“Forests where only deserts had been before,” Mendez muttered softly from her position at the science station.
“Precisely, Lieutenant,” Spock said. “There was nothing wrong with the instruments. They were in fact presenting us with accurate readings which we foolishly chose to ignore. If we had been less incredulous we might have had our answer a good deal earlier.”
“Let’s see if I’ve got this straight, Spock,” Kirk broke in. “The Taygetians are able to adjust their environment to suit themselves?”
“Yes, Captain. Using the power of their song they can literally make the deserts bloom.”
“And make marginal planets inhabitable?” Kirk suggested softly.
“Yes.”
“Incredible.”
“But we’re not finished yet, Kirk,” Maslin said with a cocky smile. “We’ve solved the space/time warp problem.”
“What!”
“Well, perhaps not solved it, Captain,” Spock hurriedly corrected. “But we do understand the mechanics of its creation. The phenomenon was caused by a disruption of the harmonics in warp space brought about by the loss of voices due to the hunters.”
“So how do we get rid of it?”
Spock looked hesitant, then shook his head. “Uncertain, Captain. We have several theories which we continue to pursue. I am confident, however, that we will be able to resolve the problem in a relatively short space of time.”
“It better be, Spock, because time is the one thing we’re running out of. Right, Kor?” Silence answered him. “Kor?”
“Captain,” T’zeela said. “We’ve lost contact with the Klingon flagship.”
“Shields up,” Kirk snapped at Sulu. “And keep a close watch on those cruisers,” he added. “Have they responded in any way to the raising of our shields?”
“Negative, Captain. No increase in engine power, nothing to indicate they’re about to move. They’re just holding position.”
“Damn it, Kali, what’s going on? Why did Kor break contact?”
She hesitated for a long moment, obviously troubled by his request, and wondering if it put her in the position of possibly betraying her people. At last she answered. “I expect he had decided it had become too dangerous to allow the crews of our ships to hear any more.”
“Why? And dangerous to whom?”
“We are not a wealthy race, Kirk, you know that. Many of the planets of the Empire are barren, rocky, producing little.” She hesitated again, her eyes filled with worry. “Surely you can appreciate our dilemma.”
“Meaning that the Klingons might try to …” He paused, searching for a more tactful word then enslave. “To … to appropriate the Taygetians for their own purposes?”
“Not Kor,” Kali said quickly. “Never Kor, but there are others … less patient and more hotheaded than he, who might decide to act.”
“Thank you for your honesty, Kali. I know it wasn’t easy for you, but it was essential if we’re going to keep this situation under control.”
“Captain, do you wish me to return to the ship?” Spock asked.
“No, stay where you are, and find a way to repair that rip. I’ll worry about the Klingons.”
Everyone looked abnormally grim-faced as he broke contact, and he knew his expression wasn’t much happier. They were in a devil of a position, with power down and two Klingon battle cruisers off their flank … and their only hope to avoid a battle rested with a man who, Kirk was convinced, stood in imminent danger of losing his command.
Chapter Eleven
They were all ranged about the conference room gazing at him with feral, expectant expressions that filled him with a sense of dread. All these officers, these young wolves of the Empire, had been held in check by his authority, and the lack of a clear reason to fight. But all that had changed now. The stakes had just become frighteningly high.
“What is it, Kor? What have the Earthers discovered?” Kandi asked from where he straddled a chair, his arms folded on the back. His cruiser had not been a party to the earlier discussion.
Kor hesitated, and Karsul, his eyes glittering with malice, said, “Yes, Commander, tell them what the Earthers have discovered.”
Too late Kandi realized that he had walked Kor into a vise. He threw his friend an apologetic glance, to which Kor replied with a small shake of the head. He then drew in a quick breath and, gripping the edge of the table, began.
“The human, Maslin, together with the Vulcan, has succeeded in translating the Taygetian song. To put it plainly, the creatures have the power to alter and create environments.”
