The Still Centre

Fanfiction
Title:	The Still Centre
Author(s):	Eva Stuart
Date(s):	1983
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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The Still Centre is a Kirk/Spock story by Eva Stuart.

Prequel: The Visit. Sequel: The Legacy.

It was published in the print zine The Voice #2.

Series

In order of publication, possibly not in fictional chronological order:

• The Sun Rising (Classified Assignments #1) (1981)
• The Anniversary (Classified Assignments #2) (1982)
• Love's War (Classified Assignments #2) (1982)
• Legacy (The Voice #1) (1982)

• The Solution (Classified Assignments #2) (1982)
• The Still Centre (The Voice #2) (1983)
• Patterns (T'hy'la #3) (1983)
• Winter Storm (The Voice #3) (1984)
• A Day in the Life (The Voice #3) (1984)
• The Visit (The Voice #4) (1985)
• The Lion and the Lamb ("touched" #5) (1985)
• The Rescue ("touched" #6) (1986)

Summary

"To help a crewman framed for a crime, Kirk and Spock go undercover in a gay enclave to find the diplomat responsible for the frame."

Reactions and Reviews

1986

The most noteable story in THE VOICE 2 is "The Still Centre" by Eva Stuart. My first observation about it, is that it shows Kirk to be uncomfortable with gay-identified men. He sees gay identity as a prison and a limitation. It means to him that you must behave in certain ways and live a certain lifestyle. The character Paul Reynolds, a local gay man on the colony planet where the story takes place, confirms this view by making such statements as "Monogamy is a straight concept." I won't argue that there aren't gay men like Eva describes in this story. There most certainly are. However, they represent a small though highly visible segment of the gay community known as clones. The gay community is actually quite diverse, but "The Still Centre" is about the milieu of clones and how Kirk and Spook deal with them. Kirk's discomfort with them arises from his ambivalence. He used to be uncommitted and have a huge multiplicity of sex partners like them. He used to enjoy cruising and being cruised, but now he feels he shouldn't due to his relationship with Spock. His fear is that his enjoyment of the highly sexualized atmosphere will draw him back into his former lifestyle that didn't include Spock. He therefore finds the clone scene personally threatening and a danger to K/S. The title of the story comes from Kirk's conviction that clonedom is far too frenetic, and that K/S is tranquil and restful compared.

Spock is far more secure than Kirk. He isn't threatened by all the cruising going on. He enjoys it when Kirk dons the clone uniform of tight jeans and t-shirt and remarks that it's " an effective costume". He doesn't care for disco music. It assaults the sensitive Vulcan ear, but he appreciates its eroticism and enjoys the dancing. He also appreciates that anonymous sex is hot. The local park had it going on all around them, so that Kirk can't evade the knowledge that it turns him on. Spock doesn't judge him for it at all.

In the most interesting scene in the story, Kirk and Spock engage in a fantasy scenario in their hotel room in which they pretend to be strangers. The sex is quick, rough and urgent, I suspect that it is the urgency that is the main appeal of anonymous sex. It is difficult to be urgent about a partner who is always there and available. Fantasy scenarios, like this one, are developed to re-awaken the sense of urgent need that made sex so hot in the beginning. From the description, I suspect that what they did was anal intercourse. Anonymous public sex is usually fellatio and mutual masturbation. Anal sex in such a context is comparatively rare. Another thing that's slightly unusual here, is Spock's passive role in the fantasy scenario and in the sex act itself.

It is statistically more common for Spock to be the dominant partner in K/S sex scenes, though there are certainly many occasions where fans show Kirk to be dominant. I suspect that the writer shows Kirk dominant here because' she sees the scenario as basically Kirk's fantasy since he's the' one who used to be into anonymous sex. I'm not so sure that all of this is so alien to Spock. He seems to be as turned on to it as Kirk is.

One problem that Spock does have in "The Still Centre'" is his concept of the separation of friends and sex partners. He notes that for clones, every man is a potential sex partner. Spock therefore wonders how they can have friends. The answer is that it's possible to see friendship and sex as parts of the same thing rather than two entirely separate phenomena. If Spock were to analyze K/S, he'd see that they aren't separate between him and Kirk either. He pretends to himself that he'd always seen Kirk exclusively as a lover and never as a friend. I don't believe this. I'm sure that Spock has always valued Kirk as a friend as well. I think that lovers must be friends for a genuine relationship to exist, and that close and intimate friends are potentially lovers —even if they never choose to explore that dimension.