AN: Very slight reference to Confessions of a Teenage Starfleet Cadet. No knowledge needed, as always.
Nikolai Viktorovich Demochev was the Careers advisor at a high school in a small Russian city. He never got any promotions. He didn't know he became a hero the day he handed a skinny, curly-haired thirteen year old boy an application form for Starfleet Academy.
Hikaru Sulu would one day become lauded as a hero. He'd always wanted to be one. He doesn't know he became one the day he stepped into what was about to become a punch-on to protect a gangly fifteen year old Cadet.
George Fletcher would be killed in action at just twenty two, aboard the USS Truman, just another victim of the Narada. But he became a hero at eighteen, when he didn't laugh at his new roommate's accent, nor mock him for his youth.
Pavel Chekov became a Federation hero at seventeen. He didn't know he became someone's hero when he picked up a forgotten book at the end of a class in his first week at Starfleet Academy and returned it, undamaged, with a smile.
Sensei Sato was a middle aged man with a wife and two children who taught karate to kids on weekends and after school. When he helped a small Japanese boy correct his roundhouse kick technique, he became a hero.
Coach Pittman was a Phys Ed teacher at a large junior high school in San Francisco with a tough reputation. When he pulled a dark haired boy from a fight and sentenced him to Fencing Club for a month, he became a hero to go with that.
Mrs Cole was an elderly widow who lived in a little house on the edge of San Francisco, next to a nice Japanese-American family. When she showed the young son how to prune roses when he was bored during the summer holidays, she was a hero.
Hikaru Sulu would live and die an intergalactic hero. But when his sixteen year old self sent flowers to the girl in his class whose father died in a shuttle crash, he became a knight in shining armour, rescuing a damsel in distress.
Admiral Madeline Carter, the first female Admiral in all of Starfleet, visited a school for the gifted in the United States of Africa and gave an inspirational speech, becoming a hero to a girl with a talented tongue.
Penda Uhura, an ordinary girl from Africa, with no stunning talent, or God-given gifts, became a hero nonetheless. She always told her little sister she could be anything she wanted, she kept boys from her and urged her on in her studies of languages.
Samantha Daw was a high school teacher in Africa. She stood up for a student she had never taught before, when she accused a male student of lewd behaviour and became a hero when she left her seat to do so.
Nyota Uhura would become a hero to thousands of young girls and women across the galaxy by her death. But she had been one since she looked out for her Orion roommate, listened to her story and hugged her hard, and when she tried to make sure men didn't take advantage of her.
Jonathan Burbank was a lawyer from Georgia, no wife, no kids. He was also a hero. He had been ever since he fought tooth and nail, for days on end, for his client to have custody of his daughter in a divorce case.
David McCoy was a Southern farmer, with a wife and son and little by way of the latest farming machinery. When he got a second job to pay for his son to go to medical school, when he made so many sacrifices, he became a hero.
Joanna McCoy was just a little girl of four when she walked in on her father drinking and hugged him and asked for a bedtime story. She told him, in her best grown up voice, that he had to stop drinking his special 'juice.' She's been a hero ever since.
Leonard McCoy was a doctor who saved hundreds of lives in his lifetime. But when he patched up his best friend night after night, and tried to prevent him from making his mistakes, he became a hero's hero.
Keenser was a quiet, unassuming alien, the first of his kind to serve in Starfleet. When he struck up a friendship with the loud, complaining human who joined him on Delta Vega, he had no idea he had just brought him up from his lowest point and become a hero.
Lillian Kernighan eventually became a Starfleet officer on a remote outpost and never rose far in her entire career. But when she stood up to Admiral Archer when he sent his former protégé to a very remote outpost for an indeterminable time, she joined the halls of heroes.
Finella McNeil was a girl who went to a small Scottish school who never had a very exceptional life. She's also a hero. She was the only one who didn't laugh at the boy in her first grade class when he showed them the robot he made that promptly blew up and burnt off his eyebrows.
Montgomery Scott never left the Enterprise to go fight in battles or rescue civilians. But when he gave Ensign Tyler a pat on the back, a chat and a bottle of scotch after his girlfriend was killed on an away mission, he became a hero in his own right.
Amanda Grayson was an ordinary Earth woman married to a Vulcan. When she hugged her son after each and every day, after each and every time he cried, protected and encouraged him, despite it being illogical, she then became a hero.
Admiral Richard Barnett, head of the Board at Starfleet Academy was a villain to many of the Cadets. But when he ensured that Cadets who mocked or abused their first Vulcan Cadet were adequately punished, he became a hero to one.
Nyota Uhura was an exceptional woman, and a Starfleet hero to boot, but when she didn't insult her new Xenolinguistics instructor behind his back, she became a hero in his eyes, even before she'd even become an officer.
Spock would be lauded as a hero to all of the Federation. But since he was small, he had stood up for his mother, refused to consider his human half a disadvantage. When he turns down the Vulcan Science Academy, when he stands up the bullies, he becomes a hero.
George Samuel Kirk was the eldest son of a dead Starfleet hero who had run away and abandoned his brother and mother. To his younger brother, he was the first hero he'd ever met. Ever since Sam had stood up to Frank for him, keeping him from hurting his little brother, he'd been his hero.
Christopher Pike would live and die a Starfleet hero, fondly remembered by many, a hero of battles. When he interrupts a fight and reaches out to a troubled boy, trying to turn his shattered life around, he becomes a hero of a different sort.
Leonard McCoy was a doctor, not a fighter, nor a warrior. He was a healer, damn it, not a hurter. But when he stands up to the Acting Captain for his absent best friend, he becomes a hero, not of battle, but a hero nonetheless.
James T. Kirk was a hero to the Federation and to Starfleet, an idol all over the universe. But it is the smaller things the Crew remembers, the way he risks his life for them, over and over again. The way he's always there if they need him, the way lives mean more to him than regulations. This is why he becomes a hero.
Heroes are made when you make a choice.
You could be a hero, heroes do what's right.
You could be a hero, you might save a life.
You could be a hero, you could join the fight.
For what's right, for what's right.
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek, nor do I own Hero by Superchick.