No Witnesses

Fanfiction
Title:	No Witnesses
Author(s):	Kate Singer
Date(s):	1992
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

No Witnesses is a Kirk/Spock and Spock/OMC story by Kate Singer.

It was published in the print zine First Time #34.

Summary

"Spock has a hidden lover whose fatal illness results in Spock taking extended leave from the Enterprise, raising fears in Kirk that he is losing the Vulcan."

Reactions and Reviews

1993

Spock takes shore leave and goes to visit and stay with an ex-lover, a human man named Adam. Adam is dying of an incurable disease, brought on by his planet's repressive attitude toward anyone or anything different than the norm. In this analogy, it's the love of composing and playing music which becomes the focal point that Adam and Spock share. The relationship that Spock shares with Adam helps him turn to his true love: Kirk. Of coum, a thinly veiled parallel to AIDS and its sufferers in our society. Which makes reviewing this a dilemma for me. On the one hand, I appreciate the comparison and the author does not beat one over the head with the message, but, on the other hand, I found I kept having to remind myself that this was K/S. The story had a feel to it as though these characters were just inserted in the telling, that it really could have been anyone. Also, there are a couple of other problems. One is, the character of Adam who is used here as a symbol of those who have AIDS. This leads to a rather removed, uninvolving character because a symbolic character is difficult to completely care about. Of course, one relates to human suffering, but, dramatically, the reader must ultimately care about the character, not what it represents. The other problem was with the characters, themselves. Adam was angelic and perfect, Spock was saintly and perfect, Kirk was perfect and so was McCoy. They were all incredibly caring, loving, giving and perfect. This robbed the story of any tension or drama except for the main theme of Adam and his disease which had its difficulties as explained. To be fair, the story was well-written and well structured, such as not revealing the true nature of the disease until it unfolds with the story. And being as this author has talent, one is left feeling cheated out of the potential emotional impact.

Although this contained a story line I don't like (Spock's involvement with someone else), I did like the writing and the ending. The relevancy in the Age of Aids is noted and was nicely done.

I found the parallel between the Exiles and today's Aids victims a good one. This was a bittersweet offering and very thoughtful.

This superb story had me spellbound from beginning to end. And the premise is not one I'd have expected to like-or even believe. But the author provides ample proof that a good writer can make anything believable.

Here's a basic idea of the storyline: Spock beams down to take leave on Lydeus. He goes to visit Adam, a man with whom he has been carrying on a longstanding (and mostly long-distance) love relationship. The details of their meeting are slowly revealed, as is the feet that Adam is a brilliant musician and composer. Very gradually, we learn that Adam suffers from an incurable, contagious disease that will inevitably cause his death, and soon. Spock has come to visit him for what will be the last time.

Spock cares for Adam as his health deteriorates, even taking an extended leave that threatens his position on the Enterprise and makes Kirk despair of ever getting his first officer back. Kirk goes charging back to Lydeus to find Spock and discovers the situation, and the fact that he's in love with Spock. Adam dies, but not before pointing out to Spock that he has only been a surrogate for the man who will be Spock's true partner in life: Jim Kirk. Adam realizes Spock is in love with Kirk before Spock does.

Back aboard ship, Kirk goes to Spock to comfort him in his grief, and ends up confessing his love; Spock valiantly fights for Vulcan control—and fortunately for everyone, he loses.

From a lesser writer, all of this could be trite, maudlin, and hard to accept. Not so here. In fact, even though IVe given a basic synopsis, I haven't really "given away" anything. There's so much more to this story, more about Spock's and Adam's meeting, the disease, the attitudes on Adam's home planet and the Federation's lackadaisical attitude toward finding a cure, the delicate exploration of Spock's underlying love for Kirk, the role of music in Spock's life, Kirk's jealousy and his gradual understanding of his love for Spock, etc. And it all kept the pages turning until I finished. The story spans 38 double-column pages, and I couldn't have put it down if the house had caught fire. (I'd have taken it out with me!)

The story owes much of its success to the quality of the writing; the author has tremendous skill with the language. I could choose almost any passage, but how about this, from the love scene with Kirk: "Adam had been willowy, more slender—a birch to Kirk's oak—and for a moment Spock's hands faltered, confused by the trace memory. But the ghost departed after bestowing its blessings, and then there was only Jim."

