"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 penpushers!" 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..."
"He's right, Scotty. We haven't a clue, unless the Eeiauoans are willing to give it to us. We'll try through Star Fleet- at least that's something." Kirk rose.
Scotty would not be so easily put off. As Uhura rose from her chair, he leveled his finger at her. "Your songs, Lieutenant. There's the truth in your songs. 'Incredible journeys,' ye said. D'they tell o' the star that shone on that world? Th' length o' th' journey? Ennathin' Mr. Spock here c'ld feed his computers. Is it possible, Mr. Spock?"
"Possible, Mr. Scott, but not probable."
"Well, Uhura...?" Scott had not moved from his position.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Scott." Uhura's face lit with sudden hope. "They do sing about the journey! There must be something that would-!" She broke off and composed herself with effort. "If you would be willing, Mr. Spock...?"
The ship's communicator whistled. "McCoy to Kirk."
"Kirk here. Come in, Bones."
McCoy's face had been haggard before, but they were all unprepared for the terrible look that appeared in the viewscreen.
"Bones!" Jim Kirk reacted instinctively to that look. "What's happened?"
McCoy drew a long and shuddering breath. "Christine-she's got ADF syndrome."
"My God, Bones, are you sure?"
"Would I be telling you that if I weren't? What do you think I am, some kind of damn fool?" McCoy snapped back. "Tell Starfleet the damn disease is communicable to humans, and they've got to quarantine anybody who's been in contact with any Eeiauoan in the past six months. And clean your own house, Jim. We've got a galaxy full of trouble on our hands now. McCoy out." The screen went dark.
Kirk looked up. "I'll contact Starfleet.- Spock, Uhura, find me that planet!"
Spock looked at Uhura. "Possible, but not probable," he repeated.
Montgomery Scott laid his hand on Uhura's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "Dinna ye worry. If ennaone can do it, Mr. Spock can. Ye just let me know and the Enterprise'll take ye there."
Chapter Three
After six days of listening to Eeiauoan songs for references that might give some clue to the location of their homeworld, Uhura was exhausted and discouraged- afraid that, in her weariness, she might miss something crucial She wished she had Mr. Spock's ability to do without sleep. Mr. Scott had been right: the diplomats were not succeeding. Sunfall's songs were the only possibility they had.
A week ago (it seemed a lifetime), she had seen an off-duty engineer, Marie-Therese Orsay, draw a huge audience in the rec room by building a house of cards. It was no ordinary house of cards: it covered an entire table and rose eight stories before Orsay tired of her sport and toppled it with a sweep of her hand and a delighted laugh.
Afterward, Spock, who had watched from beginning to end, pronounced it, "Fascinating."
When Captain Kirk, amused, pressed him on the subject, Spock had responded, "I was referring, Captain, to the dexterity and the concentration Ensign Orsay devotes to the pursuit of a singularly insubstantial result."
Now, thought Uhura, Mr. Spock is building his own house of cards: the information Spock fed to his computers was so flimsy a single breath might topple it all. Yet he kept on...
Assumption: a number drawn from among those songs Sunfall had called "The Journey Songs" that they took to be the original number of colonists- or outcasts. From that and from statistical data on the reproduction rate, deaths from outbreaks of ADF syndrome, and population records of Eeiauo, Mr. Spock had set the date of their arrival on Eeiauo approximately two thousand five hundred years in the past.
Assumption: the technological capabilities and range of the ship that brought them- based on the earliest known space drive of the Eeiauoans, tentatively confirmed by Chief Engineer Scott. That also assumed that the Eeiauoans had made only minor improvements on the drive, had not lost the technology altogether and invented something new.
Assumption: the length of the journey- again drawn from song, not from fact.
Assumption: that this world had been the Eeiauoans' original destination, not their third or fourth try for an inhabitable world.
Assumption after assumption after assumption. The only hard facts were that Eeiauoan after Eeiauoan curled up to die- kept alive only by elaborate medical intervention - and that the Long Death now spread through human worlds.
Uhura realized she had listened to an entire song without hearing it. Angrily, she stopped the tape and rewound it. Without thinking, she yanked the earplug from her ear, buried her face in her hands and said, "Oh, damn."
Spock turned from his computers. Uhura hastily composed herself, made her thoughts and face a blank. "I apologize, Mr. Spock. It will not happen again."
"Computer, hold," he said. The machine cut off in midsqueak, freezing an image on the screen. Giving Uhura his full attention, Spock said, "The apology is unnecessary, Lieutenant. I assure you I am quite accustomed to the display of emotion from members of this crew. I could hardly be otherwise, given the circumstances under which I work and live."
"Yes, I know." Impulsively, she added, "And no one ever thinks to protect your feelings."
One of his eyebrows arched up. "Dr. McCoy would tell you I have none."
Uhura gave a delicate snort. "That's nonsense, Mr. Spock. Everyone has feelings. Not everyone chooses to express them quite as loudly as Dr. McCoy."
"Am I to understand that you have been behaving in this unusual- I might even say 'abnormal'- fashion to protect my...feelings?" he asked. His slight emphasis made the word hers rather than any admission on his part.
Uhura felt her cheeks warm, as if she were a small child who'd been caught at something, yet she wanted him to understand. "After all these years of working with you, sir, and listening to everyone else who did, it seems to me that we all demand that you be more and more human. But you're not human, Mr. Spock, any more than Sunfall is. You're unique. If I sometimes find your behavior shocking, I've come to realize that even the shock can be valuable. You make us stop and reconsider and sometimes take a fresh view of things.
"You're the only one aboard the Enterprise who hasn't spent the past weeks worrying himself into complete uselessness. I felt I would be more useful to Sunfall- and to you as we worked together- if I could approach the problem from your perspective."
She raised a finely drawn brow in deliberate imitation of him. "At the very least," she finished, "I had hoped not to disturb your concentration with any emotional display. That's why I've been behaving 'abnormally,' Mr. Spock. I hope I have not offended you."
"By no means," he said. "I am honored by your attempt." He considered her thoughtfully, then he added, "But I must point out the flaw in your reasoning. Given our present task, your emotional response could be of considerable value."
"Mr. Spock?" She could not hide her astonishment.
"We have no reliable data. With each assumption we make we lower the probability of an accurate result. I have often noticed in humans the ability to extrapolate accurately from just such data. Captain Kirk has frequently demonstrated the validity of this approach."
"Do you mean hunches?"