Out of the Rock

Fanfiction
Title:	Out of the Rock
Author(s):	Martha Selena Brown
Date(s):	1987
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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Out of the Rock is a K/S story by Martha Selena Brown.

It was published in the print zine As I Do Thee #9.

Summary

"After V'ger, Spock has difficulty dealing with the lessons learned from the probe. For Kirk, a new understanding of his friend and of himself leads him to help Spock acclimate to his new-found self."

Reactions and Reviews

1987

"OUT OF THE ROCK" by Martha Selena Brown was the first-place winner. It takes place just after the Vger incident. This was so rich, and got to my heart, the re interpretation of lines from the movie and the exploration of the "this simple feeling" scene. The interpretation of the drawing in this story was a fantastic dream-sequence, Kirk's dream, of pulling Spock out of rock, but then Spock is bleeding to death and rfs up to Kirk to help him grow new skin. Spock in reality is needing to learn to live with his feelings and Kirk will help him learn the human ways of dealing with feelings. Melds are used in an interesting way here, for Kirk to "feel" things and show Spock how he deals with it. McCoy is there, to observe and scan, and there's a cute ploy he uses that stimulates a very real feeling in Kirk, and Spock of course gets the message. Some really lovely scenes, their discovering their love and acting on it. Beautiful. Here's a line I loved, about Kirk: "the one part of him not trembling and uncertain." And one of Spock's: in their lonely years apart from each other, on Gol, he dreamed not of Kirk, but of "everything cool and life-giving, and told myself I hadn't dreamed of you." Nice sex, fine intensity, but one thing I personally never care for in K/S sex is sucking cock "like a baby at the breast." We could just say it's like sucking a breast if we want to, but not like a baby doing so.

1989

This story placed first in the AIDT 9 story contest, and the reason for that is evident. It's stylistically superb. Any poet would definitely appreciate the language that Martha uses. There's also some wonderful telepathic interplay. Nevertheless, I would prefer to see originality of plot, and this story isn't nearly as interesting plot-wise as several other stories in that issue.

This story may have gone on a little too long, and I also found it difficult to believe that Kirk and Spock went over a week without any personal conversation. Nevertheless, ST:TMP stories always fascinate me, particularly when they pertain to Spock's newly acquired feelings. It was a very innovative idea having him discover how to suppress emotions, instead of the usual theme of having him learn how to express them, and that was very well depicted. I feel the story should have ended with the first sex scene, and that the bonding part wasn't necessary. This was a very poetic interpretation of the of the illo for the contest.

When I began re-reading this one in order to write this LOC, I kept thinking, "This is the one, isn't it?" and sure enough, there it was, the scene that had stuck in my mind since the first time I read it. The one where McCoy very casually mentions the lover's gossip while Kirk and Spock are engaged in a meld. I've loved that particular scene since I first read it and often that is enough to sell me on an entire story. I also liked Kirk's sadness before the meld that followed that it would be their last meld. And as a friend of mine once understated, 'The sexy bits aren't bad either.'.

This story illustrates perfectly the extreme difficulty Spock would have, not only in truly coming to terms with his emotions after a lifetime of suppressing them, but also of learning to recognize them in the first place. I also thought Kirk and McCoy were absolutely correct in concluding that if Spock didn't learn to do this reasonably soon, then he would either break or retreat permanently. Really an excellently done and believable story.

1996

Most of the stories in this zine were contest entries, stories based on a drawing by The Southern Cross. The drawing is very mysterious, a dark, organic place, or at least Spock seems to be half in the dark, and Kirk is the light. The interaction between them—Spock reaching out, Kirk holding and looking down at Spock's hand—is equally mysterious, and so is very open to interpretation. It's so interesting to see how the same visual is interpreted by different writers; K/S'ers sure do have fertile imaginations. "OUT OF THE ROCK" by Martha Selena Brown was the first-place winner. It takes place just after the Vger incident. This was so rich, and got to my heart, the re interpretation of lines from the movie and the exploration of the "this simple feeling" scene. The interpretation of the drawing in this story was a fantastic dream-sequence, Kirk's dream, of pulling Spock out of rock, but then Spock is bleeding to death and rfs up to Kirk to help him grow new skin. Spock in reality is needing to learn to live with his feelings and Kirk will help him learn the human ways of dealing with feelings. Melds are used in an interesting way here, for Kirk to "feel" things and show Spock how he deals with it. McCoy is there, to observe and scan, and there's a cute ploy he uses that stimulates a very real feeling in Kirk, and Spock of course gets the message. Some really lovely scenes, their discovering their love and acting on it. Beautiful. Here's a line I loved, about Kirk: "the one part of him not trembling and uncertain." And one of Spock's: in their lonely years apart from each other, on Gol, he dreamed not of Kirk, but of "everything cool and life-giving, and told myself I hadn't dreamed of you." Nice sex, fine intensity, but one thing I personally never care for in K/S sex is sucking cock "like a baby at the breast." We could just say it's like sucking a breast if we want to, but not like a baby doing so.

1998

This is the first place contest winner that uses the Southern Cross drawing. It’s right after V’ger and Spock is experiencing difficulty controlling his emotions. So McCoy tells Kirk that he must teach him. Kirk melds with Spock to show him human emotions. They connect beautifully and make love. Spock is free of being a prisoner in rock and has “new skin”. This is a good story and does have a very nice intensity and feeling.