Triptych (Star Trek: TOS story)

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Triptych
Author(s):	Rosemarie Heaton
Date(s):	2003
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Triptych is a Kirk/Spock story by Rosemarie Heaton.

It was published in the print zine Prophets in the Wilderness.

Summary

"Kirk and Spockʼs relationship seen through the eyes of a former lover of Kirk, Kirk himself, and Spock."

Reactions and Reviews

A view of Kirk and Spock from one of Kirk's old girlfriends, recognising the love between our heroes, followed by Spock's own story from his personal log, then Kirk's. Nothing new here, I guess. Nothing to complain about, either.

“Triptych” has a different sort of format. An exploration of why Spock left for Gol and Kirk accepted the promotion to admiral, and then their reunion due to V’Ger is told from three perspectives. First there’s Sami‘s POV. Sami is a former lover of Kirk’s who is posted to the Enterprise, and she observes Kirk and Spock together over the years of the mission, and then once again after V’Ger when the Enterprise is starting another 5 year mission. Next is Spock’s POV, which fills in some of the blanks from Sami’s narrative, and finally Kirk’s story is last, and all the pieces of the puzzle are in place. Gaps in the previous two narratives are explained, we gain more insight into the events in the story, and there’s a hopeful conclusion to the story.

This way to explore the theme using different perspectives is something a little different, I thought. Also, I don’t recall reading before in a K/S story of the incident in the Tholian web being a catalyst for Kirk to end his relationship with Spock because Spock had almost destroyed his ship and crew on the small chance of saving him. (Usually if the Tholian incident is used in a story, the knowledge of how close Kirk came to death is the catalyst for Kirk and/or Spock to realize how they feel about each other, or having the courage to declare their love. The outcome here was decidedly different!) Also, one problem of K/S stories set during the years of the mission shown on the TV show is that if Kirk and Spock are lovers, how do you explain Kirk’s behavior with Rayna? Well, the estrangement between Kirk and Spock here handily solves that problem, and any chance of a reconciliation is finished when Kirk finds out about Spock’s mindmeld in which he removed Kirk’s memories. The whole sequence of events thus explains why Spock left for Gol and Kirk accepted promotion. A familiar theme, but given a new slant here.

The first person POV is used very effectively in this story to examine Kirk and Spock’s relationship, and the writing style is lovely. I especially like the writing of Spock’s part of the narrative. I enjoyed this.