Their Hearts' Revenge

Fanfiction
Title:	Their Hearts' Revenge
Author(s):	Shelley Butler
Date(s):	1996
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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Their Heart's' Revenge is a Kirk/Spock story by Shelley Butler.

It was published in the print zine First Time #44.

Summary

"After TʼPring kills Stonn, she frees a Vulcan criminal in order to secure his aid in destroying Kirk and Spock, who she realizes, love each other."

Some Author's Comments

[It is] about a crazed, hell-hath-no-fury T’Pring who sets out to destroy Spock. I really like this plot and the characters, but especially the detail—small touches of description that created a strong reality.

Reactions and Reviews

1996

I have always enjoyed this author's work, I find her writing dramatic and earthy and a wonderful read. T'Pring is out for revenge on Spock, the reason being that he dared prefer his captain to T'Pring (who wouldn't?!!?). Her hatred of Stonn only reinforces her loathing of Spock. Counterpoint to this seething hatred is the love between Kirk and Spock (and yup it has that famous (infamous?) patented Butleresque sex scene that makes one want to stand under the air conditioner (and I don't even have an air conditioner). I liked how the author delved into Vulcan mental abilities. I mean we know Vulcan's have psychic powers, but what can they really do with them? I hate giving away the punch line so I'll just say that you'll be intrigued at how T'Pring uses her powers. But of course, nothing and no one can ever defeat the love between Kirk and Spock (that's not giving away any plotlines, it's just fact). I had great fun reading this story.

This story is a departure for the author, in both content and writing style; it's such a pleasure to see an author stretching herself, trying new things. It's one reason why I love our fandom and what we're all trying to do. We challenge ourselves, we challenge each other, and it seems that we're always growing, one way or another. This story is a neat example of growth.

The story opens with a compelling scene on Vulcan, as sand filters through T'Pring's house, her life. I especially like the lines "While her husband pumped away in her, the grains of sand were pushed up inside. It was now inside her body -- she had swallowed it and defecated it." T'Pring is miserable in her life with Stonn, "a minor research scientist of minimal ambition," and her misery has changed into hatred and the need for revenge against Spock. By Vulcan standards, she is indeed insane.

The story matures into a scene between Kirk and Spock where they finally confess their love for one another, but it is curiously aborted before anything more of consequence than a kiss is exchanged. Spock says "I need time to assimilate."

That interruption allows T'Pring to work her revenge. She kills Stonn and runs away to free a powerful telepath from his confinement on Vulcan. She seeks his help against Spock. Since Starok had been imprisoned in stasis by Sarek, he is willing to wreck havoc on the son of his persecutor. (The author creates interest by not revealing Starok's crime or his abilities right away. It's not until five pages into the rescue that we learn why T'Pring is helping him escape. Good way to draw the reader into the story.) The two of them link minds and begin to mind-control Kirk.

Kirk seems to have completely forgotten his avowal of love with Spock and not only withdraws from him but appears to actively dislike him. In a series of vignettes he becomes close to a male engineering lieutenant, Spock follows them as they visit a brothel, and the captain takes a woman passenger to his bed. Spock's despair and confusion is complete, and he decides to commit suicide in an ancient ritual.

But for some reason Kirk bursts into his quarters before the knife makes its final descent, and suddenly T'Pring speaks from the lips of the captain. Spock melds with Kirk and encounters both his former bondmate and Starok in the captain's mind, and he realizes that both he and Kirk had been influenced across the galactic distances. A four way confrontation in Kirk's mind ensues as the two Vulcans attempt to destroy Kirk and Spock, who cling to one another and vow to love one another even if they must travel into eternity together. The attack fails, and back on Vulcan an enraged T'Pring attempts to claw Starok's eyes out. He turns her anger back on herself, however, and she plucks out her own eyes.

The story ends with the obligatory sex scene, (with a very nice section as "Spock held his throbbing penis achingly still inside Kirk's body" and they remember together Melkotia and The Paradise Syndrome and Janice Lester). T'Pring's punishment is complete when an apparently healthy Stonn arrives and vows to care for her forever.

This story is different for Shelley in two ways. We don't see here the dominant Spock that is often the centerpiece of her work. This Spock is much milder, vulnerable, capable of feeling betrayal and despair deeply. And the "purple prose" that also sometimes characterizes her work has been pared down considerably, almost occasionally into starkness.

