Star Tripper

Fanfiction
Title:	Star Tripper
Author(s):	Dovya Blacque
Date(s):	1987
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Star Tripper is a Kirk/Spock story by Dovya Blacque.

It was published in the print zines First Time #9 and Shadows in the Rain.

Summary

"A/U: One year after Spock takes a position on Vulcan at the end of the 5 year mission, he returns to Earth and finds, through Kirk's neighbor, that Kirk's lonliness surpasses his own."

Reactions and Reviews

1987

STAR TRIPPER by Dovya Blacque is a sweet mood piece of Kirk and Spock reunited after a long separation, written in Ms. Blacque's poetic style. Exactly what you've been looking for before the fire with a bottle of wine, the zine and yourself.

1997

Since I reviewed two other Dovya Blacque stories, somewhat critically [in A Gathering of Blacque] I thought I'd also comment on one of my favorite K/S stories, Star Tripper, as proof that I really am a big Blacque fen. (It used to be on my top ten list, but there's been so much excellent K/S published lately that I now put it in the top twenty.)

Star Tripper is written in first person Spock perspective, in my opinion one of the hardest povs to write. It's difficult to get the correct mix of logic thaf s inherent in the character, and the emotion thafs necessary for a good story. But Dovya manages to make it look easy.

After the five year mission, Kirk is assigned an important post with Starfleeton Earth, and Spock is sent to establish a branch of the Academy on Vulcan. As Kirk puts it, "...you and I are going to be two of the most powerful men in Starfleet. We should both be happy."

But in a powerfully written opening scene, it's clear that neither one of them are happy, and it's primarily because they will be separated for at least a year. One of the charms of this story is that they actually admit their dependency to each other, before the inevitable separation.

In one year (or as Spock puts it, "It had been 11 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 13 hours and 7.4 minutes from the time I had turned from Jim in front of 'Fleet H.Q. until the time I sat in his office awaiting his return from a luncheon meeting.") Spock comes back to Earth, with a recommendation for his superior and a personal need to see Kirk. It's all very low key, Kirk acting strangely subdued as Spock appears in his office, and even when they later go out for dinner together. There's a marvelous sequence where they later travel towards their respective quarters on a cable car, when Kirk asks his friend to join him for the weekend at a cabin he has in the Rocky Mountains, that ends this way; "He (Kirk) smiled and backed away as the car started forward, up the hill. He stood alone on the sidewalk in the light of a street lamp, eyes rooted to mine until he could not possibly have distinguished me from the bulk of the car. I lowered the hand I had not realized I had raised and went back inside."

I know several K/Sers who really like this story, and others who don't see its value. It's true that Star Tripper does get domestic once the fellows are up in the Rockies, with them making spaghetti together, and tearing up because of the strong onions. They entertain guests for dinner, friends of Jim's, and it's the woman's questions while she and Spock are cleaning up (while Jim and her husband are checking out an aircar engine - now is that stereotyping of our characters or what?) that give Spock the courage to toast his captain; "To love." That starts the ball rolling nicely, and leads to a brief but satisfying sex scene. "Stars exploded in my head, my sight went very, very green"

I have never liked the Gayle F picture that accompanies this story. Its style does not complement Star Tripper at all. The story is simply written, even understated, and concerns itself with the ordinary details of living. The picture, like most of Gayle's work, is brash and bold and slightly out-of-this-reality. And yet it's obvious that the story was written for the picture or vice versa, since the sex scene is an exact match for the picture.

Star Tripper is nice, quiet, really sincere K/S that I can relate to, that makes the characters come alive. I love this story.