Uhura's Song Read online

  “I can’t answer that, Captain. The Eeiauoans have a hundred or more songs about CloudShape—and some of them call her ‘to-Ennien’ and some call her ‘of Ennien.’ That was one of the few I could translate properly. Most of them, and not just the CloudShape songs, deal with such a different culture that they make no sense to a human unless she knows an Eeiauoan. I sometimes sing the others in Eeiauoan because the tunes are so lovely.” She hummed a snatch of song and Kirk nodded; he’d heard that one, too, and she didn’t exaggerate its beauty.

  “Do you speak it? Eeiauoan, I mean?”

  “I learned it from Sunfall and kept it up so I could talk to her the next time we met….” She spread her hands in dismay. “We did speak now and again, and I was so happy when we were ordered to Eeiauo. I wish—I wish—”

  “So do I.”

  “Captain, couldn’t there be just one exception to the quarantine? I’d—like to be there with her.”

  Her expression was so hopeful Kirk hated to deny her that consolation—but orders were orders, and it would do her no good to see Sunfall as she must be now. He shook his head. “If there were something I could do,” he said.

  “I know. If there were something any of us could do …” Her voice trailed off. She wiped her eyes again. “I should return to the bridge.”

  “Ensign Azuela can handle that for now,” Kirk said.

  “Thank you, Captain. I guess I would like some time to be alone.”

  Kirk took that as a dismissal. He clasped her hand in wordless sympathy and left. Behind him, he heard the first glasslike sounds of the joyeuse, and then the words of an alien song, that might have been Eeiauoan, that might have been a plea to the gods for the life of Sunfall of Ennien.

  The door hissed closed. Adding his own silent plea to hers, Kirk returned to the bridge.

  Chapter Two

  Spock completed the data run for McCoy and, having finished his watch, retired to his quarters to meditate on this newly revealed facet of McCoy’s behavior. Logically, there was no reason for the doctor to insist that he, Spock, run data that could be run as easily and as accurately by any medical technician. Not that McCoy was known for his logic, any more so than any of the humans aboard the Enterprise, but Spock did find the question of sufficient interest to devote some little time to its consideration.

  There was also the more pressing problem of the crew’s deteriorating morale. It seemed to him that their irrationality was increasing by the hour. McCoy would have diagnosed it, in his own peculiar fashion, as “working themselves into a state.”

  Perhaps the two were not separate problems, he thought; perhaps McCoy’s request might be interpreted as a symptom of the doctor’s low morale: a desire to do something for the sake of doing it and for no other reason. He had known humans to behave in such fashion before.

  Indeed, such symptoms might be widespread, given the magnitude of the Eeiauoans’ plight. Even Starfleet Command had chosen to transfer Dr. Evan Wilson to the Enterprise, a step that while not completely without precedent, was unusual enough to perplex.

  A voice at his door pulled him from his thoughts.

  “Mr. Spock? It’s Lieutenant Uhura, sir. May I please speak with you?”

  “Come in, Lieutenant,” he said, curious.

  She entered only far enough into the room to allow the doors to slide closed behind her.

  He had admired her behavior on the bridge a few hours ago. Under circumstances that would have elicited from most humans a conspicuous display of emotion, she had conducted herself with almost Vulcan reserve. Even now, she kept that same calm.

  He beckoned her to a chair. She sat. He pulled a second chair to the small table and sat down to face her. She watched him for a moment.

  “Mr. Spock, may I ask that you keep this conversation in confidence?” Before he could object, she added, rapidly, “I assure you, sir, it does not involve the safety of the Enterprise or of anyone aboard her.”

  “In that case, I would have no reason to speak of it to anyone else.”

  That seemed to satisfy her. She added, “I promise you a logical reason for my behavior, after you answer a question for me.”

  Fascinating, thought Spock. “Please continue, Lieutenant.”

  “Is it possible that Eeiauo is not the planet of origin of the Eeiauoans? Is it possible that they’re colonists from another world?”

  “Their histories state—” He stopped abruptly as she shook her head.

  “I mean,” she said, “aside from what the Eeiauoans claim, is there any external proof that Eeiauo is their planet of origin?”