Kandi gave a low whistle, and dropped his chin onto his folded arms. “A most useful skill for people beset with less-than-perfect worlds. Not to sound disloyal, but even our home world is no blossoming paradise.”
“If we use the mind-sifter will we be able to learn the secret of the Taygetians’ power?” the chief medical officer of Klothos asked.
“There is no need to use the sifter,” Kor replied. “The Taygetians use the power of their song coupled with an extremely high psychic ability to manipulate their environment. Learning their methods will do us little good, for as a race we show only the most rudimentary psychic ability, and the talent is very rare.” The door to the conference room slid open, and Kali entered. Kor had ordered her back to the ship immediately upon the conclusion of Spock and Maslin’s briefing. He wasn’t precisely certain why he had called her back; maybe to provide a firsthand report of the breakthrough, maybe only to provide him with the support he so desperately needed. Her eyes met his, and he found himself soothed by her golden gaze. He gave her a slight nod, and she slid into a chair at the back of the room.
“What is all this talk of learning the Taygetian ability?” Tamboli, a young lieutenant who was an admirer and adherent of Karsul’s, demanded as he flung himself out of his chair and began to pace the room. “Are we old women that we must negotiate and parley, and beg for crumbs from the Earthers? We are Klingons! We take what we want! Let us take these Taygetians. They will soon learn to bend to our bidding.”
“Stupid fool,” Kali said, rising from her chair. “And how will you ‘bend’ the Taygetians to your bidding?” she asked scornfully. “I have been on the planet, studied the creatures. Nothing we can do would affect them. They are totally oblivious to everything but their song. You will kill them all trying to make them obey, and all we will be left with is an empty world, and a mountain of rotting corpses.”
“The Lieutenant Commander’s point is well made, I think,” Kor said softly.
Tamboli began to bluster, then Karsul rose smoothly from his chair, and placed a restraining hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “Peace, friend, and it seems you were right, at least partially. Most of us may not have degenerated into women, but it seems we are led by them. Keep to your place, girl,” he said with an arrogant look to Kali. “We will tell you when your services are required—and for what.”
Kandi threw a nervous glance at Kor, fearful of how his commander would react to this slur against his bride, but Kor remained quiet and impassive.
Karsul rose from his chair and, swaggering forward, seated himself on the edge of the table. In this way he blocked Kor from the view of most of the room, and effectively usurped his position.
“All this talk of reforming worlds is well enough, but it is untimely. The real value of this gift that has been thrown into our laps is its power as a weapon. Time enough to make the deserts bloom when we have swept the humans and their allies from the galaxy. We have the power to devastate a world, but it requires ships and men and bombs. How much simpler to have the Taygetians sweep a world clean of all life. A few such demonstrations of our power, and the Federation would be begging for mercy.”
“You haven’t been listening,” Kali said, obviously undeterred by his earlier rebuke. “We can’t even communicate with the Taygetians, much less control them.”
“But the humans have a man who will ultimately be able to communicate wi
th the creatures,” Karsul replied with a thin smile. “We must attack the Enterprise, destroy her, and take this Maslin. After a little ‘persuasion’ I am certain he will be more than willing to help us enslave the Taygetians.”
“No!” Kali cried, advancing into the center of the room. “They must not be harmed. They are magic, they are beauty. To use them would be wrong, it would be a blot on the honor of our race that could never be expunged.” She looked beseechingly around the circle of stunned and angry faces. “Why? Why must we always kill? Is there no other way for us?”
“Traitor!” Karsul shouted, advancing on her with an upraised hand. “You’re no Klingon, you’re a puling Earther. You shame the uniform you wear.”
She faced him defiantly, but her eyes were filled with fear as she watched his hand descending toward her upturned face, It never connected. Kor caught Karsul by the forearm, and threw him over his shoulder into a corner of the room. Spitting blood and teeth from his injured mouth, the young officer tried to rise. Kor moved languidly to him and, placing his boot in the middle of Karsul’s chest, held him in place.
