Transparent
| K/S Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Transparent |
| Author(s): | Deanna Gray |
| Date(s): | 1999 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| External Links: | |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Transparent is a Kirk/Spock story by Deanna Gray.
It was published in the print zine First Time #49.
Summary
"Spock becomes invisible when caught in an explosion during at a lab experiment and is blackmailed by Intelligence to stay with them by threatening Kirk's career."
Reactions and Reviews
Now this is entertainment! Yes, I'll admit it, I like plot and drama and a touch of all the things that make Kirk and Spock who they are. "Transparent" has them all. There has never been a more intriguing premise as this invisibility experiment gone awry. The idea of a whole laboratory, reported as having been disintegrated, but in reality having been rendered invisible, is fascinating. Envision Kirk, told that Spock was in the center of the explosion, wandering the outer perimeters of the scene, stumbling through rubble, refusing to believe that his First Officer is dead. Imagine that same tortured Human walking to the center, now apparently a dusty crater, trying to convince himself that all is lost and bumping into something solid and unseen. It takes hours of scrambling through obstacles that he cannot see before Kirk finally finds what he seeks. Spock. Also transparent. Imagine being a medical professional trying to treat someone terribly injured when you cannot see your patient This is the setup for a K/S drama unlike any other. We experience the pain Kirk feels as he waits to learn if his friend can be saved, and then the trauma they both face when the invisibility is pronounced to be very likely permanent. There is beauty in the story as well, and subtle humor. At one point, Spock has undergone all the testing and prodding he can tolerate and decides to escape the Starbase sickbay where he is being analyzed. But how? Ah! Leaving his patient coverall behind, he slips naked into the corridors of the busy space center. Isn't that the most incredible image? Spock striding along in all his glory, ignored by one and all. But suddenly a familiar figure steps into sight. Instinctively, Spock falls into step behind the sturdy human. Kirk falters, starts to look behind him, and then realizes what is happening and walks confidently to his quarters, holding the door open for Spock when they arrive. They both know that Spock will have to return the next day for more debriefing, but this night is theirs. They snuggle into the small bed, Kirk relishing the warmth of the unseen Vulcan he had thought lost forever. As he basks in the closeness, he succumbs to the overwhelming need to touch his slumbering friend. And touch he does, reveling in every centimeter of invisible Vulcan flesh. Too soon, he realizes the intimacy of his exploration and turns away, his feelings roiling. If you haven't yet read this, I hate to tell you every detail. That's Deanna's job and she does it exceedingly well. Especially the love scene. Steamy doesnt begin to describe the ultimate meeting of Human and Vulcan flesh. Standing alone it would excite and warm you, but wrapped in this ingenious plot, it makes you tremble as you experience the slowly revealed desire and the exquisite joining. It sizzles! It conveys everything that makes you love K/S. This is, after all, a love story of great beauty.[1]
I really enjoyed this story. It worked well for me because it handled a really tricky idea—that of invisibility, very convincingly. A story like this could so easily have been unintentionally funny or get bogged down in technical details. There were funny moments, like when Jim is shocked to realise he's been followed through the corridors by a naked, though invisible, Spock. There were serious moments like when Spock tries to refuse to become involved in espionage. The love scene, which with one partner invisible, could so easily have been comic, was instead sexy and loving. My only niggle is that it ends too quickly, ifs just a little too convenient when Spock returns to visibility. However ifs a well written story which I would recommend to others. Thanks Deanna. [2]
Something kept nagging at me—something kept intruding to the exclusion of all else and that something was that section dealing with blackmail—the attempted and successful blackmail of Spock. Not so much the attempt itself, you can always try, but the way Richler goes about it, I find highly unlikely; unless he's blundering; but the fact that it actually succeeds is beyond me.We tend to forget that Spock is a scion of one of the most influential and wealthy clans of Vulcan. The grandson of T'Pau, head of the ailing counsel, son of Sarek and in all likelihood destined to play an important part in Vulcan's politics, if not immediately than in the distant future. In other words he has clout just by being whom he is.
As a Starfleet officer, the second in command of the Enterprise, the fleetship of Starfleet and a brilliant scientist to boot, he has a very high profile all by himself, not to mention that he's one of the very few Vulcans in Starfleet which would've drawn even more attention.
And for Richler to blunder into that in such a way? And for Spock to foil for it without much ado, is totally incomprehensible. The scenario is unbelievable.