  “An answer of any degree of reliability will take time, Lieutenant.”

  She clasped her hands together in the first sign of emotion he’d seen from her, then immediately stopped the gesture and carefully composed herself. “If you say it’s possible, sir, that would be enough.”

  He realized that she was quite deliberately holding back her emotions out of deference to him. “That will take several hours, at the very least,” he said. “Do you wish to wait?”

  “If I will not disturb you.”

  “You will not.”

  The answer to Uhura’s question came more quickly, and with more certainty, than Spock had expected.

  An hour later, he turned from his computer to Uhura. She stared into the attunement flame—light flickered on her dark, unreadable face. Most humans reacted unfavorably to the higher ambient temperature he maintained in his cabin. Uhura looked chilled.

  He said, “A cursory examination of Eeiauoan science shows a number of anomalies. There is, for example, no species of vertebrate now living on Eeiauo that resembles the Eeiauoans themselves. In Earth analogy, there is no creature on Eeiauo related to the Eeiauoans as chimpanzees or gorillas are related to humans. It would be as if your closest relative were a lizard.

  “In addition, while the Eeiauoans have a highly developed science of paleontology, there is nothing in the fossil record that bears a family resemblance to the Eeiauoans. Under those circumstances, I find it highly unlikely that they could have developed a theory of evolution, yet they did, independent of Federation science.

  “There are other anomalies as well, but every one of them could be accounted for if the Eeiauoans did not originate here.”

  “Mr. Spock?”

  “Simply put, Lieutenant, there is indeed a high probability that the Eeiauoans are not native to this world. Is that sufficient for your purpose?”

  Her eyes held a look he’d seen in McCoy’s often—one that preceded a bellowing cheer. She blinked, clamped her jaw and took a single sharp breath. “Thank you.”

  She stood as if a sudden weight had been released from her shoulders. “You see, the source of my information also suggests that the Eeiauoans’ homeworld knows a cure for ADF syndrome. Your confirmation of the one means that the other has some chance of being true.”

  “An interesting possibility,” said Spock. “Although one does not necessarily follow the other as fact, it would be worth pursuing.”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “Any possibility—thank you, sir. I’ll tell the captain now.”

  “I do not understand, Lieutenant, why you chose to tell me, in confidence, and not the captain, as you now intend to inform him….”

  Her head ducked briefly, but not before he saw embarrassment in her face. “I’ve taken advantage of your background, Mr. Spock. Your hopes would not be dashed if there were no possibility. I knew you would wait for facts.”

  “Ah,” he said, “your ‘logical reason.’”

  She nodded.

  “Admirable,” he said. “I shall accompany you.”

  Jim Kirk sat in the briefing room with Uhura and Spock to either side of him. Behind him, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott watched the viewscreen over his shoulder and shifted restlessly. The inaction’s getting to Scotty, too, Kirk thought.

  McCoy was as voluble from a distance as he was in person, but his words came as a disappointment.

  “No way, Jim,” he said. “I even talked to the World Coordinator—she’s down the hall bein’ treated. She’s in the early stage of ADF syndrome. If there’s a cure, she’d have every stake in findin’ it, even on this hypothetical homeworld. She says all her generations were born here. I don’t know where you got your information, but everybody here denies it.”

  Kirk said, “Denies it how, Bones? As if it were a fable, a fantasy?”

  “How d’you expect me to know what goes on in their furry heads? They have all the emotional expression of Spock there. What on earth gives you the idea this isn’t their planet of origin, anyway?”

  Spock intervened. “Aside from their histories, there is no physical evidence, either in their paleontology or their archeology, to suggest they originated on Eeiauo.”

  “In other words,” McCoy snapped, “we have only their word for it. Why should they lie about a thing like that, dammit? It doesn’t make sense, Spock.”

  “I am hardly accountable for the illogical behavior of the Eeiauoans, Dr. McCoy. Other beings have been known to distort their histories.”

  “To the point of self-destruction? That’s crazy!”

  Spock said, “I agree, but also highly probable in this instance.”

