Last Full Measure - Michael A. Martin [119]
None of the dead are here. If they’re here, it’s because we brought them. If they’re here, it’s because we carry them around inside us. And we come to places like this so they can finally move on.
And so we can move on, too.
Trip’s gaze fell on the monument’s large duranium-silver plaque, on which he saw Abraham Lincoln’s name inscribed. One of Lincoln’s immortal turns of phrase sprang to mind unbidden.
…for us, the living…
His vision rapidly becoming occluded by an upwelling of tears, Trip continued staring at the plaque—the same plaque from which the older Kirk boy had made his rubbing. It bore more words that he had heard Jonathan Archer utter years earlier, at the first of far too many crew memorial services he’d had to conduct during the Xindi crisis:
The result is not doubtful. We shall not
fail—if we stand firm, we shall not fail.
Wise counsels may accelerate, or
mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later,
the victory is sure to come.
—Abraham Lincoln,
June 16, 1858
Although Trip knew that those words had been selected because they spoke of perseverance during a time of war, today’s impending Federation Day festivities gave Lincoln’s speech an additional layer of meaning—as did the new Constitution-class starship that Larry Marvick’s team was now bringing into being far above San Francisco’s cloud-bedecked skies.
Just as it had on that very first Federation Day, Earth once again stood poised on the threshold of the future. Even with the vast resources and lofty ideals of the Federation, meeting that future successfully might require of humanity just as much grit and determination as the Xindi threat had demanded of the captain and crew of NX-01. Or perhaps as much resolve and wisdom as an even earlier troubled age had required of Lincoln and his people.
Trip rose to his feet and slung the lightened duffel over his back. Raindrops pattered across his collar and back as the sky finally began to weep in earnest.
Good-bye, baby sister.
He faced Marvick, who stood blinking in the rain. “Let’s go, Larry. I think it’s time.”
Trip took one final, lingering look back at the wreath and the rain-spattered monument. Then he turned and began walking quickly back down the hill as Marvick rushed to catch up.
The time had come at last to face whatever remained of the future.
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Historian’s Note
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Epilogue