Ghost Fire

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Ghost Fire
Author(s):	JS Cavalcante
Date(s):	1993
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Ghost Fire is a Kirk/Spock story by JS Cavalcante.

It was published in the print zine Naked Times #31.

Summary

"Kirk and Spock are deliberately stranded on a planet just as Spock believes he is entering pon farr and though a Vulcan woman has been picked to be his next bondmate, he is not yet bonded and does not wish to be with her."

Excerpt

"Kirk's hands were warm on Spock's shoulders. The Vulcan stared into the concerned face for long moments, trying to remember. In a moment, his memory clicked in, images swirling into his brain all at once, like the rushing water. He remembered the black water, sucking the last of his strength from his limbs, dragging him down. A loose tree limb floating by, striking him a glancing blow and then rushing past before he could grab it. The water closing over his head. The ghostly face, the building behind her seen right through her skin. The madness. The fire of pon farr, burning him, burning for Jim…"."

Reactions and Reviews

(Winner of the contest story. The first part is what A.F. Black wrote for contestants to finish.)

Kirk and Spock beam down to ancient ruins. Others in landing party are left behind due to transporter malfunction. There are also other malfunctions on the ship, so they can't got back up, and their communicators are losing power. Great set-up. And having a Science Officer's Log is a good way to explain the situation and tell us about the planet, etc.

Sebius 13, an ancient hurnanoid civilization near the center of the galaxy. Lot of interesting detail; and none of the obvious reasons why the civilization might disappear apply here; it's as if they were all just-gone-in the middle of an ordinary day. Well-done scientific stuff-were singled out and that they had been drawn and kept here. Then it is revealed, as he speaks about being scheduled for leave on Vulcan soon, to bond with T'Meris, a bonding he does not want. He starts to feel pon fair might be coming on. so these changes he feels as he is dictating his personal log make sense now,

He starts feeling unnerved, even paranoid, feels they're being watched, HoJs starting to lose it. l love it!

Then, JSC's story:

Lovely, lovely right away. Spock waxing illogically poetic. I love watching him start to lose control. I love his jumpiness, with underlying feelings about Kirk. The onset of Spock's fever gave me a fever.

And the wraith in the fire-"Help us." This is excellent. It keeps appearing, at first only to Spock.

To try to maintain control, Spock recites Surak's tenets. These are brilliant! (How does JSC get her hands on that first translation into Standard? You know the one, that 2001?) years later Kirk found as a gift for Spock in the antique bookstore...whoops, different story-sorry, Karla.) Actually, I think JSC is a Vulcan.

In the grip of the fever, Spock goes to the river while Kirk sleeps, intending to take his own life rather than rape Kirk, He will drown himself.

Kirk saves him-a wonderful not-intentionally sexy scene* Spock shamefully admits to Kirk he's in pon farr and would seek Kirk as a mate.

Kirk says, I am here, ready, willing and able. Oh, the captain of my heart... Wrapped in blankets, naked, Kirk holds Spock, admits he likes the idea. Sex is best with who you care about the most, etc. And he has been with men of course.

Then the wraith appears to both of them. This is a fairly complex scenario, and It gets a little confusing from here, but I was willing to be confused- For one thing, when dealing with things we don't know about readily, psychic energy materializations and so on, I don't require a hard-and-fast explanation. For another thing, our characters didn't know what was going on either, so we were simply finding out with them.

So Spock finds in his mind (connected with the same place in his mind where he seeks his mate in pon farr-why this would be so was hard to understand until later in the story) what the Sebtcns need. They must find a crystal artifact, what Spock had seen as the Klut'axir (a Vulcan sword). It is finally given them by the wraith/old woman; she had to materialize it for them-wow. Very interesting energies going on in that scene, kind of crossing between planes.

It's not a blade, it turns out. but a key! They bring it to the "temple," the corridor between dimensions, which is where Spock also knows his pon farr will/must be relieved.

Wonderful scene: "It is time/ My heart is pounding. Stripping off their clothes looking in each other's eyes. On the floor-beautiful, urgent but loving sex. I love the moments of Kirk's realizations, that Spock loves him. that he loves Spock. His "I love you" is so perfect. And Spock's too.

The Sebiens have been in another dimension, and couldn't find the right frequency to get back. They used Ktrk and Spock's sexual energies, along with the key/amplifier, to generate the proper frequency to get back.

I loved the look at a civilization so immensely beyond what we know, millennia upon millennia beyond our furthest imaginations of space/technology. Naturally, what is left to explore are psychic dimensions, etc.

It wasn't really pon farr, but a ghost*fire. How gorgeous. Kirk looks forward to the real thing then.

Nice sweetness at the end. I loved, "What do we do now?* and Kirk's *Go on. Serve together. Live..."

A fine story.

Superior, clear and concise beginning as Kirk and Spock are stranded on Sebius XIII and Spock is slowly going into Pon Farr. Spock's thoughts are perfectly slightly crazed and his perceptions of things are colored by this increasing fever. Really well-done, especially memorable was how they noticed dust left on this abandoned planet. Spock says: " 'On Vulcan, dust sometimes seem to have a life of its own/ he offered. 'Dust storms are common.' 'Yeah. I remember those dust-devils at...' Catching Spock's eye, Kirk trailed off. The dust-devils at Koon-ut-Kalifi, Spock completed the thought silently, cringing inwardly."

That is a wonderful moment as this author has such talent for creating a vivid Vulcan world that even a small thing like dust becomes an image for his homewor!d and his impending Pon Farr.

Again, a wonderfully inventive cultural habit, as Spock sees a ghostly figure in the empty fireplace of a building where they decide to spend the night and he recites Surak tenets of logic so that it will go away.

So much of what J.S. writes is so clever and exacting. Such as when Spock becomes aware of an ache that is growing in his body, "...in the groin, armpits, throat, behind his eyes...endocrine system, a part of his mind observed with detachment. The Pon Farr causes the glands to..." I was impressed with these sorts of touches throughout the story that made Vulcan and Vulcans so real.

They sit by the fire and talk to each other as Spock struggles to remain in control, thinking things like: "Don't you know when you are in danger, my friend?" Excellent description of Spock's slowly growing physical symptoms and the mental distortions of Pon Farr.

All Spock's senses are heightened and it is definitively expressed, As when Spock watches Kirk sleeping: "Let his glance take in the softness of Jim's full lips, a feature he had never properly noticed, it seemed."

I so enjoyed Kirk's open and accepting attitude about helping Spock in his time of need. I certainly don't mind "angst", but here I liked the realistic portrayal of Kirk's matter-of-fact way of relating.

All this is not the only thing this girl can write! We're talking one of the sexiest scenes in a stone room this side of Vulcan!

And a delightful surprise ending that ties in the image of the title.