Brightspot's tail coiled tighter. "I'm sorry I missed it. Mr. Chekov pulled your tail the way you pulled mine, Captain Kirk." She brushed Jim Kirk's cheek affectionately with her tail. It tickled, and Kirk snatched for it as he'd have snatched to stop tickling fingers.
She flicked it away. "Oh, no!" she said, though her tail still curled happily.
Kirk chuckled in spite of himself. "I had no intention of pulling it, Brightspot. I may tease, but I don't think I could actually bring myself to yank your tail. I never got into the habit." She was quick to see the truth of this and her tail snaked back into reach. He caught and stroked it.
This settled, Brightspot stared across the fire at Uhura. "I have a message for you," she said. "Rushlight to-Vensre invites you to stay with him while you're in camp. He would offer to trade songs, but he does not know your customs, and he would be content with your company."
"Brightspot," said Uhura, "I don't know your customs, either. What would you do in my place?"
"I'd trade! Rushlight makes wonderful songs! Distant Smoke hopes- well, I shouldn't tell you this, but Distant Smoke says he's never seen Rushlight so impressed- Rushlight might make you his inheritor." The prospect clearly excited Brightspot and, when Uhura said nothing, Brightspot said, "Rushlight hasn't chosen one. If he died, all his songs would be lost, and that would be terrible!"
Uhura said, carefully, "Brightspot, I don't understand. Wait- let me explain how it is among my people. I may speak of taboo subjects; I want you to know that if I do it is from ignorance only."
Brightspot arched her whiskers forward, but Kirk felt her tail tip quiver.
Uhura went on, "Among our people, anyone may sing a song. If Mr. Chekov teaches me a song, I am free to sing it where and when I please."
The quiver in the tail tip was stronger now, threatening to become a flick of anger. Kirk tried to soothe it.
"And if Mr. Chekov created the song?" Brightspot demanded.
"I would ask his permission before I sang it to others," Uhura said, "but many of our people would not, and Mr. Chekov would be neither surprised nor angry."
In a much softer voice, she added, "If a song is not sung, it dies, Brightspot. Many of the songs I love most survived because just one person heard and remembered- and passed them on. This is our custom. Yours must be very different. Please tell me about it.... I have no wish to cause harm through my ignorance."
The ridge of fur that had risen around Brightspot's neck slowly began to subside. Kirk could feel her tail relax as well, and at last she gave a long sigh and said, "No one- no one- but Rushlight would sing one of his songs without his permission! He's given a great many of them away- Fetchstorm says those he's tired of- but if he gave them all away, what would he have to trade?"
"Did I 'give away' the songs I sang, Brightspot?" Uhura asked, still puzzled. "Everyone sang the choruses with me." Brightspot bristled again. "We wouldn't steal from you, Lieutenant Uhura!"
"Please, Brightspot," Kirk interjected, "Uhura had no intention of insulting you or anyone else. I had the same question myself- do you mean it's all right to sing the choruses as long as the song is sung by someone who has permission?"
"Yes, that's so," said Brightspot, calming herself again. "No one would sing the choruses without you, Lieutenant Uhura."
"So if I were to teach a song to Rushlight, he wouldn't sing it without my permission," Uhura said. She considered this for a moment, then she asked, "Do you mean not sing it or do you mean not sing it in public?"
It was Brightspot's turn to be thoughtful. "Not sing it in public, I know," she said, "but what bards do among themselves, you'd have to ask Rushlight."
Kirk could foresee further trouble. "Brightspot," he said, "we need your advice. If Lieutenant Uhura accepts Rushlight's invitation, she'll feel obligated to tell him of our custom. You were very angry. How angry will Rushlight be?"
"Catchclaw says you all have soft heads and nobody's to cuff you."
Kirk smiled. "Even with the best of intentions, Brightspot...even I have been known to lose my temper. Mr. Spock is the only one I know who wouldn't." Kirk was not about to go into the circumstances under which Spock might lose control of his emotions.
