Taygetian

The Taygetian are a species native to Taygeta V in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Biology
The Taygetians were silver white creatures. The little cubs were cute enough, with their pale blue eyes and ingeniously smiling faces. Adults had more darken eyes with midnight blue. The tears of these creatures were said to crystallize making valuable gemstomes.

Background
In the 23rd century the Taygetians were classified by the Federation as animals due to the lack of communication with the strange creatures. When it was discovered that the tears of Taygetians would produce gems upon death, human hunters began to slaughter the defenseless adults to sate their greed. The loss of many of their kind began to affect the song of the Taygetians causing a rift in the space-time that began to affect the surrounding sectors. This phenomena attracted the attention of Starfleet and the Klingon High Command. When the Enterprise commanded by Captain Kirk was faced with his rival Kor, the two groups decided to pool their resources to find a solution. It was determined that the Taygetians were connected to the rift, and learning that stranded hunters were found to still butchering the innocent aliens, the Klingons and Starfleet personnel rounded the murderers up when they refused to stop the massacre.

A human musician managed to find a way to communicate with the Taygetians via singing and communication with the young cubs was established who managed to rely a message to the adults. Roused from their task the adults demanded that the humans and Klingons leave. It took some convincing by Kirk to explain that their song was adversely affecting space, and offered them a new future for their young to be open to the larger cosmos. Once the Taygetians were brought to the Federation Council to state their case, it was expected that the Taygetians would be sought to assist in terraforming ventures.

Culture
Taygetians use the power of their song coupled with an extremely high psychic ability to manipulate their environment. Due to a calamity of a supernova that occurred in the Taygeta system, the Taygetians have devoted all their time in maintaining the Great Song to shield their world from radiation. However even after the threat had passed the tradition was still maintained to the point that when the Taygetians reach adulthood they devote all their time to singing. This devotion has left them to neglect all forms of society, even defense.

Appearance

 * Star Trek: The Tears of the Singers by Melinor Snoograss (1984)