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“Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.” – Oscar Wilde
Memory is a capricious thing. I’m often surprised by the vivid associations evoked by a color, a scent, a song…
When Degra visited Enterprise, when we were trying to find a peaceful solution to the Xindi crisis, we found a common interest in music. He was particularly drawn to traditional Irish music. The sound of Uilleann pipes reminded him of the instrument he played himself… a Xindi woodwind called a tothra, if I recall correctly.
Before he left, I gave him copies of the music from our database. Now, forty years later, I hear the song he loved and I’m back there in a heartbeat. We tried to keep in touch, but our careers have carried us in different directions since the founding of the Federation.
But I know that somewhere on their new homeworld, an old Xindi is teaching his grandchildren to play the tothra, playing Sliabh na mBan.
It makes me smile, remembering…