O, Thou Perfidious Vulcan

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	O, Thou Perfidious Vulcan
Author(s):	Kate Daniels
Date(s):	1994
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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O, Thou Perfidious Vulcan is a Kirk/Spock story by Kate Daniels.

It was published in the print zine In the Wilderness #4.

Summary

"The perils of a Vulcan betrothal especially if the Vulcan in question is already married! When Spock is unexpectantly summoned to Vulcan he finds that his family has lined up a fiancee for him, heedless of the fact that he and Kirk are lovers."

Reactions and Reviews

This treatment of the "Spock is ordered home to Vulcan to take a Vulcan bride" theme is not only original but also witty, literate, properly suspenseful and just a plain good read. For once, there is no K/S "misunderstanding" involved; the author gives Spock a compelling reason to marry and produce an heirf and, while he is initially propelled into the situation by others, this story forces him to choose between Vulcan and Kirk on his own, on the merits. I appreciate enormously the author's willingness to tell a real story about a real dilemma for the characters.

The author makes effective use of point of view in the opening scenes that progress from Spock's PoV (learning of the problem and making his decision) to Kirk's (learning of the decision) and then to McCoy's-McCoy wonders why Kirk is so cheerful under the circumstances, and of course the reader wonders too. The author's competent prose lets the Vulcan characters' individuality shine through their impeccable formality and traditional demeanor.

I was little surprised to learn, in the middle of Kirk's machinations on Vulcan, that he had gone down to Vulcan without a fully-fledged plan to extricate his lover. Not that Kirk wouldn't play it by the seat of his pants if necessary; it's just that I had thought, based on Kirk's elliptical conversation with McCoy before he left the ship, that he did have a plan, one that would help explain his cheerfulness and that was consistent with McCoy's wonderful barnyard wisdom in that scene (I'm not giving away any of the plot). I was disappointed that he didn't. I thought the story momentarily lost focus in Kirk's scenes on Vulcan, and I thought the story would have worked even better if Kirk had gone in with a well-planned scheme, only to be one-upped by T'Prun.

The story doesn't explain Spock's statement that it is "impossible" for him to marry Kirk, While I would have liked to know the reason for Spock's declaration, I think that because Spock accepted the logic of the arranged marriage, he would not have chosen a quickie marriage to Kirk as a way out of his problem even if it had been possible. Thus, it wasn't necessary to the story that marriage to Kirk was "impossible" for some unknown reason.