36

THE TIRIZAN - J.S. Cavalcante

I met him at a diplomatic reception on Rigel Seven. Not the most prepossessing of places to meet someone you're going to fall hopelessly in love with. But that's where it was. And he was the most unbelievably sexy man I'd ever come across.

Which is saying a lot. I've been to fifteen planets in just the last two months. I've shaken more hands, and rubbed more noses, and stroked more feathers, and tentacles, and what-have-you in the last two months than in the rest of my life put together.

Did I mention he's in Starfleet? That was the other thing that surprised the hell out of me. I've never gone for a guy in uniform before. They've never been my type.

SURVEILLANCE - Elizabeth Scott

The image of Admiral Robert Morrow chuckled from the comm screen in Kirk's quarters.

"You know, righteous indignation really doesn't become you, Jim. Much as you protest, I can already see that swashbuckling mind of yours working overtime to solve this entire mess. But yes, all we want you to do is spend a nice, leisurely two weeks holding down the surveillance until we can get clandestine operations there."

"Why us? I've got any of four hundred twenty-odd folks who could babysit as well."

CLICHES - Pandora H.

"You do understand the logistics, my son?"

"Mmm, sounds interesting," murmured a seductive voice in his ear as a pair of gold-clad arms encircled him.

"The meld must only in instigated at the optimum point, for if orgasm is not shared the bond will be incomplete. Your control at this time will be responsible for the strength of the resultant bond."

"Yes, father," Spock replied, thankful the hook-up was only audio. "Thank you for supplying the information."

"I hope this is not a precipitous decision on your part, Spock."

"Precipitous!" snorted his lover in disgust.

THE BET - Karla Kelly

"Damn it, Spock, don't Vulcans ever...." His voice trailed off. Of course Vulcans did not walk about with a hard-on, but damn it! I'm only human.

THE CONVERSATION - Jamie Belle

"Spock, I'd like to talk with you sometime."

"What is the topic you wish to discuss?"

"Ah...let's say it's...human biology...with maybe a touch of human psychology thrown in for good measure.

"'Thrown in for good measure.' Another idiom I comprehend but fail to understand.

Indeed, it is hard to separate the biological and mental processes of a human. Will you be more specific? Or would that constitute starting the conversation?"

DON'T YOU REMEMBER? - Kathy Stanis

"Jim, Spock. You used to call me Jim. Don't you remember?"

Shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh with his resurrected Vulcan on the crowded city bus, now free of discordant noise and travelling at an oddly relaxing pace across the Golden Gate, Jim Kirk tuned out for a moment the sense in his pulse of a time-bomb ticking and stared at Spock's hands, calm and still against white cloth. He wanted to touch them.

LOOK TO THE HEART - Judith Coventry

Sickbay was finally quiet with the lights dimmed for sleep. Amanda shifted in her chair, making herself comfortable. She looked briefly up at her husband, and frowned. This had been much too close for her liking, almost losing them Spock and Sarek.

She glanced toward the other occupied bed. How could she thank him for what he had done? No one said it, but she sensed the young Captain had probably been only a heart beat away from death because of that little escapade on the bridge...and all for her son.

THE NEED FOR STARS - Carolyn Spencer

But my favorite, the one that recurred most often, was the vision of Spock lying among a bed of stars. The silken black hair grown long enough to reach to his ankles was the only garment he wore. And the stars were shining in, and through his long, black hair. Or maybe his hair was made up of stars. His legs were spread for me. Arms flung wide. Face, contorted and so open in his passion. Body writhing in sexual abandon. Again he would offer not only his body, but his heart and mind and soul as precious gifts for us to share. Here in this forever place of dreams, where there was no past and no future. I was able to accept them.

And I finally knew all of him.

Spock, among the stars. Where he was meant to be. Where we were both meant to be.

SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT - Kay Wells

Totally unable to speak, Kirk sat staring at Uhura, her words ringing in his ears and echoing through his numbed brain. They'd hardly had time to catch their breaths and were being ordered to return to headquarters immediately to be decommissioned. Tears wells up in his eyes; if he blinked his image would be shattered with the bursting dam of emotions pushed too far.

Recent events had been overwhelming.

It was Spock who broke the silence, speaking in clear, precisely measured words. "If I were human...I would tell them to go to hell...if I were human."

POETRY

COVERS

ART

July 1993