8

REAL MEN - Q.S. Pongee

Kirk stormed into the smoky computer center, bellowing for Spock, hurling random curses at frightened crew scurrying from his path He stopped at a partially dismantled console and delivered a swift, hard kick to the soot-streaked metallic housing startling both the Commander and the technician working closely inside. The needle-point solder skidded across the tiny component under repair and burned a neat hole into Spock's wrist. His only reactions were clenched teeth and a sudden, audible inhalation. Horrified by his mistake, the sweating technician snatched at the solder clumsily, managing to burn himself in the process.

ACROSS THE NIGHT - Alice Hooker

Lifting off the sweaty body, the tall lean figure rose silently and crossed into the bathroom; flickering torchlight and pale moonbeams pouring in through an open window illuminating the way.

A swift, efficient clean up, he paused before the mirror and peered closer, idly stroking his sleek beard, a wistful sigh escaped into the balmy air. Soon it would be gone, and he would be gone, leaving this universe that for all its harsh reality, he called home.

A FINE MADNESS - Karla Kelly

Madness.

Spock paced restlessly in the small room, deliberately not looking through the one-way mirror to the other side. Madness, he repeated. Already he could feel the flames of pon farr licking at his controls. If only T'Pring had not challenged . . . . Stop this. What-ifs are illogical and futile.

DRAGON'S CHIMERA - Shelley Butler

In the dream, Spock was his alternate. He took the form of his twin from the parallel universe that embodied goodness; the universe that embraced purity; the universe that allowed love. In this sanctified universe, Spock was no longer damned. Not that he believed in Hell or Heaven in any form, but he was damned.

Damned never to feel the muscular arms around him. Damned never to taste from the lips of their quintessential human flavor. Damned never to take that fine, strong body to its deserved heights of passion. Damned never to be loved by the one being in any universe whom Spock desired. Yes, damned nevertheless.

And the chains that surrounded Kirk in the dream were the very chains that surrounded Spock's heart to forever keep him from that love.

POETRY by

COVERS by

ART by

September 1993