The Hectic in My Blood

Fanfiction
Title:	The Hectic in My Blood
Author(s):	Audrey Baker
Date(s):	drawerfic, then 1977 when it was printed in a zine
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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The Hectic in My Blood is a Kirk/Spock story by Audrey Baker.

This story was originally a privately circulated story from the late 1960s to 1972. It was then printed in Deep Grope.

Reactions and Reviews

"The Hectic in my Blood," might be called a vampire story, of sorts at least. Spock is infected with a virus 'that produces in its victims a condition much like vampirism, although it, was never stated that they had to keep out of sunlight, whether they could live forever on the blood of their victims or if the ol stake through the heart bit was the only way to kill one. Anyway, Spock chooses Kirk as his victim and must decide whether to die from eventual loss of blood, kill Spock to save himself, or risk death for both by choosing to undergo an ordeal on a a planet called Sulhail Hadar whose heat is enough to kill the virus in Spock but unfortunately manages to kill most of the victims who attempt the ordeal. The plot might have suffered a bit because of addition of the vampire stuff ... makes it seem oh, somehow a bit hokey, but the final few sequences build to a nice ending that would have satisfied any script writer for the show.

...serious good piece of fiction by Audrey Baker called 'The Hectic in My Blood.' The latter has to do with a vampire virus that inhabits Spock, causing him to seek out his nearest and dearest to gnaw on -- and in this case, Kirk. Their problems with this affliction and the stalwart and forthright handling of the only cure almost make up for a weak and trite ending.

But the best thing about this issue of GROPE, & the next issue also, is the long K/S story by Audrey Baker. In "The Hectic in My Blood", Spock visits a Vulcan colony-planet in order to conduct some tests on a new device. A dust storm traps him and T'Sia, a colony scientist, alone together in their hut. While Spock sleeps, T'Sia leans over him & breathes up his nostrils for a few seconds, which renders him unconscious. Then she opens a vein in his arm & drinks his blood. It is a sexual experience for her; she reaches orgasm. After it is all over, she explains to Spock that she is a vampire, as are all the colonists, infected by a virus that lives in the air of their planet. The "virus" forces its infected hosts to drink the blood of others & infect them as well. There are only two cures: to starve the virus to death—but not even Vulcans can resist the desire to feed—or to be taken to the fiery furnaces of Sulhail Hadar, which will force the virus to leave its host. But no one who ever tried this cure has yet returned: the virus drives the infected ones mad so that they struggle with & destroy their helpers & themselves. She tells Spock that "The one thou goest to bite will be the one to whom thou art most drawn. So men feed from women & women from men...", any man who pleases them. She explains that the virus only infects Vulcans, & warns that any alien upon whom Spock feeds will die—unless he feeds upon an already-infected Vulcan. Only the person whom Spock trusts the most & to whom he is the closest—his victim, in other words—can take him to the fires of Sulhail Hadar. Spock asks if it must be a woman; T'Sia awkwardly explains the sexual aspect... [three pages of dense description snipped] ... I must admit that I appreciate the fact that Audrey never descends into maudlin, mawkish, overdone dialogue, & always lets Kirk's & Spock's actions speak for themselves. Other fannish writers might have had, for example, Kirk & Spock endlessly discussing the coming trip to Sulhail Hadar, or their course of action when they arrived, thus weakening--crippling--the action & the entire story. She does not try to squeeze a situation for everything it is worth, exploiting it & the reader, & thus she manages to write a strong, pointed tale, full of emotion the more genuine because it is not spell out in every detail. I hope that one day we may be privileged to read all her stories that have never been used in a zine.

This is followed by the zine's heavy piece, Audrey Baker's "The Hectic in My Blood." It is an unusual Kirk/Spock story, and a rather ambitious one, dealing competently with the Freudian implications of vampirism. It's never satisfactorily explained, though, why the conditions of the 'cure' cannot be duplicated outside Sulhail Hadar, and the demonstration of Kirk's willingness to follow Spock into Hell is rather too literal--the devils are unnecessary and add nothing to the story. On the whole, a smoothly written honorable effort.