“So you want to attack and destroy the Enterprise, do you? You young fool, this is Kirk we’re talking about. Not some useless desk pilot who just happens to have a ship. This man is a legend in his own time. He and his crew have faced and conquered dangers that have defeated even Imperial cruisers. And you puppies,” he spat out the word as if it tasted bad, “you puppies think you can take this man? I’m afraid you have much to learn of command,” he stated quietly. No one contradicted him as he glanced quickly about the assembled officers. “Therefore, when and how we take on the Enterprise will be decided by me.” Once more he slowly surveyed the room, watching his officers’ eyes slide nervously away from his. A humorless smile curved his lips. “I’m so glad we all agree,” he said dryly, and held out his hand to Kali. There wasn’t a sound as he led her from the room.
“For once in your life would you please not argue with me!” Kor shouted down into his bride’s face. She stayed stubbornly on the steps of the shuttle, clinging to the edges of the door with both hands.
“I am going with you to the Enterprise. I will not stay here alone.”
“I don’t want you to stay here. I want you to go back to Taygeta.”
“No. That is no better. I have been away from you enough in the past few days. I am going to stay with you now.”
“Gods give me patience,” he moaned, lifting clenched fists into the air. “Kali, why do you think I am flying a shuttle to the Enterprise rather than using the transporter or taking a pilot?”
“You think they are going to make their move,” she said, her throat suddenly very dry.
“Yes, and it would be far too easy to scatter my molecules across the galaxy and claim an accident, or place an assassin in the pilot’s seat to kill me between here and the Enterprise. Now do you see why I need you on Taygeta to keep an eye on Quarag and the others? The last thing I need is to give Karsul a chance to seize the advantage by taking Maslin.”
“Oh, Kor,” she cried, her voice breaking a little on the words. “What if they kill you and I am far away? I cannot bear it! I cannot bear it,” she repeated and, throwing her arms around his neck, clung to him with a desperation that almost snapped his own control.
He held her slender body tight against him, and rubbed his cheek against the top of her head, breathing in the fragrance of her hair. “If things should go badly, go to Kirk. He will protect you.”
“Leave my people?” she asked, aghast.
“It will surely be better than life with Karsul, don’t you think?” he asked, lifting her chin so he could look into her eyes.
“What are you, Kor? You’re clearly not a Klingon anymore.”
With a sigh he sat down on the steps of the shuttle and pulled her down next to him. “Yes I am,” he said gently. “It’s just that I’m an older Klingon now, and I’ve seen too many things to blindly accept Imperial dogma anymore. I say it now: Kirk is an honorable man and a fine soldier. I would welcome a chance to test my skill against his—but not here, not now. He has shown his integrity by maintaining the truce and sharing all the discoveries made by the landing party. I would not willingly prove myself false in the face of his probity. Besides,” he said, pressing a soft kiss onto her cheek, “you said it well only a few minutes ago. Why must we always kill? Is there no other way for us? And if there is, is this perhaps not the time to try it?”
She ran her hand down his cheek, and sighed. “I will go back to Taygeta, but please let me transport down from the Enterprise. Grant me a little more time to be with you.”
“I can think of nothing that would please me as much as having you with me.” That crooked little smile that she so loved twisted his lips, and he leaned in to whisper in her ear. “And as for time to be with me … you, woman, will never escape from me. You will have to guide my tottering feet as I enter my dotage, and everyone will envy this old man with the beautiful young wife.”
“Just see to it you stay alive to enjoy it,” she retorted as she stood and stepped into the shuttle.
“Drink?” Kirk asked from where he stood near the beverage dispenser on the wall of the conference room.
“Just tea. If I start on anything stronger I might not stop,” Kor said.
“Problems?” Kirk asked casually as he dialed up a tea and a coffee.
“Oh Kirk, you are a sly one,” the Klingon said as he leaned back in his chair, and regarded the human with amusement. “You would just love to learn my weaknesses, wouldn’t you?”
