"This computer was acting as a link between the Enterprise's computer and
the synthesizer. It may be possible to reactivate the link with the
Enterprise, and determine how the battle is going. I could use the
communicators," he said, answering her unspoken question. "But it would
distract the captain, and that I will not do."
Kali drifted over to join them, and soon Ragsdale and Brentano had gathered
about Spock, waiting tensely while he worked. There was a flicker of color,
and then the display screen of the synthesizer lit up with a strange
elongated view of the main screen of the Enterprise. They watched in
silence for several moments, trying to make sense out of what they were
seeing. Then Kali exclaimed, "There are three cruisers present. Where did
the third one come from?"
Spock's face tightened into even grimmer lines, and he began to punch a
request for data into the computer. There was a whir and a chatter, and
then the cold, impersonal female voice of the computer began to speak.
"Screens down fifty-two percent. Phasers operating at one-third normal
power, maneuverability reduced by sixtyone percent due to--!'
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"Stop!" Spock ordered. "Calculate maximum operating time remaining for
affected systems."
"Working. 11
Tension was turning his head and neck into a mass of pain, and he bitterly
regretted the series of circumstances which had left him trapped helplessly
here on the planet's surface while far overhead, in the frigid darkness of
space, his captain battled for his life. Mendez was very young and
inexperienced and might be unable to provide Kirk with the sort of
split-second information he would require if the Enterprise was to survive
this encounter.
Suddenly he balled up one fist, and drove it into the protective crate that
had held the synthesizer on its journey to the planet. The metal crumpled
beneath the power of his Vulcan assault, and the other people around him
jumped nervously. It had been an action beyond his own volition, and after
he made it he immediately regretted the emotional display. He arranged his
face into its usual expression of bland impassivity, and returned his
attention to the display screen, watching as the picture from the
Enterprise buckled and wavered under the pounding the ship was enduring.
McCoy, accompanied by a shaky Maslin, joined the rest of the landing party.
Maslin slowly walked to Uhura, and stood gazing thoughtfully at her.
"I didn't appreciate what you did," he said at last.
"I didn't think you would."
"Then why did you do it?"
.,To protect you.9'
"But they killed Donovan and the cub," he said miserably. "And I wanted to
do something."
He had that little-boy-lost look again, and Uhura felt her heart go out to
him. No doubt this was the first time he had ever seen death, and she could
still remember her own shock and confusion when, after a-pitched battle
against rebels on Wynet V, she had found herself staring down at the
twisted body of the captain of the small cruiser that had been her first
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-assigmnent out of the academy. She reached out to him and, folding her arms
around his thin form, pulled him tight against her body.
"I've made Yeoman Chou as comfortable as possible, but she really needs to
be in sick bay," McCoy announced to Spock, pulling the Vulcan's attention
away from the compuscroen on the synthesizer.
"Regretfully, Doctor, that is not an option that is at present open to us.
'I
"Why? What's going on?" Maslin asked, lifting his head from Uhura's
shoulder.
"How do you feel about becoming a lost human colony?" Ragsdale grunted
before Spock had a chance to reply.
"Why? What is it?" the composer demanded again.
'The Enterprise is under heavy attack," Kali said quietly, "and it seems
unlikely she can survive. Your brilliant captain notwithstanding," she
quickly added, to soothe the humans Who Were already starting to bristle at
her unconscious slur of Kirk.
Ragsdale," Spock said dryly. "If the Enterprise is destroyed we will then
be captured or killed by the remaining Kfingons."
Everyone stood clumped in miserable silence, and watched the events
unfolding on the screen. Suddenly the computer stopped its steady
chattering and announced, "Time to full Systems failure--nineteen minutes,
seven seconds."
There was a stir from the assembled people, but no one spoke. There really
wasn't anything to say.
Kirk, like his first officer, was also aware of the steady loss Of
essential systems. He kept one eye on the tiny readout on the arm of his
chair, and one eye on the screen, hying to keep one jump ahead of their
attackers.
The Enterprise shuddered and bucked under another blast of deadly disruptor
fire, and people went sprawling in all
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The Tears of the Singers
directions. Kor grabbed the arm of Kirk's chair, and pulled himself to his
feet.
"Perhaps you ought to consider heading in another direction," he said
softly into Kirk's ear. "The captains of those other ships are beginning to
hit more often because they know where you are heading."
"I too know where I'm heading, and I have no intention of wasting power in
useless maneuverings."
"You mean you have a plan?"