And therein lies the problem with this story. I think the author went too far in the opposite direction from her usual lushness and considerable emotion. Both the structure and the emotional content of this story has been thinned to such an extent that I know I did not experience the emotional reaction the author wanted me to.

I took the time to sketch out the basic plot of the story above because I wanted to point out its tremendous potential. The relationship that Spock has yearned for, the completion that Kirk has decided he needs, is finally on the brink of happening, when it is suddenly yanked away. Imagine Spock's hurt when he sees himself replaced as regular chess partner by an unknown lieutenant, when the love he had thought was finally his is denied. Imagine the agony which forces him to contemplate suicide as his only possibility. Imagine the transformation in Kirk's mind of love to hatred, and the confusion it might have wrought in his dreams. Or nightmares. Imagine the flood of joy within the four-way meld when Kirk emerges from the hatred that had characterized his behavior for weeks (days? It's not clear to me how much time passes) and declares his love for Spock once again. Imagine the horror of plucking out one's own eyes in insanity and rage. This is one dynamite plot.

But none of these possibilities came into being for me, and I believe that's because the story is much shorter than it should have been, and because there wasn't the proper emotional set-up for either T'Pring's or Kirk and Spock's feelings. The most essential missing scene would have shown us Spock's tremendous happiness at the quivering almost-relationship with his captain. This happiness must be real, it must be finely drawn, because only then would the reader react to having that happiness pulled away as T'Pring and Starok work their evil. We have to feel the joy before it can truly contrast with the sadness. It isn't enough to depend on the K/S mythology that has built up for every zine reader. The story must show us these things, and the author can't rely on the reader to fill in the missing emotional content because of experience with other K/S stories.

Likewise, I believe we needed much more than vignettes to show us the depths of Spock's despair when Kirk turns away from him. I really needed to see that mysterious lieutenant becoming friendly with the captain, to feel the growing confusion in Spock, the dawning disbelief. Can this be true? Testing the hypothesis, getting more hurt each time. It's my opinion a gradual build-up would have been torture for the reader as well as for Spock, and would have lifted this work into the extraordinary.

That way, Spock's decision to commit suicide would have made some sort of emotional sense. At this point of the story, the author wants the reader to be absolutely aching, to totally understand Spock's confusion and be one with it, to see with Spock that suicide is the only possibility. With less than three pages of mostly-dialogue, that can't happen.

And finally, with the proper set-up in place, Spock's joy at finding Kirk again in the meld would have been blinding. With the emotional guideposts in place, I think the sex scene at the end also would have been richer, since it would have been obvious that a re-establishment of the happiness between Kirk and Spock was necessary. (I'm talking beyond the physical.) This would have brought the story full-circle, and made the ending more integrated with the rest of the story.

This is a good, well-rounded story, but it could have been an emotional roller-coaster ride with great satisfaction, providing the thump in the middle of the solar plexus for which we all long.

A few notes about drawing images together in the story. I saw two imagery systems that weren't as fully developed as they might have been. The opening sequences with the sand were so powerful that I yearned to see them extended throughout the story. We could have had the itch in T'Pring's soul compared to the itch of the sand, we could have had sand within the four-way meld instead of fog, we could have had contrasting attitudes towards sand between Spock and T'Pring. Maybe Spock feels that the coming relationship with Kirk would be like sinking deeply into the welcoming sand of his planet, that the coming bond would be like uniting himself with its warmth.

A more developed metaphor was the light that was Kirk in Spock's eyes, the golden god, and the link to T'Pring's blinding herself and depriving herself of sight forever. It would have been neat to have Spock consistently ask himself if Kirk had been blinded during the period of denial, and to have the M'al shya take place in darkness. To have the final sex scene bathed in especially ethereal light.

The two metaphor systems were there, they just weren't linked as tightly to theme and to each other as they might have been.

This story is filled with imagination and daring, written by an author who is constantly stretching her wings. Now, if only we could finally get her to write a sex scene with Kirk on top.... (But of course, it would have to be thematically integrated!)

No doubt about it, this has to be the best story Shelley has written to date. The writing is concise and compact—in your face and immediate. There is never a question of whose POV you are in at the moment and the action moves ahead at a quick, steady pace.

