September 2012
Captain Janeway slowly walked along the grass, hands behind her back. The normal sparkle in her blue eyes was subdued as she regarded the great, glassy black wall that jutted from the stone before her. The little sun that peeked out from the grey clouds caught facets of light in the gleaming rock. Janeway stepped closer and saw that the glimmers were actually names- thousands upon thousands of names.
Janeway came to a halt and stepped closer to the memorial of countless heroes.
Each name represented a human life, a miraculous, beautiful creation- swept away in an instant, dissipating like evil, billowing smoke on blue sky.
She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, they glittered unusually bright.
"Lest we forget," she murmured to herself.
A long moment passed, laden with life and death, panic and humanity- grief and hope.
"Computer, end program."
Captain Janeway stepped out of the holodeck.
On ancient Earth, a flag of red, white and blue snapped in the breeze over the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Let September 11th remind us not just of the American people but of the unbreakable human spirit.