reached them.
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The Tows of the Singers
The quiet was startling to the humans after having been in the center of a
barrage of music for the past twenty minutes. The adults were still singing
their song, but after the shock of two full choruses singing at full voice
it seemed almost restful.
Spock ihpped open his communicator. "Spock to Enterprise. Come in
Enterprise. Do you read?"
"We read you, Mr. Spock," came Kirk's voice from behind the Vulcan.
Everyone whirled, and even Spock did a momentary double take, for Kirk
stood only a few feet behind them. With him was a hill security force.
Ilere was a hum and a flicker, and then Kor was there also, accompanied by
armed guards. Kali gave a sob of joy, and flung herself at her husband. He
caught her in his arms, staggering a little under the impact, and pressed
her into a passionate embrace. ne humans politely turned their backs on the
reunion, and moved in on Kirk.
661'm pleased to find you here, Mr. Spock," Kirk said. 641 admit I had my
doubts when I realized Kor had lost control."
"We were able to fight off the Klingon assault. Unfortunately we lost two
crew members and Yeoman Chou was wounded during the fighting."
46 Sorry we didn't get back in time to prevent that. By the way," Kirk said
with an almost comical look of puzzlement. "Do you have any idea how we did
get back?"
"Yes, Captain. We managed to convince the Thygetians of your plight, and
they sang you back into existence."
"Then you've broken the language?"
"Yes, but only the cubs will have anything to do with us. We have had one
brief conversation with one of the adults, but--2'
"Jim, Spock," McCoy suddenly interrupted. "It looks like the old lady is
coming back." The two officers turned and surveyed the cliff face, and as
McCoy had said the matriarch was returning.
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The Tears of the SkMers
Kor, his arm around Kali's waist, walked over to the three officers of the
Enterprise. "What is happening?"
"I think we're about to be granted another audience," McCoy said quietly.
"I just wonder what she wants this time. She seemed very reluctant to
approach us the first time so why do it now?"
"Speculation without facts will accomplish little, Doctor. I suggest we
wait."
In a short time the matriarch had arranged herself on the top of a hillock
of sand, and with a stately inclination of her head indicated to the
intruders to approach. The cubs had gathered about her like a court a6out
their queen. There was some melodic murmuring, then silence fell as the
Singer began to speak.
"We have done as you requested," she sang, and Spock, frowning a bit with
concentration, translated. "But now you must leave. Your presence,
beginning first with the destructive presence of the hunters, and now your
own internal squabbling, has disrupted the Great Song. "
"Great Song? What's the Great Song?" Kirk whispered.
"Apparently the constant song that the adults are singing," Spock answered.
"But what does it? . . ." Kirk began, but the matriarch was once more
speaking.
"Nothing must interfere with the sacred work which protects our world, and
you have begun to interfere. Therefore you must go. "
"But the space/time rip," Kirk objected. "Spock, we've got to make them
understand the danger. We've got to stay in order to discover a way to
remove the phenomenon."
"It will be difficult to pursuade her given that the Taygetians apparently
view our presence as interfering with a ritual of religious significance."
"Well try, we've got to get through to them." -
"Lieutenant," Spock said with a glance to Uhura.
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The Tears of the Singers
"Yes, sir," she said. She drew in a breath of air, but Mashn was not there
to provide the melody. Instead he was staring off into space with a rapt
expression.
It was the first time Kirk had really taken a look at the composer and he
was shocked with what he saw. The man looked shrunken and firail, as if he
had aged twenty years in the past few days. His skin was drawn tautly over
the bones of his tam, and his eyes had sunk to dark hollows. Uhura touched
him gently on the shoulder. He gave a start, and slowly focused on his
surroundings.
"Yes?" he asked hoarsely.
"I need music."
"Okay. Pt
"Great Lady," Uhura sang. "There is a danger in the sky diat surpasses the
danger caused by-"
"Silencel" the Thygetian ordered with an imperious shake of her head. "We
are a peacefid people wishing no harrn to any living creature, but I tell
you now, if you will not leave our world we will destroy you. We have the
power to restore. Do not doubt that we have the power to rentove. "
"So what do we do now?" Kor asked with a grimace.
Kirk spread out his hands in helplessness. "I don't know. Recommendations?"
he said, looking about the circle of anxious fiwes.
"Leave," Ragsdale growled. "What else can we do?"
"But that won't solve the phenomenon," McCoy protested.
