The Kraith stories are a well-known set of early Star Trek fan fiction. The earliest entries were written by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (best known for her later professionally-published Sime~Gen Universe novels) starting in 1969. These continuing through the first few years after the cancellation of the first Star Trek series. The stories are named after the kraith, a goblet or chalice used in the performance of certain Vulcan rituals which feature prominently in several of the stories. Background The first few stories, beginning with "Spock's Affirmation", were published in the T Negative fanzine, a publication edited by Ruth Berman.' in T-Negative 8. As interest grew, later stories were published in a wider range of outlets, and other authors began to make contributions to the sequence of stories. Over fifty amateur and professional authors have contributed to Kraith. The series' emphasis on stories with sociological, psychological and emotional plotlines had an impact on Star Trek fan fiction. A high proportion of early contributors to the Kraith storyline were women, and this has continued to be reflected in the high proportion of female fan writers. Plot The story of Kraith is ostensibly concerned with Spock finding a wife. The series, however, set out to question the presentation, in Star Trek, of humans as the dominant race throughout the galaxy. James Kirk was shown as imposing not only human values, but specifically 20th century American values on them, supposedly for their own good or to save them from being conquered by the Klingons. Lichtenberg's stories showed this as reflecting the overall attitude of the Earth-dominated Federation toward unaffiliated and member worlds, which other cultures and species, which would have different values and might reject capitalism, would object to. Vulcan, with its monoculture derived from the Reforms of Surak, has been affected by contact with other races. Many Vulcans in the stories feel the changes are not for the better. A major plot arc concerns a proposal that Vulcan secede from the Federation. It is officially voted down, but there are still many who agree with the idea. Lichtenberg's goal was to show that the Vulcan culture we saw on the show was not perfect, and that contact with other civilizations would help post-Reform culture evolve from its present, static form, to "what it ought to become". The friendship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy became a microcosm reflecting these changes. Lichtenberg believed that, at the