String Theory (Spock/Kirk AOS)

Spending time with James T. Kirk is very similar, Spock imagines, to entering the event horizon of a black hole: as a casual observer, you are unaware you have been caught in its gravitational pull until it is too late to do anything about it.

AOS Pre-STXI Academy era close-canon AU. Or, What If Kirk Met Spock Before The KM Hearing.