The characters of both Spock and Adam are fully drawn. Even Adam, who could easily have ended up a cliche, was believable in the story's context. Yes, he was a bit on the angelic side, but I saw him as appropriately serene, a dying man who had made his peace with the universe. Even his extraordinary musical talent was entirely believable; his appealing humility and natural manner providing a good counterbalance.

Although the comparison with AIDS is inevitable, I didn't think of it much while reading the story, especially because the similarities are not blatant until very late in the story. The way the disease's cause is slowly revealed, however, gives the story an air of mystery.

I especially loved the scenes of Spock's and Adam's meeting and falling in love, of how Adam tried to keep his identity secret at first, and of his surprise when he realized Spock had known all along. I loved Adam's final composition, the melody crystals— everything. I even liked this story's Kirk, who is somewhat sulkily jealous much of the time. He was appealingly vulnerable in that condition, and yet he was still so Kirk—talking Starfleet into changing the Enterprise's orders so that Spock wouldn't have to resign, rushing down to the planet to find Spock and get him back.

The K/S first-time story is downplayed; indeed, ifs not the central purpose of this tale. The love between Spock and Adam takes center stage most of the time, and the message of tolerance and courage gets the nod for the ultimate purpose. But the characters suit that purpose beautifully, just by being who they are, people acting out their parts in a larger play. Spock, Kirk, and Adam are seen in the context of the universe and the Federation they live in, and that's a refreshing point of view.

The story has a few distractions—I hesitate to call them problems—first, I noted a few mechanical errors: a few awkward sentences, some actions out of sequence, a few diction errors. But these were minor annoyances, easily dismissed. Second, the facts about the disease don't entirely add up: if there is an "agent that keeps the virus inactive," why aren't the Exiles able to find or recreate that agent elsewhere? Again, not much of a distraction, and it didn't even occur to me until I'd read the story twice. Third, I thought Spock's love for Kirk was sprung on us from nowhere; there's little indication of how he feels for Kirk until Adam points it out, and even then, we dont get to see whatever Adam saw that led him to that conclusion. Whatever it was, it happened "offstage." In fact, the whole story places a lot of emphasis on exposition, rather than action or dialogue. For the most part, though, this appears to be a conscious decision rather than a mistake, and overall it suits the story, giving it a fairy-tale quality; ifs the kind of story you tell aloud.

I also had a little problem with the fact that Spock never confided in Kirk; I would have liked it better if he had told Kirk what was going on. But that action was one of several that kept him real, saving him from sainthood and the story from over-sentimentality. That action was also consistent with the Spock of the TV series, who was often quite secretive, even with Kirk, about affairs touching the Vulcan heart.

One tiny thing still bothers me about the story. I don't understand why it wasn't titled "Witnesses." Spock was a witness to Adam's greatness and his selfless love. Spock and Kirk and McCoy were witnesses to Adam's sacrifice in the name of the truth and for his music. Kirk was a witness to Spock's opening his heart to another. The reader is a witness to the tale's message, which is obviously but not obnoxiously delivered—a deftly managed effect. (A heavy message like the one in the story could easily offend, but this one just touched me and seemed appropriate.) The story was full of witnesses. So why the negative title? I still wonder, but who cares?

The story left me happy and sad and very, very satisfied. It's not just a good K/S story. It's a good story. Period.

I have so many thoughts and feelings about "No Witnesses" that I barely know where to start. Before I read this story, I knew its plot. I was prepared not to like it, because I honestly believe that Spock as I understand him is incapable of maintaining a loving, emotional relationship with anyone but Kirk, at least m his early years in the series. I still hold that opinion.

But a skilled and thoughtful author can make the reader believe in her universe, in her interpretation of the character. Despite myself, I found myself drawn into this world, and I made faces at the telephone that interrupted me three times while I was reading. I still think that one of the weakest parts of the story was the stow sliding progression of Spock's friendship with Adam into sexual intimacy, but the rest of the story was so compelling that I was perfectly willing to gloss over that small inadequacy. Perhaps that is the appropriate first compliment to pay to "No Witnesses." I believed in it, and as I compulsively turned page after page, I did not want to leave it. The second compliment is a reason for the first. I don't know if I have ever read a K/S story of such lyrical beauty. Ms. Singer is a wordsmith, a craftier of images that resonate with intensity, with authenticity. I found myself going back to read sentences just for the sheer joy of discovering again how the words were put together. Just one example is the consistent and totally appropriate use of water images. "...Adam's deterioration had undergone a sea-change. The tide had turned, and would not come in again." Or how about "...Spock discovered his own need for more island of time, one more harbor of desire and acceptance in a merciless sea...." Other images are equally wonderful: "... guarding his vulnerable heart as steadfastly as the hard burr of a chestnut protects the sweet kernel within." Witnesses" is a magnificent manifestation of writing talent, the words to express how impressed I am.