  “Gentlemen, enough.” Kirk had no intention of letting Spock and McCoy get out of hand. “Lieutenant Uhura, you seem to know this culture quite well. Why don’t you ask one of the Eeiauoans?”

  “I’ll get Quickfoot,” McCoy said. He vanished momentarily offscreen, though not before Kirk caught a glimpse of his expression and knew he was being humored, as far as his chief medical officer was concerned.

  “One moment, Captain.”

  “Yes, Mr. Spock?”

  “I believe the lieutenant would prefer that you act on my information rather than her own.” To Uhura, Spock added, “It was a logical deduction from your behavior, Lieutenant.”

  “Is that true, Uhura?” Kirk asked. He need not have: her trapped expression told him clearly enough that Spock’s assessment was correct. He thought for a moment. “All right, Lieutenant. Is your Eeiauoan good enough to translate for me?” At her nod, he said, “Perhaps you’ll have some questions of your own for Quickfoot.” Kirk hoped she understood his suggestion. He had no time to make himself plainer; McCoy had returned with Quickfoot.

  “Quickfoot,” he said, “This is Lieutenant Uhura, my chief communications officer. She has agreed to translate for us.” He smiled and added, “In a situation like this, I prefer not to rely upon mechanical translation—that may cause more problems than it solves.”

  Uhura translated. The sound of it was so unexpected, he turned to stare at her. It was as if she’d taken a random assortment of snarls, hisses and yowls and set them all to music, sweetening them somehow in the process.

  Quickfoot responded in kind. “Yes,” said Uhura, “she understands the problem. Dr. McCoy has recently been trying to ask something that is so bizarre everyone—everyone is wondering about his sanity!”

  “Thanks a lot,” McCoy muttered from a corner of the screen.

  “My science officer, Mr. Spock,” Kirk continued and indicated the Vulcan, “has been studying your world and its history. He seems to think your people left their homeworld some two thousand years ago to settle Eeiauo—”

  He paused to let Uhura begin her translation, but he got no further. As Uhura finished, Quickfoot bristled and laid back her ears. Her pupils dilated to twice their size. Her claws splayed at the screen.

  Uhura translated her angry response, hard put to keep up. “She says Spock is crazy, too. The Eeiauoans have always lived on this world. This is their homeworld. They have never known any other, they will never know any other!”

  Quickfoot spat, turned abruptly from the screen and stamped away, her hind claws clicking loudly on the hospital floor.

  Uhura finished, awkwardly, “That last was a very strong obscenity.”

  Kirk took a deep breath. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

  Scotty nodded, “Aye. Dr. McCoy, dinna ye recognize an angry cat when ye see one?!”

  McCoy snorted at him. “Let me know when you’ve got something more than an angry cat. I have work to do … McCoy, out.” The screen went dark.

  “So,” said Jim Kirk to his staff, “we have a hypothetical planet—”

  “Real enough to gi’ Quickfoot a catfit,” interjected Scotty, scornfully.

  Kirk chose to ignore that. “—with a hypothetical cure for ADF. Any suggestions? Spock, Scotty?” He turned pointedly to Uhura. “Lieutenant Uhura?”

  She made no answer.

  “Lieutenant Uhura,” said Spock, “I should like to point out that a people capable of denying its own origin in the face of such need might well be capable of denying a betrayal of that origin, if such were to their advantage and if no open acknowledgment of the betrayal were made. I see no reason to inform the Eeiauoans of the source of our information.”

  Kirk caught on instantly. “Of course we’ll keep Sunfall out of it,” he said; and, just as swiftly, Scott added, “Aye, lassie, we wouldna hurt your friend.”

  Unable to keep the urgency out of his voice, Kirk went on, “Uhura, these people are going to die. Every day that passes their chances get slimmer and slimmer. If you know anything that can help, you must tell us. I’ll make that an order, if you prefer.”

  Uhura shook her head. “Thank you, Captain, but it is my responsibility. Sunfall is dying. I’ll tell you what little I know.”

  She began so softly Kirk had to strain to hear her. “Sunfall and I were very close friends, Captain. It was as if we were sisters, except that we shared more interests than most sisters. I told you how we traded songs….

