What follows is a wonderful tale of worldbuilding, a very interesting alien culture, and the unraveling of a very knotty problem. We get alternating sections following McCoy and his colleagues, and, when they find the planet, Kirk, Uhura, Spock, Chekov, the interim Medical Director Evan Wilson, and Sulu beam down to the planet to make contact. Kirk and the Enterprise, with Spock and Uhura still working on the information they have, to locate the homeworld, head off to find it. McCoy and others on the planet look for a successful treatment or cure. They don’t even want it being said that there was a homeworld. The Eeiauoans can’t, or rather won’t, help them, because they left their homeworld for what they consider deeply shameful reasons. Together they set to work figuring out where their homeworld is. Uhura has reached the same conclusion from reexamining the songs Sunfall taught her. Spock works out that the Eeiauoans can’t be native to their current world. Chapel is among the humans who have fallen ill. McCoy and others are on the surface working directly with Eeiauoan medical personnel. One of those dying is Uhura’s old friend, Sunfall. The infected individuals become weak, their fur (or hair, as they make the unhappy discovery it also affects humans), become stiff and achy, they fall into comas, and die. Years later, Uhura is now the communications officer on the USS Enterprise, which is on a mission of mercy to Eeiauo, where a terrible plague has broken out. The graceful, catlike Sunfall of Ennian even shares songs with Uhura, and the Old Tongue they are sung in, that are not to be shared except with other bards.
The two women bonded over music, singing, and the songs of their respective peoples and cultures. Uhura met a young diplomat from the world of Eeiauo. I’ll admit upfront this is a nostalgic favorite.
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