The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [90]
Not that he would sit still for long on Vulcan. The planet was a treasure for archaeologists.
A treasure…highly emotional terminology, but accurate, came that inner voice again. It was logical that that voice had come to the fore of his thoughts: its owner, like Picard, had risked what he valued more than life on his judgment of one man. Both had been right, much to their satisfaction.
“Finally, I come to the matter of Ensign Stefan DeSeve. We took him into custody at Research Station 25 and were bringing him in to stand court-martial for treason. In the battle to extract Vice-Proconsul M’ret and his staff, Mister DeSeve’s knowledge and prompt action saved the Enterprise at the cost of his own life. I have already reported—and I will uphold it at any board of inquiry—my recommendation that all charges against Mister DeSeve be dismissed. In token thereof, I have given orders for him to be buried in space with full military honors”—his voice grew almost harsh to prevent it from shaking—”with the rest of my crew before the Vice-Proconsul leaves Enterprise. I can only add that I consider Stefan DeSeve’s sacrifice to be in the highest tradition of the service.”
Picard ended his log entry. Granted, he had not actually said which military service he actually meant. He didn’t have to. And, if he pushed Fortune even more than Enterprise had been doing lately, no one might ever ask. Besides, did it even matter? DeSeve, N’Vek, even Spock himself—they all served the same cause. Like many others who had died and still more who fought and waited and hoped.
For freedom.
He picked up his cup and raised it to the stars outside. It was just tea, not the Burgundy that would have to keep waiting for him on Vulcan, but it would serve.
“Absent friends,” said Picard, and drained his cup.
Ordinary Days
James Swallow
Historian’s note:
This tale unfolds concurrently with the episode “Journey’s End,” during the seventh season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
JAMES SWALLOW
James Swallow is proud to be the only British writer to have worked on a Star Trek television series, creating the original story concepts for the Star Trek: Voyager episodes “One” and “Memorial”; his other associations with the Star Trek saga include “Closure” for the anthology Distant Shores, scripting the video game Star Trek Invasion, and writing over 400 articles in thirteen different Star Trek magazines around the world.
Beyond the final frontier, as well as a nonfiction book (Dark Eye: The Films of David Fincher), James also wrote the Sundowners series of original steampunk westerns, Jade Dragon, The Butterfly Effect, and fiction in the worlds of Warhammer 40,000 (The Flight of the Eisenstein, Faith & Fire, Deus Encarmine, and Deus Sanguinius), Stargate (Halcyon and Relativity), and 2000AD (Eclipse, Whiteout, and Blood Relative). His other credits include scripts for video games and audio dramas in the worlds of Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, and Space: 1889.
THE TWIN SUNRISE ON DORVAN V PAINTED THE SKY WITH A cherry-red tint that reminded Mika of her grandmother, of the dresses she used to wear. Unlike the rest of her clan, the old woman had never left the land where she had been born, married, had children, and died, and yet Mika felt like she was still with her, casting an eye over their township each time the suns came over the horizon.
Mika wondered what Grandmother would have made of the colony. As long as one didn’t look too hard at the fields of kittik wheat, the second orange star on the horizon, or the odd birds that wheeled in the skies, it wouldn’t be difficult to fool yourself into thinking you were still on Earth. But the fifth planet in the Dorvan system was so very far from the lands of Mika’s ancestors, and the distance was not just a measure of simple light-years. It was a distance of the heart. At night she would see the stars, all the alien constellations, and feel it most strongly. As she walked, she gave a rueful half smile to the emerging day. It was strange for her to think