“I can probably guess some of them. Why else would you come alone in a shuttle, and send your wife back to the planet from the Enterprise rather than from your own ship?”
Kor waved a dismissing hand. “None of that matters right now. What concerns me more are the findings of the landing party. I must know your mind, Kirk. Otherwise, I may be forced to destroy you.”
“You’re welcome to try, but my crew and I will have something to say about that.”
“Don’t you think I know it? You are a legend, Kirk. To fight you and win would bring me great honor. To fight you and lose is not something I wish to contemplate.”
“How about not fighting me at all?” the captain asked, leaning back to place his boots on the table, and regarding Kor over the rim of his coffee cup.
“That is the issue, isn’t it? To fight or not to fight? To use the power of the Taygetians for good or for destruction? And if I leave the Taygetians to you what will your Federation do with them?”
A frown wrinkled Kirk’s forehead. “Do with them? What do you mean do with them? We’ll set up diplomatic contact, we’ll send scientists to study them, and have them study us, and ultimately we’ll offer them membership in the Federation which they can take or leave as they choose.”
“You are either very naïve, Kirk, or you bluff very well.” He rose from the chair, and began to pace the room. “But what about the other option, Captain? My young officers have seen it. Why not use the Taygetian power to destroy worlds?”
“It could be done, but it’s not our style.”
“Well, it’s not my style either,” Kor said harshly, as he whirled to face Kirk. “A clean fight—ship against ship, man against man, that I can accept; but as for the rest …” He ran a hand wearily across his face and sank once more into a chair. He sat silent for several moments, then gave Kirk an ironic glance. “I guess I’m getting old, but I seem to have lost my taste for wholesale slaughter on a planetary scale.”
“If that’s the result of aging, I could almost wish we could spread a dose of that radiation poisoning I ran into on Gamma Hydra IV around the galaxy. Then, once we had all decided that peace was better than war, we could reverse the process.”
“You’re a dreamer, Kirk,” Kor said with a humorless smile, and took a sip of tea. “War is the natural condition of all races. We’ll no doubt stop fighting when the last living creature is gone, or the universe dies.”
“I think you’re too pessimistic. Peace is possible. Take the Vulcans or the Organians.”
Kor made a face. “Thank you, I would rather not. In some ways the Organians are responsible for the problems I currently find myself beset with.”
Kirk laced his hands behind his head, and regarded the Klingon for a long moment. He then swung his feet off the table, and leaned in on Kor. “Okay, enough of this discussion of philosophy. You obviously didn’t come over here to debate the relative merits of war and peace, nor did you come solely to confess your own inner doubts. So what is it you want?”
“You are a man without subtlety or diplomacy, Kirk.”
“As a Klingon you ought to find that refreshingly familiar.”
Kor gave a short bark of laughter, and held up one hand. “A hit, indeed I concede the hit.” He sobered quickly and, setting aside his tea mug, leaned in on Kirk until they were almost eye to eye. “All right, we will dispense with all this fencing. I am frightened.” Kirk raised an eyebrow. “Yes, it is the truth. We are orbiting a planet whose inhabitants hold a terrifying power, and I don’t know where my duty lies. If I leave Taygeta to the Federation will you use this weapon against my own people? And if I take Taygeta I will have to fight you, and …” He paused and, rising from his chair, turned his back on Kirk. He sucked in a deep breath as if steeling himself for some unpleasant confession, and said, “And frankly, I do not trust my own government not to misuse this power that I will give into their hands if I deliver the Singers. Then that leaves me with the third option, which is to destroy the Taygetians, and deny their secret to both sides.”
“There’s a fourth option that you’ve overlooked.”
“Oh, what?” Kor demanded somewhat truculently as he rounded on Kirk.
“How about a situation in which the Taygetians, as a free and independent species, provide their talent to various races in exchange for goods and services?”
“Barter? Become merchants?”
The Tears of the Singers Page 18
