Distant Echoes (A Star Trek: Andromeda Short Story)

Distant Echoes

         "The future of Starfleet."  Harry lifted his near-empty cup in a salute to Margaret duPris as she walked through the door and disappeared into the broad, wood-paneled corridor outside. "We're in good hands."

          Ethan glanced over at him and gently nodded in quiet accord. "Yeah. I think we are."



          

        Stepping outside Kirk Hall into the biting sea air and bright sunshine of midday San Francisco, Harry and Ethan paused at the top of the long staircase winding its way down to the emerald courtyard below. The former looked around at the sprawling campus before them and then up into the bright blue sky above, several Academy shuttles zipping past with low hums as they sped on to their destinations. "Funny."

         O'Roarke glanced at his former captain with a quizzical glint in his eye. "What's funny?"

         Greene's eyes remained fixed on the sky above as they slowly darted back and forth, scanning the firmament for...something. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, if anything. But his attention had been momentarily and inescapably drawn to the azure heavens covering San Francisco like an enormous and comforting blanket. "What we do."

         "I don't follow, Captain."

         "You know...if my ancestors who settled the old American frontier hundreds of years ago could have in their wildest imaginations seen one of their descendants doing the things I do they'd think they were crazy. They explored rivers and montains and valleys. I've been to worlds and places that no human being of their time could even have conceived of much less traveled to. We're very fortunate people you and I. We live in a special time in history."

         "Agreed, but I don't see what..."

         "Do you remember your first classes on the history of human space exploration? When you're five years old they sit you down at a desk with a padd and a small viewscreen and they tell you about the men and women who made the Federation possible. Gagarin. Shepard. Armstrong. Tereshkova. Ride. Kelly. Cochrane. Archer. The legends who came before you and forged the Earth and the galaxy you're going to spend the rest of your lives exploring. People who did extraordinary things and with advanced technology that our distant forebears would probably consider a form of magic. We have it easy, Harry."

         "To a point. When a mortal enemy isn't trying to bloody well destroy us."

        Ethan arched his left eyebrow in a subtle admission of his friend's accuracy. "Even when the Borg or the Romulans or the Dominion are trying to destroy us we have it easy. We go to bed at night with full stomachs. Most of the medical ailments and diseases we've encountered can be successfully treated and managed if not cured. We live and work in climate-controlled environments, serious crime is rare or even nonexistent and people living on Earth enjoy a peace and prosperity that mankind never, ever knew until the past one or two hundred years. No, even when we're at war and our very way of life is endangered we have it easy. We're a fortunate generation, Harry. We're the children of the Federation. The sons and daughters of the world that our ancestors fought and died and failed to make a reality in their own lifetimes.

         We travel on starships that can cross incredible distances in short spaces of time. We have technology that can transport living beings from one location to another in the blink of an eye. Replicators like the ones in this hall create entire meals out of thin air with just a cleverly-designed computer program. Food was once scarce on this planet. Uncounted millions died of starvation. Wars were fought over it. Entire societies thrived or perished based on whether or not their crops would grow that season. Poverty is now a thing of the past. Man hasn't waged open warfare on himself in centuries. You...and I...and every person on our respective ships is the beneficiary of hundreds of years of struggle and toil by those we've never met, but who knew that somehow...there had to be a better world ahead than the one they were living in."