Kirk winced a bit, and even managed a smile at the unconscious and
incredulous emphasis. "Yes, Commander, I actually have a plan." And he
turned his attention back to the screen.
He was grateful when Kor stepped silently back to his position behind the
command chair, for he didn't want to elaborate upon his plan-he didn't much
like it himself, but he could see no alternative. Never, in all his years
of narrow escapes and tight spots, had he viewed suicide as the only
option, but now he had reached that decision. He knew that the Klingons
could not be permitted to take and enslave the Thygetians, and use their
awesome power against the Federation. He also knew that the Klingons would
be unable to mount another expedition to Thygeta. before the phenomenon
consumed the Singers' sun, and they went down into a cold, dark and silent
death. It seemed a cruel solution, but at least the people of hundreds of
other worlds would be safe from the Thygetian power in Klingon hands.
Having recognized all this, his only remaining duty was to remove the
Klingon cruisers.
That the Enterprise and all her crew had to be sacrificed in the process
almost gagged him, but he held firm to his duty. His only problem now would
be tricking the Klingons into following him in this last dangerous gamble.
The second planet in the Thygetian system loomed up on the screen. Kirk
sucked in a deep breath and held it for a moment while he took a last fond
look about the bridge of his 208
The Tears of the Singers
ship, and the people who had been
his comrades for so many years.
"Mr. Sulu, drop all shields, and channel the power directly to the engines.
Mr. Chekov, please do the same with the phaser banks. Then Mr. Sulu, build
up full speed and take us right over the top of that planet, and drop us
down the other side."
"But Captain," Mr. Scott began as he took a half step toward Kirk.
The Captain held up one hand to forestall him. "Please, Scotty, give me
everything you've got."
"But it will horribly overload the crystals!" he said, his accent thick
with distress. "It may even shatter them!"
"It won't matter once we clear the planet," Kirk said quietly, and Kor
stared at him in amazement and admiration.
"The phenomenon. You are going to take us into the phenomenon, and like
hounds after a hare they will follow us in before they realize what is
happening."
"That is the general idea, yes." There was a murmur from the bridge crew,
quickly silenced.
"Transfers complete, Captain," Sulu sang out after receiving a confirming
nod from a white-faced Chekov.
"Full power on my command." Kirk tensely watched -the screen, waiting until
the Klingons were virtually within range and rushing carelessly forward,
emboldened by the loss of their enemy's shields. "Now!" he shouted, and
brought his hand down as if signaling the start of a race.
The Enterprise leaped like a startled deer, and raced for the planet. Sulu
sent her skimming over the barren surface, not wasting speed or time by
making a large arc. Then they were over the other side, and the luminescent
tendrils from the space/time warp drifted about them.
Kirk heard a sound like delicate chiming bells, and in the next instant
tasted the same sound. He shook his head, trying to keep his mind clear as
it was overloaded with a barrage of bizarre and alien sensations. All
around him people began to
- . 209
The Tears of the Singers
lose control. Some giggled and capered about the bridge, while others stared
in rapt contemplation of something only they could see.
The instruments on the bridge began to glow with a pale, multicolored
witch's fire that danced along the floor and ceiling in time to that
strange and beautiful chiming. Everything was beginning to warp and fade,
and Kirk realized he had lost touch with his own body. Ae could see it
seated there in the insubstantial command chair, but he wasn't there.
"Captain," he heard Kor say softly. "It was a privilege to know you. You
are worthy to be a Klingon." And then they were gone.
210
Chapter Thirteen
Spock stared down at the now blank screen. Ifis shoulders and neck were
rigid with tension, and his hands slowly tightened on the edge of the
synthesizer, leaving deep gouges from the pressure of his Vulcan fingers.
Maslin instinctively reached out and, grabbing Spock by one wrist, tried to
pull his hand away. This touch seemed to bring the Vulcan back to himself.
He straightened slowly, almost painfully, and turned to face the
white-faced landing party.
"Where have they gone, Mr. Spock?" Uhura asked, her voice small with shock
and anguish.
"Who can say, Lieutenant?" He looked back at the blank, gray synthesizer
screen. "Perhaps into an alternate universe, or perhaps they are still in
our universe, but in an altered state.9'
"Any chance of your miraculous captain pulling the ship out of this one?"
Maslin asked. The words were sarcastic; the tone wasn't.
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The Tears of the Singers
"No," came Spock's blunt, hope-killing reply.
Kali stood off to one side of the humans, her arms wrapped tightly about
her body as if she feared that if she let go she would fly into a million
pieces. Her face was impassive, but her eyes were wells of anguish. Uhura
stepped to her side, and placed a comforting hand on the other woman's
shoulder.