110h, Yes it will," Maslin said suddenly from the bench. Everyone stared at
him as if he had lost his mind. "The solution is so obvious," he said,
sliding off the bench, and walking painfully over to Kirk. "I should have
seen it days ago. The rip exists because the Thygetians are singing with
missing. voices. The disruption in the harmonics caused the rip. It will go
away if the Thygetians quit singing.t9
235
The Tears of the Singers
"But it is unlikely the Thygetians; will voluntarily stop the song, given
its significance to them," Spock said.
"They're not going to have much choice," Kor muttered dryly. "Once that
phenomenon hits their sun they will all die."
"An expedient solution, but one I am not fond of," Spock replied. "These
are a highly sentient race. They deserve to live.,,
"So how do we get them to shut up?" Kor demanded somewhat belligerently.
"By convincing them that there is no longer any reason for the song to
continue."
"But if the song is a religious--2'
"It is not mere religious formula," Maslin stated, his voice rising in
anger. "Don't you understand yet? They believe they have to keep singing or
be destroyed by the radiation wave from that nova."
"What?" came a chorus from the listening people.
"Am interesting theory, Mr. Maslin, but what do you offer as-empirical
evidence?" Spock asked.
"Look, we all wondered at the destruction on the other planets, and
wondered how Thygeta could have avoided being fried with the rest of them.
There had to be something on this world that protected them against the
radiation wave. Well, the only thing that's here are the Thygetians, all of
them busily singing from birth until Aeath. What could possibly require
such an immense effort except a life-threateming crisis?"
"But that wave passed through here three thousand years ago," Kirk
protested. "No race would keep on after the danger had passe
d."
"Wait , Captain. Mr. Mashn's theory has a great deal to recommend it. We
know that the Thygetians have the power to manipulate their environment, so
why not extend it out to the fabric of space that surrounds them?"
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The Tears of the Singers
"But the time, Spock, the time."
"It would have taken years f& the wave to pass fully beyond their world. By
then the true purpose of the song might have been lost, and the action
taken on a purely religious significance."
Kirk rounded on Maslin. "Can you translate the song, find out if we really
are on the right track?"
"I was trying that earlier, and it's just too damn complex. It would take
me weeks, and I gather we don't have weeks. I can tell you that in form it
closely resembles the manipulative songs that the cubs sing to bring in
fish, or create forests, or whatever, so it's clearly an
environment-affecting song.11
"Only it's the granddaddy of all of them," McCoy muttered with a glance up
at the cliffs that surrounded them.
"My God," Kirk murmured, also gazing incredulously up at the cliffs. "How
terrible. An entire race has devoted all its energy to defending against a
threat that no longer exists. All development in art and science has been
stunted because there was no time to spare for them. What these creatures
might have accomplished if this had never happened," he concluded softly.
"And think of the young ones," Uhura said, dropping to one knee and
stroking one of the cubs. "How horrible to grow up knowing that once you
reach adulthood you will have to take up a life of endless drudgery.
There's no choice, no opportunity."
"Ideas? Recommendations?" Kirk said, looking about the assembled people.
"Why don't we just tell them the danger's past," Maslin said with a flash
of his old impatience. He began moving back to the synthesizer. "We know
the language now, it seems fairly obvious to me, but maybe there's some
reason why we need to be complicating matters," he concluded, and dropped
heavily onto the bench.
237
The Tears of the Singers
"It would seem logical, Captain, but since the Thygetians, are a highly
telepathic race it might be best if I melded with the matriarch. Our. grasp
of their language is as yet imperfect, and this is far too important to run
the risk of a misunderstanding."
"I couldn't agree more. So how do we start?"
"You make your plea, Captain, and Mr. Maslin, Lieutenant Uhura and I will
try to insure that it reaches the Thygetians intact."
Kirk moved away from the assembled people to marshal his thoughts. Ms eyes
were focused intently on the glittering cliffs, and occasionally one hand
would tighten into a fist. It betrayed his nervousness.
"So, the humans are once more going to sweep the field," Kor murmured to
Kali.
"I don't begrudge them the victory," she replied, her eyes moving from
Maslin's slender, pain-racked body, to Uhura's beautiful face, and on to
Spock, where he was cautiously approaching the matriarch. "They have earned
it, while we have done little but hinder them."
"Imperial High Command is not likely to share your view.,,
"So," she said with a little shrug. "We win have to give them a tale that
will make them happy."
Kor chuckled, and pulled her tightly against his body. "Such a cunning
little Kfingon."
"Sometimes I wonder if I am a very good KIingon. Kor," she said, looking
seriously up at him. "I like the humans."
"Kali, my darling, so do 1. Or at least I like these humans," he added
after a moment's thought. "I don't know how I would feel about them if I
had to live among them."
"'Men by all means let us make sure the High Command doesn't find out about
our collaboration or we will find ourselves living with the humans."