  “One evening, very late at night, I taught her a dozen or so of my favorite”—she glanced away, embarrassed—“bawdy songs. You must understand that to her there was nothing the least bit impolite about those songs: Eeiauoan children learn songs twice as ribald, and in school.”

  “Infinite diversity,” said Kirk, quoting the Vulcan credo. Go on.”

  “I was careful to explain that the songs I taught her were taboo in many cultures, including mine, and not to be sung in polite company. I wanted her to hear them because they were wonderful songs.” She shifted uncomfortably, as if she expected someone to chastise her for creating an interplanetary incident. Her eyes came to rest on Scott.

  “Dinna look at me,” said Scotty with a grin, “I’d give ennathing ta hear ye sing them, wi’ your voice. I canna do more than croak them.”

  “Lieutenant,” Kirk prompted.

  Uhura went on, “A few days later, she came to see me, bristling with excitement. She said she’d make me a fair trade for my tabooed songs. She knew some ballads from the old days of her world—full of heroic deeds and incredible journeys. She would teach me, for the sake of the songs. She would teach me because they were beautiful.”

  Kirk made a puzzled gesture. “The point, Lieutenant, the point.”

  “I believe that is the point, Captain,” Spock said.

  Uhura nodded. “She told me the taboo was stronger than the one I meant. No Eeiauoan would ever sing any of them in public. In another generation, she told me sadly, they might be forgotten altogether. She didn’t want that to happen, so she sang them all on tape for me.

  “And she cautioned me that no Eeiauoan must ever know that I had heard them. I thought she was speaking of a religious taboo, Captain, but it may be that Sunfall committed treason for the sake of those songs.”

  Kirk said, “I don’t follow you, Uhura. Do you mean that Sunfall told you the Eeiauoans were colonists?”

  “No, no. In fact, Sunfall implied that the songs were fiction. But the songs themselves imply that the Eeiauoans are colonists. In those early songs, ‘Eeiauo’ doesn’t mean ‘beautiful’—it means ‘outcast’.”

  She looked directly at him with a sudden intensity. “You asked why CloudShape was called ‘to-Ennien’ and not ‘of Ennien,’ sir. In those early songs, people often travel to and from Ennien—but there’s no place on Eeiauo called Ennien.”

  “Ah,” said Spock, “nor is there a Srallansre.” He nodded thoughtfully. “And what of the cure for ADF syndrome? How much evidence have you for its existence?”

  “One song tells of a man who falls ill…. Captain, I always thought it was a bard’s disease, one of those things that people in old ballads succumb to whenever their love is unrequited. You know the sort I mean.”

  Kirk smiled; he did indeed. “Fascinating,” said Spock, largely in reaction to Kirk’s comprehension.

  Uhura said, “It wasn’t that at all. It was ADF syndrome, stage by stage. Dr. McCoy would have diagnosed it by the second verse.” She turned again to Spock. “The final verse tells how a woman named Thunderstroke restores the man to life.”

  “A teaching song,” said Spock.

  And Kirk said, “Do you mean, a song to help you remember—not only the symptoms—but the cure for the disease? You know the cure for ADF?”

  It was as if he had struck her, but she only said, “There is no cure on Eeiauo, Captain. The last verse is missing. Sunfall ended the song there, and her ears drooped and her tail … I can’t describe it, sir. She looked at me in despair, and she told me it was a song for another world, not hers.”

  “Then we’re back where we started.” Kirk slammed his hand down on the table. “We can’t even get them to admit that Eeiauo isn’t their homeworld. How can we get them to tell us where it is?”

  “I suggest we contact Starfleet Command,” Spock said. “Quite possibly a Federation diplomat might succeed where we have failed.”

  “Those pen-pushers!” Scotty was outraged. “They’ll be talkin’ till doomsday, and not a word will they be gettin’ for their pains. And all the time, Uhura’s friend’ll be dyin’ by inches. Isna there enna way we could find the world oursel’s, Mr. Spock?”

  “The universe is infinite, Mr. Scott. To find one world with no clue to its location …”