It would be extremely remiss of me if I didn't also mention the wonderful descriptive passages. The opening scene with T'Pring and the omnipresent sand is truly a chilling one. I know I wouldn't want to live there. Loved the name for the Vulcan suicide ritual—M'al Shya. Great touch. And the detailed description of the ritual itself was another great touch. Very reminiscent of hara-kiri, the honorable form of Japanese suicide. More about this later.

In this story, T'Pring's marriage to Stonn has not turned out exactly as she had planned. Actually, she hates it and him and blames Spock for her perfectly wretched life. Now how, you ask, can T'Pring blame Spock for all her problems, when she's the one who challenged at Koon-ut-kallifee? Don't worry about it. She's crazy, alright? Let's face it, anyone who could choose Stonn of the Dumbo ears over a young, gorgeous Spock, can't possibly be in their right mind to begin with. Right?

Anyway, without giving away too many particulars, Spock is made to suffer the agonies of the damned Spock lovers take notice. You'll love it. And as for our intrepid captain, T'Pring has made him the unwitting instrument of her revenge and a fine job he does of it too. No, I'm not going to tell you how she does it. Read the story.

Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. Poor, tortured Spock is finally driven to attempt the above mentioned M'al Shya. I must admit that I had a little trouble at this point and had to go back and reread several passages. In the end, I don't think enough explanation was given to justify Spock's actions here. He is, after all, the first officer of a starship and a Vulcan. And it was shown in "Operation Annihilate" that he is capable of withstanding a great deal of mental influence. I just don't believe his mind could be so tampered with without him becoming at least aware of it.

This one problem aside, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this story of one mad woman's revenge. And nasty me, I really enjoyed her getting her just desserts at the end. In fact, I found it quite delicious.

I would like to add one more thing and this is not a criticism, only a personal observation. Shelley, I know we've all teased you about your usual predilection for "purple prose" and it is probably politically incorrect for me to say this, but I kind of miss it. That's all I have to say. Now get started on that next story. No, not the one about the Gorn. You know the one.

2009

For most K/Srs who have been involved in this fandom for awhile, they tend to identify this particular woman as one of the most prolific and talented artists in the fandom rather than an author. Yet while it is true her artwork is far more prevalent than her stories in the world of K/S, this particular story serves as an excellent reminder that her talents are not limited to just drawing Kirk and Spock, along with their “naughty bits”.

Now for those of us who know this author personally, it comes to no surprise that she tends to be a bit…obsessed with both the Gorn and Gary Mitchell. And while these two characters haven’t shown up in her artwork, the same cannot be said for some of her stories. To be honest, since I myself really have no fondness for either the Gorn or Mitchell, I am glad to say that at least she doesn’t include them in ALL her stories. Such as this one.

This particular tale deals with the after-events of “Amok Time”. Yet while the actual events are over, the consequences arising from those events are not, least of all for the two for whom the ceremony was intended. For Spock, those consequences include the knowledge that it was never T’Pring he wanted all along – it was Kirk. Worse, he soon learns that his captain has become aware of this, as well, and isn’t quite willing to just let the matter go. And as hard as he tries, Spock realizes the same is true for himself, as well.

Yet while both men each struggle to find their way through this new revelation, they are unaware that another shares this same knowledge, someone who cannot accept it, will not accept it, and is determined to destroy them both because of it. The method chosen to do so soon has a devastating impact on one of the two men just as it seems the relationship he longed for with the other is about to become a reality. Unable to deal with the resultant agony his life has become, he decides to end it, but his efforts are thwarted at the last second by the one being in his life that matters above all others. Yet when what at first seems to be an act of prevention soon becomes something else, he soon realizes how much the other truly hates him. It is a hatred he cannot comprehend and only until that hatred becomes almost overwhelming is the truth finally revealed. The one responsible for the misery his life has become is not his beloved, but another who has used one of his race’s most unique gifts in an attempt to destroy them both. It is something he cannot allow to happen, but the only way for him to succeed is to engage the other in battle, a battle that will be fought in the mind of his beloved. It is a battle he cannot afford to lose, for to do so means the end of life for him and the one he loves. But if it is won, there is a chance that the life he longs for with his beloved will become a reality.

This story really is the complete package – an intriguing plot with lots of twists and turns, plenty of angst, and a rather surprising ending – all of which are guaranteed to keep the reader on the end of her seat until the final page is turned. One of this author’s best.