To Cease Upon the Midnight

Fanfiction
Title:	To Cease Upon the Midnight
Author(s):	Vivienne Rivers
Date(s):	1984
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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To Cease Upon the Midnight is a Kirk/Spock story by Vivienne Rivers.

It was published in the print zine Locusts.. and wild honey.

Summary

"Three months after Spockʼs death Kirk realizes that although they were never technically lovers, he and Spock were bonded and now the death bond is calling him to Spock."

Reactions and Reviews

1984

I found 'To Cease Upon the Midnight' by Vivienne Rivers a most chilling tale. At first sight deceptively simple, it becomes more complex with each subsequent reading. It is difficult to review without exposing too much of the plot and, anyway, I think each reader may have to come to his own conclusion.

It did pose some unanswered questions for me. Wore Kirk and Spock supposed to have been bonded? If not, were they so close that a natural bond has grown between them? The first premise is not mentioned, and indeed, from Kirk's revelation that they were were never lovers, seems unlikely, so I am assuming the latter to account for the strength of the force disrupting Kirk. Set three months after Spock's death, the plot concerns Kirk's strange mental and emotional experiences which McCoy understandably attributes to grief. There is more to it than that though. Some force seems to he pulling Kirk away from life and there is nothing he can do about it (even supposing he wants to), except perhaps heed Spock's last words to him, "Don't grieve, Admiral!" Which Kirk now sees as a warning. If he is right, it must prove, as did Spock's sacrifice, that Spock is not intentionally, pulling Kirk towards him.. Yet it must surely be a useless warning, for how could Kirk possibly not grieve? There is no eagerly sought reunion then, but one to which Kirk is doomed; and the writer has him move through the story in a trance-like atmosphere which adds to the chill. We are comforted little at the end, when Kirk regains peace, but my main sympathies were for McCoy who fate has just kicked again. A powerful and disturbing story.

1990

A difficult story to review without giving away too much, it is set after ST-WOK. It focuses on Kirk's resumption of a "normal" life. Believable, with this author's customary attention to the details that make her characters real. I like this story very much.