The tenth mission in their exploration
they came upon a nebula
which produced sound of such frequencies
on subspace radio like a song
for five nights, five days they scanned, recorded
the dark dusty cloud that slowly moved
particles closer, farther, gathering
dissolving, emitting, and strangely could not prove
if this cloud and song was the end of a star
the distinct remnant of supernova
or beginning of a new solar system
the dust to collapse, form a young cluster
as the ship flew around to take detailed readings
the crew all noticed the breadth and the size
their sensors detected it was not one cloud
but like the Eagle Nebula had regions comprised
of dust newly amassed, tall like a pillar
and dust newly dead, shot through the core
and hidden within the dust there was gathered
protostars spinning, gaining mass, accounting for
the sweet notes of the song, light like soprano
the low tones of the clouds, dark like a bass
the measured hum of their warp core, steady like an alto
against the deep and pure silence of black outer space
and in the middle was singing, high as their heartbeats
the thread of a tenor, the notes faint and trace
perhaps even imagined, for space has no sound which
is organized point, counterpoint, form, consonance
still this sound filled their system, five days and five nights
they listened while sleeping, eating, recovering
what the sound gave to each, who knows that answer
but the sound lighted through them like a mythical thing
at the end of five nights, they proceeded onward
their sense of space changed facing clouds of lightyears
the captain, he named it the Siren Nebula
and they flew away
free of grief
free of fear.