238
The Tears of the Singers
Kirk walked back to the group, and took up a position near Spock. "AD
ready?" he asked tensely.
Spock nodded. "The matriarch seems undisturbed by my physical contact, so
I see no problem,"
"I see lots of them," Kirk muttered, and glanced over at Maslin and Uhura.
"Ready?"
"Ready, sir," Uhura replied. Maslin said nothing. Instead he stared blankly
down at the keyboards, and pulled in great breaths of air as if preparing
himself for some final, mighty effort.
Spock reached out, and spread his long fingers over the rounded cranium of
the Thygetian elder. She lifted her fathomless blue eyes to meet Spock's
brown ones, and suddenly the four people, Spock, Kirk, Maslin and Uhura,
gasped and became rigid at their places. McCoy started forward only to be
pushed back by Kor.
"Leave them! It is apparent they are in the Thygetian's hold now. lb
interfere might do irreparable harm."
"But what about harm to theml" McCoy raged, but Kor maintained his
implacable grip on the doctor's arm.
Suddenly Mashn began to play. It was haunting, desperate music that rose in
sweeping waves into the silver sky. Kirk, his eyes seeming focused in
eternity, began to speak, and seconds later Uhura's voice rose in song.
Spock, who was the focal point for all of this energy, jerked as if he were
a puppet whose strings had been pulled in random directions, and his face
twisted in pain.
Kirk felt as if he were once more trapped in the phenomenon. Colors twisted
and swirled about him, and music was all about and even within him. He
began to lose sight of who he was, and what he had come to do. The very
awareness of self that was the core of all humans was slipping from him,
whirled away in the fantasy of music that comprised all reality for him
now. He longed to spread open his arms, and spin away like some chip
carried on the maelstrom of sound.
239
The Tears of the Singers
Suddenly he became aware of other presences that inhabited this strange
silver overworld with him. He felt a strong and beloved touch, and knew
Spock. That familiar contact brought back his own identity, and he once
more knew himself. Next there was an impression of warmth and beauty, and
he knew he had found Uhura. Then there was the other presence. Quicksilver
and mercurial, it danced just beyond his reach. But there was something
wrong with this presence. Its fire was dimming, and it flickered feebly
while the others who were with him burned with a solid light.
He sensed another presence behind him, the way a blind person could sense
the position of the sun by its warmth and light. He slowly turned, although
such a mundane word could not fully describe the movement that he made, and
there was the Thygetian. He knew it was she from emanations that Bowed from
the glowing white-and-gold form. Kirk suddenly realized with a thrill of
shock that he was seeing the Thygetian as she would appear to other psychic
beings. He warily approached the creature. Not so much out of fear, because
there was nothing threatening about the feelings that washed about him, but
out of respect for the awesome power that was embodied befor
e him.
"Lady," he said, and was startled when his voice rolled away from him with
a mighty echoing sound.
"Speak, human."
"Lady, the danger that you guard against has long passed."
"How shall I know that you speak the truth? Your kind has done little to
recommend itself to us."
"We are very sorry, lady, for the harm that was done to your people by the
hunters, but I beg you not to judge an humans by the acts of a few evil
ones.
"As for proof, on my ship there are very sensitive devices that can scan
the heavens, and read and analyze what is found there. When we first
arrived on your world we discovered the passage of the nova, and have
traced it far beyond
240
The Tears of the Singers
Tkygeta. The traces of the radiation wave are now very distant, for it
passed through here some three thousand years ago.1V
There was a long pause during which Kirk tried to cling to his identity and
not become lost in this strange, silver mind world. As he drifted he
suddenly felt a delicate touch on his mind, as if gentle fingers had
explored through his memories and emotions.
"I have searched your mind, and it seems that you have spoken the truth."
Kirk could feel the Thygetian's distress and confusion, and he pitied the
creature. "Still, I cannot see that this alters matters. The Great Song is
a sacred trust passed down from the time of Nasul, the leader who taught us
to blend our individual powers to save our world."
"But surely this Nasul would not have wanted to condemn his people to
endless drudgery for no purpose," Kirk desperately cried, for he could
sense the matriarch withdrawing from his mind. "Nor would he have wanted
his people to destroy themselves. Please, listen to me! The song is no
longer an instrument of protection. Instead it has become a weapon that has
turned agamst you! That np in space and time is caused by the loss of
voices in your song. If you don't stop now it will destroy your sun, and
with it your entire racel Surely the fulfillment of your duty doesn't
require you to go down into death and darkness."
"Show me this danger. I would look upon this vortex. Take me there."
Star Trek - TOS - The Tears Of The Singers Page 26