"At least he did not die at Karsul's hands," Kali whispered, forcing the
words past stiff lips. "He would have liked the way your captain lured them
in after him. To die in such a heroic fashion would have . . ." Her control
broke, and she began to cry in small, almost silent little sobs that
nonetheless shook her slender body with their muted violence.
"Are they dead?" Maslin asked bluntly.
"I don't think so," Spock replied, but he forbore to give his reason for
this belief. It was so illogical that he aftnost cringed when he admitted
it to himself. Still, it could not be denied that somewhere deep within
himself he believed that Kirk still lived. That powerful bond that held him
to his captain was still there, and he believed, however foolish it might
seem, that that bond would not be broken until death claimed one of them.
Maslin dug his hands into his pockets and, narrowing his eyes, stared up
the glittering cliffs to where the Singers still continued their
world-spanning song. He suddenly whirled, and. sliding onto the bench began
to bring up the synthesizer.
"What are you doing?" Spock asked, looking down into the small man's
intense white face.
"ne Thygetians have the power to manipulate matter, possibly even time and
space in some way we don't understand. So let's get them to bring back the
Enterprise for us."
"You cannot be serious. We have no evidence that the Thygetians possess
such a power."
The composer shifted on the bench to stare challengingly up at the Vulcan.
"And we have no evidence that they can't,
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The Tears of the Sinprs
so I suggest we try it. It's better than sitting here passively waiting to
die."
McCoy stepped into the conversation. "You know what I told you in the tent.
The disease is beginning to flare again. You try a stunt like this and you
will die."
"Doctor, we're all going to die if we don't do something. 'Mat phenomenon
is only a few hundred kilometers from the sun. If it goes we'll all
die-you, me, the Taygetians, everyone!"
"What makes you think you can succeed now when every other attempt has
failed?" Spock asked.
"Fear," Maslin said succinctly. "It's a pretty damn good motivator for a
creative insight."
"That is not logical."
"Yes, and that's why I'm a musician, and you're not. In spite of your great
technical ability you could never be an artist, because at base, once -all
the mathematics and the theory is removed there is only art, and that comes
from the soul and the heart, not the mind. " He made a few more adjustments
with the synthesizer, and fed back in the Taygetian language program that
he and Spock had so laboriously created. "I understand most of the basic
grammar and vocabulary now so our only problem is finding a way to talk to
them--to make them understand."
"Sounds like a mighty long shot," McCoy said quietly.
"It is, but Doctor, it's the only shot we've got." He began to play, a
hauntingly beautiful improvisation based on the Thygetian song, and the
cubs returned, drawn as he had known they would be by the heartrending
&
nbsp; music.
Uhura stood rigidly at Kati's side, watching the play of Maslin's long
fingers across the keyboards, the way muscles and tendons tightened in his
neck when he threw back his head and half closed his eyes as he
concentrated on the music he was creating. She had seen McCoy remonstrating
with the composer, and she knew with a deadly certainty what had 213
The Tears of the Singers
been said. She had also seen Maslin's dismissive gesture, and h er heart and
mind were filled with an anguish so great that it was almost a physical
pain.
No, pkase no, she thought frantically. She wanted to rush to his side, beg
him not to make this effort, but she knew it was useless. Men like Kirk, or
Maslin, or Spock followed only the dictates of their consciences, and acted
upon their own driving codes of honor and duty. Pleas about love and need
could distress and upset them, but never, never turn them from that sacred
dream that they all served in varying ways.
"Sometimes I think it is a curse to love such men," Kali said softly. The
Klingon woman had recovered herself, and now stood once more proud and
controlled at Uhura's side.
"And you would know, don't you?"
64,Oklas, yes- 29
"And how do you handle it?"
"By loving and supporting him, and praying to the gods to return him safe
to me when he has finished following his dreams."
"But why must our dreams always be so different?" Uhura whispered
miserably.
"Go to him, give him what help you can," Kali said softly, and gave Uhura
a gentle shove. Uhura walked quickly to the synthesizer and, standing
behind Maslin, placed her hands possessively on his shoulders. He threw her
a quick smile and returned to his music, and she stood quietly holding him
as if by her very physical presence she could keep him safe.
Kali watched for several moments, then walked away to sit quietly staring
out to sea while the song wove its mysterious pattern about her, and
brought some measure of ease to her wounded heart.
"Respondl God damn you! Why won't you respond!" Guy suddenly shouted while
beating his fists desperately on the edge of the synthesizer.