But such talent alone would not be enough to make a wonderful, moving story. Plot and the ability to make the reader care through word choice and scene construction are other essential elements of that equation. In the careful delineation of the relationship between Adam and Spock, Ms. Singer displays an almost virtuoso skill, an understanding of what it means to love, and to see that love slipping away. There was nothing hurried, nothing rushed in the first thirty pages of this story. As the reader was introduced to Adam, then drawn back into Spock's memories of when he and Adam had first met, the scenes were exactly the right length, the emotional intensity slowly escalated.

The carefully dropped hints of Adam's physical condition and the reason for it were skillfully woven into the story, one of the many elements that drew the reader on.

Yet despite my enthusiasm and admiration for this story, I do feel that there were some problems with it. These problems cannot detract from all the positive aspects of the story; it's just that I think it would have been even better than it was.

The major problem, in my opinion, was the story was constructed to reflect its theme, or objective. What is this story really about? In my opinion, me theme is Spock's awakening to his emotional self, his discovery that he can love, through the heart-wrenching experience of his relationship with a man who was destined to die.

And this theme is carried out magnificently in the first thirty pages. It is only when Kirk is introduced that there is a noticeable hiccup. Suddenly the tone of the story changes, ft seems rushed, noticeably shallower in emotional insight than the previous pages. So much attention is paid to Spock's thoughts and feelings about Adam, their relationship, his inevitable grief at its ending, that tacking Kirk onto the end of the story seems almost like sacrilege. Kirk is definitely ad addendum to the major thrust of this story. Yes, the relationship with Adam is constructed so that the interaction with Kirk is inevitable at some time in the future, but the consummation of the attraction between Kirk and Spock is not what this story is about.

The puny eight pages that are devoted to Kirk and Spock's conversation and physical interaction once Adam has died and Spock is again back on the Enterprise are devoid of the careful attention that the author provides earlier. It is almost as if she were exhausted from the task of so fully realizing one relationship, and she did not have the energy or inclination to devote to another. I found the few hints that were scattered through the "Adam" section of the story about Spock's feelings for Kirk to be entirely inadequate to explain his sudden coupling with his captain. I can see two ways to get around the problem. The first is to cut the sex scene with Kirk entirely. It is truly gratuitous to what this story is all about. I would have loved to see this story end when Kirk goes to Spock's cabin and offers him comfort, just two days after Adam's death. The image of the two of them embracing, with Spock willing to shere his emotional pain with his friend and captain, with Kirk willing to be open and soft, willing to be there for Spock, to listen, would have been a great way to indicate that there would be a future for the two of them together, and it would have felt very real.

But what happened instead was that the author bowed to the conventional wisdom that almost every K/S story has to have a sex scene between Kkk and Spock, and as a consequence not only is Kirk and Spock's new sexual relationship forced and contrived, but the wonderfully moving love between Spock and Adam is cheapened.

Stop and think about it. The man Spock loved has died just two days ago. How genuine can his leap into another man's bed be, especially given how successfully the author makes the reader believe the love with Adam was genuine? My doubts about this scenario are fueled by the experiences of a vary close friend of mine. She lost her husband of several years to an accident, and in her grief and loss she found herself turning to her and her husband's best male friend, and suddenly involved in a sexual relationship, under circumstances that are startlingly similar to the ones that were played out in Spock's cabin. She talked about it with me, and we both understood the emotional dynamics of the situation. The relationship wasn't real, only temporary. She needed reassurance, she needed another warm body to hold in her loss. When we are devastated and hurt to our core, we reach out, sometimes unwisely. We are very vulnerable in our grief.

I see Kirk and Spock's relationship, beginning as it does, es standing on similarly shaky ground. Portrayed as it is, I see Spock's turning to Kirk as anything but the beginnings of a genuine, sustainable love between them. I even found myself hissing at Kirk at the top of page 147B, when he declares "I love you. Spock, I do love you...." just after Spock has given in to his need for e "catharsis" after Adam's death, and asks Kirk to hold him. "Insensitive boor," I castigated our captain, "that isn't what he needs to hear now. He couldn't possibly absorb your love. Just give him acceptance and your arms."

