Finley took her seat in the captain's chair and then changed her mind. She was better at talking when she was moving then when she was forced to be still. That was when she did her best thinking.
Littlefoot, freed from her quarter's now that launch prep was complete, followed her faithfully as she walked to the huge porthole that made up the nose of the ship. It made little sense defensively or even functionally to have a huge window at the front of the ship, but it was yet another sacrifice to vanity. Or to comfort. Or morale. Whatever you considered it, it was something only the human race did with their ships.
That ability to look ahead. To look out at the stars and the expanse of space that showed little but contained multitudes.
Where you could look and look and never see the same place twice.
Looking out at it, the words come easily.
"To go where no man has gone before. Isn't that what they say on Star Trek? To do what's never been done before. Well, we know where we're going. Mostly. And we've done this before. Somewhat. Strange new worlds. We've already found some, but we might find some more. Strange new life. Again. There's something to be said for the idealism of that world, something to work towards. Humans do best when they have something to work towards. We tend to not go anywhere when we aren't actively trying to go somewhere and we just spent ten years, a decade, in a war in which we gained no ground, took no cities, and came home with nothing but the ash of our loved ones on our lips. We are a race meant for exploration, for learning. And now this crew is the tip of the spear. As much as we may struggle with one another, we will struggle with this mission more. We are going to re-establish the presence of humankind beyond the light wall. We are going to remind the universe that we are still here. We are going to find everything that we lost and left behind and dreamed of in this long isolation. It will be terrifying. It will be difficult. It will be challenging. There will be no easy answers. There may not be any answers at all. Sometimes there isn't. What there will be is change. More than any of us probably want. Change and challenge. Which means it's a good thing we're all soldiers. Because change and challenge are what we do every day of our lives. The first humans that went into space were soldiers and it was a long time before anyone who wasn't went to the stars. We have always been the first. The first to fly. The first to the stars. The first to set foot on a moon and a planet and a comet and now we'll be the first through the light wall. It's time to set aside everything that came before. We have three years before we're supposed to return and the ship may seem large now, but we all know that very soon it will feel very small. We are going to have to live together, successfully, for the next three years. Our lives depend on it."
She glanced back at the crammed Command Deck and felt Littlefoot lean against her leg. Her dog was more attuned to human emotion than most humans Finley knew.
Herself included.
"I know this isn't what many of you expected. The amount of change we've all been through, first with the war, and then with everything that came after, has been unmooring. To say the least. We were enemies once. Now we are family. Whether we end up loving or hating each other, we're stuck in this house together. So, let's make the best of it. We all bring out stories, our lessons, and our hearts to this mission. It's what always sets the human race apart. Its why we defeated the Alari and the Parasites. It's why the civil war was so devastating. Its why we're going to complete this mission, despite what all those people back home think. They expect us to fail. Some of them even want us too, because we're a reminder of a hard time. We have a tendency as a race to try an erase our conflicts after their conclusion. We stop talking about them. We change our minds about the outcome and the sides and the people who fought them. We forget that we've traumatized ourselves and, in our eagerness, to move on, we deepen the wound instead of healing it. I want all of you to remember, and you can take it as an order if you need to, that being traumatized is not an excuse to traumatize someone else. We only get through this together, despite all the little ways we like to make ourselves different from one another. We are going to change the world with this mission and that comes with great responsibility. Your children's children are going to follow in our footsteps, so it's our responsibility to make sure those footsteps are worth following. The hardest step for a soldier is the first one away from home and we have a long journey ahead of us. We know more than anyone the dangers that come along these paths, but we also know they must be walked for the betterment of humankind. So we go forward into the darkness, into the endless expanse of creation. Together. And we will come back the same way."
She returned to the captain's chair and took a seat. Evan, seated in the first officer's seat, knocked his knuckles against hers.
She nodded to Beau, who tapped his earpiece. "Clear to start engines?"
"Clear to start all engines." Came back immediately over the comm and they all held their breath as the Loss' four massive engines came online and didn't breathe out until, "All engines online."
Even Finley felt a wave of relief. "Take us out, Lieutenant Callahan."
~ tbc