Performance (Star Trek: TOS story)

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Performance
Author(s):	Diane Steiner
Date(s):	1977
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
External Links:
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Performance is a Kirk/Spock story by Diane Steiner.

It was published in the print zine Obsc'zine #1.

inside art from issue #1, Gayle F. Note: Marked as sexually explicit; minimized.

Reactions and Reviews

"Performance," by D.T. Steiner, is particularly interesting. In it, Kirk and Spock are forced into a humiliating sexual performance, an "ancient ritual", on the planet New Lesbos. They must cooperate or be killed. Spock, dressed as a whore, masturbates Kirk. Both are drugged, and McCoy is forcibly kept from interferring. Meanwhile, Spock wonders how the natives knew his feelings about Kirk.... They both reach orgasm...and Spock awakens from this wet dream in a cold sweat. He knows his dreams are caused by the unresolved tensions of pon farr. He wonders if it could be affecting Kirk too, and hopes the linkage will eventually fade. He washes...meditates...sleeps and dreams again, that he is Pegasus flying to the stars, with Bellerophon riding on his back 'his fair hair streaming in the nightwind and his golden eyes shining like sunlight...." There is more plot content, thought, characterization, and sheer beauty condensed in this vignette than there is in most novels. I grieve that Diane Steiner is lost to fandom.

I hated [it] on first reading, but subsequently I modified my opinion. She was, of course, bound by the illustration, and that was where the problem lay. I could accept Spock's sexual fantasies about Kirk, but I don't think a properly brought-up Vulcan would dream up an audience! Had the illo been simpler, only Kirk and Spock (and without the fancy dress!) I'd have liked it better. Again, though, the actual writing was excellent, and the idea of the fight inducing a semi-bonding ... now, if you could persuade her to do one from Kirk's side, as a companion piece...