time, most readers incapable of accepting the ideas she proposes, because they were far too radical or ahead of their time. Kraith took a different turn with the input of Sondra Marshak as Lichtenberg's chief collaborator. One of Lichtenberg's plot arcs concerned the idea that Kirk, having been in contact with a number of telepathic alien species, had gained telepathy. In order learn control and proper use of his new abilities he came to Vulcan to attend a psychic school. For this and other reasons, some politically complex, he was then adopted by Sarek and educated in the Vulcan way of life. This education had occasionally involved a "Warder-Liege compact" between Kirk and Spock, in which Kirk accepted Spock as his mentor and obeyed his commands (or vice versa, as in the Kraith novel Federation Centennial). Marshak, seeing plot possibilities in the Warder-Liege, and revived and expanded on its implications. Later Kraith stories are rife with BDSM undertones, and in one entry, Joan Winston's "The Maze" (published in Metamorphosis 2), Spock spanks Kirk a as punishment for disobeying an order in favor of saving Spock's life while under Warder-Liege restrictions. Legacy Although the classic Kraith stories are not slash fiction, some commentators have seen Kraith as a precursor to some forms of slash: hurt/comfort themes, and themes of emotional and mental closeness, as well as the BDSM implications later in the series, are clearly closely related to themes found in many slash works. References See also Speciesism Xenophobia 1969 short stories Star Trek fan fiction