[...]

To sum up this long review, I think 'No Witnesses" is a wonderful story, well written by an author of great talent. I was aware of the AIDS parallel from the beginning, but it didn't intrude upon my enjoyment or understanding of the story.

Just one last reservation. I found myself feeling somewhat resentful that all this effort end talent hadn't been directed towards a similarly insightful, emotionally rewarding story about Spock and Kirk. After all, that's what K/S is supposed to be all about, isn't it? I'm really hoping that Kate Singer has written or will write a Kirk/Spock story that rivals this Spock/Adam story, and I will took eagerly for her next publication.

There is very much I admire about this story: the excellent treatment of a relevant theme — a AIDS-type situation. (The writer has close experience of the death of a friend in this way?) I loved the music theme also; very well done. (The writer obviously a musician or very music-literate.) And the "witness" theme; subtle, excellent. Ail these are not just separate elements either, but together form a coherent scenario (ok, sound a harmonious chord).

I personally didn't think it desirable to draw out the explanation of "Exile," the virus/illness/situation. It's not as if the story is a mystery where the writer must pace what she reveals to the reader. I would have rather just known up front what the Exile story was, what was wrong with Adam. Spacing out the information did not enhance the story. However, the whole premise w as totally fascinating, extremely well thought-out and presented in a scientifically and socially feasible manner.

(I can't help it, I always love it when religious extremists are presented as the bad guys.)

I really thought Spock's relationship with Adam was beautiful, but that whole part was too long for me, only because the Kirk parts were too short in relation.

I know this is my problem, but I almost don't want Spock to have been so genuinely in love before Kirk. But it was done excellently, how Adam opened and awakened those parts of Spock so that he could then realize he loved Kirk. Although it seems this realization would have happened sometime earlier in the relationship, not at the end of three years. And for Spock to be wiling to give up his career, and Kirk, for Adam, well... Not to say it wasn't likely, but my heart froze up a little at that.

Again, maybe it was because there were not enough hints of love between Kirk and Spock in the beginning. We team later that Adam had a strong sense that Spock loves Kirk, that Adam knew it even if Spock didnt; yet not enough w a s shown to us to justify this. It w a s perfectly feasible, the manner in which Kirk and Spock finally got together, even the fact that had Adam not died they may well not have gotten together, but I think I needed to be shown more intensity between them leading up to when they finally acknowledged their love for one another.

I hated the way Kirk pushed himself into Adam's death scene. Beautiful words, however, in that scene, from Adam to Spock, that Spock should not hide himself. The entire analogy of music/love/self- expression/witness was really fine.

There was no closeness for a while between Kirk and Spock after Adam's death,and then it seems Spock speaks too freely. Very brave of him to ask Kirk to just hold him... Choked me up. Ultra-intense lovemaking; had not been so passionate in that way between Spock and Adam.

The music crystal was so imaginative — absolutely fascinating!

(Somehow the use of parentheses in fiction seems out of place. Is it?)

A couple of time-shifts in Spock and Adam's story that were unclear. Seems it could have been done a little more chronologically, less flashbacks.

I don't know what it's property called, but a number of times I noticed a too-distant noun/verb or subject/object relationship- Example: "The circumstances forced Spock to reevaluate the pull of loyalty that bound him to his captain in a more objective manner than he'd admitted himself before." Sounds like he's bound in a more objective manner. rather than his being forced to reevaluate In a more objective manner.

Otherwise, very fine writing: poetic, vivid.

This is the second story I have read by Kate Singer, and it's even more remarkable than the first one. I'm extremely impressed. The characterization of Adam, the musician dying of a disease that is 23rd century parallel to AIDS, was superb. I found the relationship between

Spock and Adam intensely moving and believable. Spock would be attracted to such a brilliant and sensitive individual, and he would never let a man he loved so much die alone. I do think that the religious dictatorship that killed Adam is inherently unstable because religious fanaticism cant be maintained forever. Eventually, a federation will arise that doesn't care very much about the religion of their ancestors. I would love to see a sequel about a musical revolution on Argus. If the memory of Adam causes the religious dictatorship on his planet to be overthrown, then he didn't die in vain.