| Author | Message | ||
     Lt Cmdr-In-Limbo Maiko |
Deep in the depths of space and time exists a moment in which there was nothing but a single flash. Scientists contemplate the nature of what that flash was, how it came to be, but never seem to wonder what was there before, if there was indeed anything. Perhaps the thought of something from nothing sounds too irrational, or too religious. But in the end, one thing is clear - everything likely came from that one point in time, that one place, from the same thing. We are all children of that flash, born from the matter it expulsed, nurtured by it, and when we die we return to it. And eventually, in some distant point in time and space, it will end. The universe we know it will stop expanding, then slowly, and finally quickly contract, falling in upon itself until all is reunited. Sometimes it's hard to remember that fact, that we are all related in at least one way, among others. Reading up on recent history, learning of the Progenitors who seeded countless worlds in the Milky Way with primordial life that would eventually become Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Vulcan... Human. It is perhaps the ultimate irony that Starfleet's primary mission is to explore space, when in fact we are only seeking out that which is already a part of us and that which we are a part of. It is, in the end, not the exploration of space, but merely finding another part of ourselves that was lost for a little while and now refound. And sometimes, like the Pfhor, what we find we don't like. Perhaps the meaning of life is to learn to accept that, and to accept others for our common origins and common destiny unite us all. - Excerpt from "For This I Get To Wear A Phaser?" - Autobiography of Maiko D'rall (excerpted from personal logs) -- Personal Log, Maiko D'rall, SD240401.08 I left off my last entry talking about the Pfhor. It seems only right that I note some of my thinking on the matter the last few days. I have found my views on the Pfhor somewhat unsettled the last few days. Those who died at Lh'owon, on Reor, in every engagement of the war... they don't seem enough suffering inflicted on them as a people for the travesties they committed before. But then I read biographies of famous Starfleet officers - Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Hartman... the Farrells and the Parrises and the Longfellows... and I see instances where just how far some people have gone to avenge prior wrongs... Because for all the great officers of the fleet, there are the evil officers, or even just the misguided officers and civilians. Garth. Amaris. Maxwell. Watters. Marr. Maxwell in particular, who came up in a biography about Picard. So I did a little research. Here is a man who was highly decorated. A combat veteran. Hero of the Federation. Except he lost his family in a Cardassian raid. Out of range, unable to help or something like that. And he bore his resentment of the Cardassians until one day he finally snapped. Took out a few ships and an outpost. Dozens, if not hundreds dead. All in retribution for a single family. I can't help but think if I might have become him, that I could become him if I keep holding this anger at the Pfhor. So maybe I have to give them the chance to prove themselves worthy of not being wiped out to the last (again). And maybe, in a small way, our common origins represent the starting point to perhaps allowing me to think of them in a way other than 'hated enemy'. Time will tell whether this will be the beginning of the end... or the end of the beginning. |