"Well," said Brightspot, "if I had a soft head..." She addressed Uhura again: "I'd tell Rushlight, in Old Tongue, that I wouldn't sing his songs without his permission, and then I'd tell him my people had very different customs."
"Thank you, Brightspot, I will," Uhura said. "Is there anything else I should know about being a guest?"
Brightspot gave a great sigh of exasperation. "I don't know!" she said- her tail twitched away from Jim Kirk's grasp- "I didn't know you didn't know that!"
Evan Wilson, surprisingly, chuckled. "I know a trick for it, Brightspot, one I guarantee will work on any world where you can find someone who's trying as hard to help as you are." She pointed. "Pretend the captain there is Rushlight and show us what you'd do if you were coming to accept his invitation."
Brightspot's ears perked up, her whiskers arched forward. Without another word, she ducked into the shelter's entrance.
Jim Kirk had to admire her flexibility- both tail tip and nose poked through the opening. "I stick my tail in," she told him. "Everybody recognizes my tail, so I don't have to call my name. Catchclaw would say, 'Catchclaw to-Ennien'. I only call my name if no one invites me in."
Wilson grinned at her. "Since we don't have such distinctive tails, maybe we'd better just call our names."
"I think so," said Brightspot. She looked again at Kirk and said, "Now you say 'come in."'
"Come in, Brightspot," he said obligingly.
Brightspot entered, then froze. "To Catchclaw, you would say, 'Come in, Catchclaw to-Ennien.'"
"Then I should say 'Come in, Brightspot to-Srallansre!?"
She raised her head slightly and the tip of her tail switched. "You don't have to. Catchclaw has her name. I don't have my name yet. If you don't know, do what I do: use the to-. It's better to be safe than clawed."
"Brightspot," said Spock, "does Jinx to-Ennien have her name?" Spock gave the possessive the same emphasis Brightspot had used.
"Don't be silly. Who'd choose a name like 'Jinx'? That's the only name I know that's worse than mine." Her hand went up, as if of its own accord, to cover the black smudge along her nose.
In that instant, Jim Kirk saw suddenly a shy teenager, embarrassed by her imagined unattractiveness. "Where I come from," he said, "to call someone a bright spot in your life is a compliment." At her ears-back startled look, he explained, "Think of a cloudy day, with just one small break in the clouds. Think of standing in the middle of that little patch of sunshine. How does that make you feel?"
"Warm all over," she said and stretched as if she could feel it as he spoke.
"That," Kirk smiled, "is what we mean by bright spot. I'd say it suits you admirably."
"Really? Bright spot makes you think of sunshine through the clouds?"
"You make me think of sunshine through the clouds, Brightspot."
She curled her tail around his upper arm. "I wish I could 'hug' you," she said.
He stroked the tail. "I wish I could hug you too, Brightspot, but I think we'd better abide by the rules Distant Smoke laid down."
She arched her whiskers and nodded. "Some day, though," she said, "when I have my name..." She had the wistful look of a small child saying, "When I'm grown up..." Maybe, thought Kirk, that's what she is saying.
"Captain," said Spock, "I believe you have interrupted Brightspot's demonstration."
"Yes, yes, Spock. Go on, Brightspot. I'm sorry I sidetracked you."
"I'm not," said Brightspot, with a curious look at Spock. "You don't get angry. Does that mean you don't get happy, either?"
"In the sense which I believe you mean, no, I do not. I do, however, find a pleasurable sensation in the solution to an intellectual problem."
Kirk said, conspiratorially, to Brightspot, "Let's go on with the demonstration. Perhaps that will give Mr. Spock his 'pleasurable sensation'."
When Brightspot had finished, the landing party knew all she knew about being a guest in someone's tent. It did not differ much from normal etiquette aboard the Enterprise, but Kirk was grateful that Brightspot had saved them from a few social gaffes.
In complete innocence, Brightspot then turned to Spock. "Have I given you a pleasurable sensation?"