Besides, if there was the tiniest possibility that an attempted blackmail would've a chance to succeed based upon their legendary friendship, Kirk and Spock would've foreseen it and taken the appropriate steps to deal with the eventuality. [3]
This was an interesting story with an unusual twist. Spock is rendered invisible during a research accident. This upsets Kirk and intrigues the Star Fleet version of the CIA. Two story lines develop as the relationship between Kirk and Spock grows as well as the attempts to keep Spock out of the nefarious clutches of covert ops. It was clever idea and the author used it to good effect. [4]
Another fully-packed story from this amazingly prolific author. I am awed by and applaud her writing so many stories so inventively. And with such love of K/S. I want her muse.This is an inventive plot, to be sure. Naturally, invisibility is a bit difficult to envision, so there were inherent problems which Deanna handled more than well. I've always liked this idea (thinking, for instance, of the Scalosian episode) of one of them being temporarily invisible, and this was done with real creativity here. Besides lots of interesting plot details and characters, jazzy and believable technology, exciting action and some really legitimate (?--the opposite of gratuitous) jeopardy, there were such satisfying emotional aspects to the story, where both Kirk and Spock have feelings but also hesitations, and misunderstandings prevent them from coming together. In the end we have a deliciously masterful Spock, too. (I guess we can tell what Deanna's preference is, as to the "question of the month.") The "transparent" metaphor/theme was handled nicely at the end, I thought, without being heavy- handed. I'm finding the technique of using italicized thoughts excessively to be distracting. This is far from the only place I've seen this lately, so I've written about it in Roundtable instead of here. Here's a really charming moment: when Kirk just knows the invisible Spock is there nearby when he, Kirk, is having it out with the Intelligence goons, without giving a hint of this to the goons or to us before he says, come on in, Spock. Darling. Of course, to be invisible, Spock has to be naked, so this certainly adds a fun and sexy element. Little if anything was mentioned, though, when we were in Spock's head, about how he feels seeing Kirk without being seen. However...it's almost too weird having sex with an invisible person, wouldn't you say? I loved all of it (including the first night of touching, unacknowledged in the morning), except it became difficult to grasp. I know this was a very challenging thing to write, half-invisible sex, but it was just too odd to try to picture, for instance, Kirk seeing his penis inside Spock. It made me think too much about things such as, would Spock's semen, and other bodily stuff, be invisible when it exits his body, or what? However, I say you go girl anyway, because this was quite a story.
I liked how it was described when Spock starts to reappear; and the end is short and sweet and perfect. [5]
During an experiment conducted by Starfleet, Spock is rendered invisible. There’s some intrigue and political dealings involved in the project, but all that’s kind of uneven at best.What’s not uneven and what’s absolutely gorgeous is Kirk’s awakening love for Spock and their eventual relationship. When Kirk thinks Spock is dead, it’s wonderfully sad and the scene when Kirk finds him in the rubble is heart-rending. But the best part of the story is most of the second half when Kirk understands his love for Spock. Spock’s invisibility creates a need for Kirk to touch him and his need grows into sexual desire. The intensity of this need was shown achingly beautiful as he slowly caressed Spock’s face and body in the dark. Wonderful, too, was the idea that it didn’t matter that Spock was invisible—he wasn’t invisible to Kirk who could see him in his heart and mind. (Aargh! Did I read that Spock has no testicles? Help!) This pivotal scene leads to their confession of love with some truly passionate erotic love-making. This author writes some really fabulous hot sex scenes—some of the best ever. The emotional intensity and love is there as strong as the sexual desire. The only thing that does not ring true is Spock’s sudden, out-of-the-blue role as sexual aggressor. Spock takes command, coming to Kirk’s quarters and surprising him. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (!) but the whole rest of the story portrayed him as anything but a forceful, sexual being. That quibble aside, this lovemaking scene is so filled with cosmic passion and thrash-on-the-carpet sex that I would have nominated it for Best Of The Best..., but then I couldn’t decide which part to show and then I’d have to repeat all of it! And I loved the way Spock becomes visible—it’s so clever—first the veins with blood and the circulatory system. Then his internal organs and muscles show up! McCoy and Spock won’t let Kirk see him that way because Kirk had already freaked out when he saw Spock drink some juice!
