Remembering Friends

by Qzeebrella

Series: TOS

Codes: Ensemble

Rating: PG, death and remembrance

Disclaimer: Star Trek, its universe and characters belongs to Paramount/Viacom. This poem belongs to me. I haven’t made a cent and I don’t intend to.

Scotty plays his bagpipes for the whole crew once a year. It is a time

honoured tradition for our ship to pay respect for all those who have

died in service of Starfleet or a planetary service organization.

Those who can come to the rec room do and those who must remain on

duty listen to the ceremony piped through the ships intercom.

Scotty always looks resplendent in Highland Formal, with Kirk by his

side, both with several rows of medals showing how many years they

have served and how well they have done so. It is the one time of the

year in which I am honoured to wear my dress uniform and the one time

in the year that I actually bother to stand at attention.

A wet behind the ears Petty Officer lowers our Federation of Planets

flag to half mast and Scotty pauses in his playing so that a Yeoman

can play Taps on a bugle. The civilian support staff are all here, all

wearing their "goin' to church clothes," as my granny would put it.

The corner of honour is bedecked with framed pictures of the fallen.

People who have died while serving on the Enterprise. With those who

"went ahead" over the last year front and centre. Rows and rows of

others behind them, each one looking like a wet behind the ears kid to

me.

This year we lost Kenny, a good man who put himself between a pissed

off Chieftain's daughter with a knife and Jim. Next to him is Terjam,

a young Andorian woman lost when a torpedo hit our ship, just as the

shields she was working on sprung back up. There's Jack and Daniel,

who died as they lived - together. There's Sedge who did a kamikaze

run in the hopes of saving some villagers. There are Henry, Calla, and

June, who died from a illness they contracted on a planet we went to,

an illness I found the cure to too late. I thought of them all as

friends and I miss them all.

Today I remember them and I honour their sacrifice. They were all

proud to serve and all did their very best while here on Enterprise

with us. Today I honour their sacrifice of time and work, and I hope -

god how I hope, that their sacrifice wasn't in vain. That all those

who died while serving Starfleet or some other "we don't have a

military any more Bones. We have planetary service organizations"

thing lived their lives well. For it is what they did while they lived

that I remember now. I remember how they were each and all "good

people." I remember their smiles and their laughter, their anger, and

their tears. I remember their reluctance to seek medical help and

their always being happy to see me as long as I wasn't carrying a

hypo. I remember them. All of them are worth remembering.

That is why we're here today in the rec room, listening to Scotty play

Amazing Grace on his bagpipes. We're pausing to remember the fallen

and to be thankful for all those of our friends who are still here to

serve. We're taking time to remember all our friends on other ships

and making a wish that they'll stay safe. We're vowing to do our best

always to serve with honour as all those who died, died with honour.

When the music stops, I will go to the corner of honour and pay my respects.

"I'll miss you my friends and I'm glad to have known each and every

one of you. Till we meet again, I will remember."

The end.