Spock raised his eyebrow. "Indeed, Brightspot, I believe you have. Would you be so kind as to satisfy my curiosity on another point as well?"
She nodded, and Spock continued, "I do not understand your use of the to- names. They would seem to indicate blood relationship, as between you and Fetchstorm, yet Catchclaw and Settlesand- who give every indication of being twins- do not share the same to-. May I ask the reason for this?"
Brightspot's eyes went round with wonder. "You don't know anything!" she said, when at last she found her voice.
Jim Kirk leapt to the defense of his science officer. "Mr. Spock knows a great deal about a great many worlds, Brightspot- more than the rest of us put together, in fact- but even Mr. Spock knows less about your world than a baby does."
"Correction, Captain. There are certain scientific laws that apply to all worlds."
"Correction noted, Mr. Spock. We have that advantage over a baby. But," he continued to Brightspot, "we have a baby's ignorance of language and custom. And we have no way of finding out unless we ask." He spread his hands and gave her his most charming smile. "We may even have to ask stupid questions...."
"I see, I think. All the things I learned when I was little are all the things you don't know, but you know the periodic table?" This was addressed to Spock.
"I am familiar with the periodic table," he assured her. "But I have been unable to ascertain whether your name is a matter of blood relationship or of some other factor that is unknown to me."
"Then it's not a stupid question," Brightspot said. "It's a baby question." She gave a sidelong glance at Evan Wilson and said, "I can pretend you're Grabfoot, Mr. Spock. If Grabfoot asked me...I guess I'd say that to- is where I go to celebrate Festival. I'm to-Srallansre because Stiff Tail is my mother, just like Grabfoot is to-Ennien because Catchclaw is his mother. That part is blood relationship."
She paused. When Spock nodded his understanding, she went on, "Catchclaw and Settlesand are both born to-Ennien, but Catchclaw is also to-Ennien by choice. Fetchstorm says the only thing crazier than born to-Ennien is chosen to-Ennien, and that Catchclaw is twice to-Ennien." She added, scathingly, "He would," and her tail flicked once in Fetchstorm's honor. "I think Catchclaw is nice. She's like you, Captain Kirk; she only pulls your tail if she likes you. There is one thing, though...." Brightspot lowered her voice. "I don't know for sure, because I've only been to this camp twice, but from things I've heard some people say I think Catchclaw stays here!" Her manner made it abundantly clear that this was the most scandalous thing she could say about anyone. She added, hastily but just as quietly, "Don't tell her I said so! And don't ask her about it, not even baby questions!"
Spock said, "Such behavior would be considered exceptional, even abnormal, in a nomadic culture, Captain."
Brightspot nodded emphatically at him, whiskers forward. Kirk couldn't help but smile and say, "I'm willing to bet that my behavior would seem stranger than that, even to Fetchstorm."
"Oh, but you don't know any better!" Brightspot told him; a flick of her tail dismissed the entire idea. Then she looked at the universal translator and added, "I think it would be easier, though, if your machine didn't translate so well. You seem to speak our language, so we think you know other things, too."
"A point well taken, Brightspot," Kirk said. "However, our mission to your world is an urgent one. Without the universal translator, it would take us weeks, even months, perhaps, to learn enough to ask even stupid questions, let alone the urgent ones."
"Why not start with the urgent ones, then?"
Kirk rubbed the side of his head ruefully. "I did."
"Oh," she said. "Ask me. Even if I lose my temper too, I can't hit as hard as Stiff Tail. I'll remember you ask baby questions, I promise. And if I don't know the answer, I'll ask Stiff Tail. I have a very hard head."
From any other Sivaoan in camp, Jim Kirk would have considered the offer a godsend. Instead, he held up his hands and shook his head. "Thank you, Brightspot, but we can't do that. We're guests in your mother's camp and, by my custom, it wouldn't be right to cause trouble between you and your mother."
She drooped from ear tip to tail tip. "I think I understand," she said sadly. "I'm not angry at you, but I'm sorry I can't help."