All I can say is that this author had better keep writing because I and many others hope there’s many more where this came from. [6]
One of my favorite Deanna Gray stories. Lots of emotion in this one as Kirk searches for his missing and presumed dead first officer. And talk about unique...a love scene with only one person visible! Vivid writing, an exciting plot, and one more reason why newcomers to our fandom should seek out this writer’s name in a zine. [7]
Consider the erotic possibilities when Spock is rendered invisible by an experiment gone awry. That’s what Deanna Gray did in this engrossing piece. She took the trouble to engineer a plausible reason why Spock couldn’t be seen, too, and as a reader I appreciated that so much. I did wonder about the assertion that Spock couldn’t see himself, but I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying the story. As Kirk and Spock deal with this problem, they fall in love, of course. All the characterizations were very believable in this story, and the smarmy Intelligence officer was great. I would have preferred for Kirk and Spock to have solved the invisibility problem themselves; in the story Spock just happened to return to visibility, and that was explained away as a result of the radiation treatments McCoy had given him earlier. But Kirk and Spock did solve the romantic problem by themselves, creating a sweet and loving first timer, and showing that what was really transparent was their love for each other. The love scene, taking place as it did when Spock was still invisible, was highly evocative, not to mention erotic. The mind meld was a perfect climactic touch: “I want to see you. Spock, I need to see you.” Kirk sobbed as wondrous sensations peaked even higher. “Look inside yourself,” Spock grunted. “Look within your mind and see me.” And then Spock gives him a mental image of their lovemaking. Really a nice scene. I’m looking forward to reading more of this author’s work. [8]
“Transparent” is another wonderful story from First Time 49, written by Deanna Gray. Boy, does this woman have an imagination! Trust her to come up with one of the most unusual plots ever used in a K/S story and one of the more bizarre love scenes I’ve ever read in K/S! It all makes for a most unusual and engrossing story, written with Deanna’s inimitable style and flare.A scientific experiment gone horribly awry has caused an explosion on a starbase where the Enterprise had gone for repairs, supplies, and a few days of shore leave. Spock had taken shore leave for a change, but no one knew where he was until they get a call from the base commander. Spock had been helping the base scientists with a project, was in the lab when it blew apart, and was believed to be dead. Kirk absolutely refuses to believe Spock is dead without seeing the body, and demands to be taken to the lab. Once there he bumps into an invisible barrier and discovers the lab and all its contents is invisible. Eventually after much searching Kirk discovers Spock lying unconscious—he is badly injured but alive, and also invisible! Things get even more complicated when the Federation Intelligence Corps (the FIC seems similar to our CIA) demands Spock transfer to their operation. They are very interested in the possibilities of having an invisible operative, as you can imagine, and coerce Spock to agree by threatening to sabotage Kirk’s career. I loved Deanna’s portrayal of Kirk and the whole gamut of emotions she puts him through. This is the quintessential Captain James T. Kirk! He demands to know what the experiment that Spock was working on involved, refuses to take no for an answer from the base commander and gets the whole story out of her even though it‘s classified top secret. (Kirk had spent his shore leave with the woman, yet I love how he immediately changes from lover to Captain James T. Kirk, Starship Captain, when Spock is in danger. He becomes all business and is very single minded in his determination to find Spock, and later on, to protect Spock.) Kirk is furious with Spock for agreeing to work on the project because he almost died, and becomes very possessive and protective of Spock. In the story, Spock briefly escapes from where he is being tested and debriefed by the simple means of taking off his clothes and sneaking out the door. I loved that Kirk immediately sensed when Spock was near him. Kirk gives Spock refuge for the night from everyone looking for him (mainly the FIC) and of course they must share the single bed! This leads to an interesting scene where Kirk, feeling isolated and closed off from Spock since he can’t see him, starts to gently touch his face and body. Spock is asleep (or so Kirk thinks) and so Kirk’s touches become more intimate before he guiltily realizes what he is doing and stops. Kirk’s actions lead to much contemplation and reflection until he realizes he is in love with Spock. Spock has been in love with his captain for some time, and this secretive encounter gives him the courage to come to Kirk in the night.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Deanna Gray story without a sizzling hot love scene, and Deanna does not disappoint. This one takes place while Spock is still invisible, which makes it quite bizarre but completely erotic! (Spock is penetrated by Kirk in the love scene, but while sitting on Kirk, and the way Deanna describes how that looks since Spock is invisible really has to be read, I can’t describe it!) Deanna has outdone herself with this one and I enjoyed this unusual story. [9]