other about what's on their minds: the deaths of the Klingons and how that physical relationship had opened up their eyes to the possibility of one between the two of them.

Here's that passage. It takes place while Kirk is sitting in the water of a stream. Spock is sitting on the bank, his feet in the water.

"Should a gambler gamble, Spock?" he asked suddenly. Spock considered it seriously. "What are the odds?" "Not quite good enough," the human said after a moment's hesitation. "Some things are too valuable to risk."

"Possibly the odds are better than you have calculated," Spock said softly....

I found this disappointing. After an intriguing glimpse of Klingon warrior lovers, we are given nothing but a standard first time scenario.

I liked a lot of things about this one— the very alien Klingons, the sensory details of Kirk and Spock working together to build a pre-fab house, and especially the little touches of language. "'A small fire,' agreed Spock..." And Spock in an even more intimate moment: "'Do that. Again.'" The story is really three interconnected incidents, and the point-of-view shifts around a good deal, but it was a pleasure to read.

Listening to male Klingons making love is a cataclysm. It starts a process in Kirk to fully consciously consider what Spock is to him, and possibly could become, without wanting to jeopardize their precious friendship. Mostly, we get Kirk's thoughts, but when they tentatively speak about it without really explicitly saying what they are thinking, we learn that Spock is of a like mind. I like it very much that both work at bringing things into the open, at voicing what's been living inside themselves, at not wanting to rush things, to see where their relationship will take them. Not to force anything. I have the feeling that if the author would've decided to bring it to a close after their initial lovemaking, they would've remained the best of friends ever, perhaps even better, if that could be possible. I love this Kirk and Spock, their unvoiced rapport flowing between them. A high quality story and one of my favorites.

"From The Dark Into Light" by Vivian Gates is obviously a well-written story. It received a K/Star Award. I would never have given it such an award since, although I found it pleasant and entertaining, I also thought it very predictable. When I started reading it, I knew I was looking at a dressed-up formula story. In such a case, I pay attention to how cleverly the writer has dressed up the formula, but it's difficult to admire such wrapping if it gets thrown away too soon. "From The Dark Into Light" has an interesting opening, but from there on in, we are faced with nothing but the usual first time sequence. It seems a waste to spend so much narrative time on what we already know so well, and spend so little on something as intriguing as a relationship between two Klingon warriors. Yet I imagine most readers would not find this story as disappointing as I did.

The truly outstanding contribution - and it would have stood out in any zine - is "From The Dark Into The Light" by Vivian Gates. This author always portrays her characters as equals, thoroughly masculine and mature and here we have no exception, her best to date. Every word that the two men utter in this story - a first timer - is totally believable; they converse obliquely round some subjects in a form of short hand that two people who are very close to each other might use and neither of them utters the long diatribes that would sound patently ridiculous in Shatner's or Nimoy's mouth and this matters, to me at least. I have to believe in the characters, otherwise the names could be interchangeable with any other "/" couple that could be dreamed up and that is not what I read Trek for. Like Carol Frisbie, I believe the genuine magic to lie between Kirk and Spock.

"From the Dark Into the Light" is an interesting story by Vivian Gates. In it, Kirk and Spock are captured by aliens, and during their captivity, they can hear two Klingon warriors making love. Returned to their normal life, what they heard has its effect on each of them, and their resolution of the situation makes for an enjoyable story.