STAR TREK VOYAGER: An episode addition to Shattered
By Diane Running Horse
Rated PG
A spacial anomaly has fractured the ship into many different time frames. Chakotay of the present meets Janeway of the past. He breaks the Temporal Prime Directive by relaying future events:
Janeway: Doesn't seem like my first command is shaping up like I expected.
Chakotay: 'In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost.'
Janeway: I didn't know Dante's Inferno was on the Maquis reading list.
Chakotay: Actually, I borrowed your copy.
Janeway: My fiancé gave me that book as an engagement gift; I've never lent it to anyone!
Chakotay: Not yet. Anyway, I agree with Dante - if you always see the road ahead of you, it's not worth the trip.
Janeway: A soldier and a philosopher - your intelligence file doesn't do you justice!
Flashback:
The cabinet door in her bedroom hissed slightly as it slid open. Hidden within the small compartment lay keepsakes that had accompanied her into an unintended exile, beloved souvenirs of a life she still remembered after seven long years. Priceless, for replicated duplicates could never replace them. She visited them as often as her busy schedule allowed, to prevent the memories from fading.
Here, a photo of the two of them with Molly, her beloved Irish Setter. There, a pressed, dried flower from a birthday corsage he had given her before the mission. Nestled within a box, the antique gold-and-diamond circlet, the symbol of their love, which regretfully could not be worn with her uniform. Finally, this...the volume of Dante's Inferno, his gift on the eve of their engagement.
She held it in her hand. The worn, stained cover, dog-eared and slightly uneven pages, told a story of their own - that this book had been frequently read – and well-loved. She could quote pages from it. She had never allowed anyone else to read it.
Until now.
Only this morning, as they met over breakfast, Chakotay had confided his fascination of books. His boyhood room had housed a hundred of them. His father, baffled by Chakotay's preference to bury himself in a classical volume rather than accompany him on the hunt, had nevertheless let him read. He preferred the classics, he said, and had named quite a few of his favorites, one of which she now held in her hand. She had almost suggested he replicate a book, until she remembered her order against frivolous uses of the replicators, or even the holodeck. Power was in short supply nowadays. It's feast or famine on this trip, she thought ruefully, mainly famine. But like someone once said, man does not live by bread alone. She said nothing at the time, however, and after they finished their coffee, it was back to work as usual.
Later that day, she summoned him to her quarters.
Now she closed the compartment and carried the aging volume out into her private sitting room, where Chakotay waited patiently, properly standing. She held it out and he took it in one big hand, turning it up to read the spine.
'I've never lent this to anyone,' she said simply.
'Thank you, Captain. This is very kind of you. I'll take good care of it.'
'Keep it as long as you like.'
He nodded and turned to leave. In the corridor outside, he carefully scanned the pages, thankful that his duty shift was over and he could repair to his quarters to read. There was an inscription on the flyleaf:
To my darling Kathryn
Which of us shall be Vergil? It matters not whether you or I are mentor and protector.
It only matters that I will be your traveling companion through life.
I love you
MarkHe glanced back at her closed door, and he understood. 'Thank you, Kathryn,' he said again, softly.
The End
Reference:
Spanning several years, the epic-like poem The Divine Comedy was written from 1306 to 1321. The poem presents an encyclopedic overview of the attitudes, beliefs, philosophies, as well as the material aspects of the medieval world. Because of these many elements the poem encompasses, The Divine Comedy has become universally known as one of the greatest poems in world literature.
Dante's purpose for writing The Divine Comedy was expressed in a famous letter to his Veronan benefactor, Can Grande della Scala, where he said, "it is an attempt to remove those living in this life from the state of misery and lead them to the state of felicity." Moreover, Dante describes his work as "ploysemous," specifying the principal levels of meaning as both literal and allegorical. In a literal sense, the subject of the poem, according to Dante, is "the state of souls after death." In allegorical terms, the poem is about humankind who by exercising free will will bring "rewarding or punishing justice" upon themselves.
The poem is divided into three sections - - the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso, with the Inferno being the most widely read and studied section of The Divine Comedy. In this segment of the poem, Dante describes a journey through Hell from the entrance at the lowest and less harsh level. His companion for the travel is Vergil, a mentor and protector. Constructed as a huge funnel with nine descending circular ledges, Dante's Hell is a meticulously organized torture chamber in which sinners are carefully categorized according to the nature of their sins. The last level is that of ultimate justice which transforms into merciless retribution and affects the unrepentant. However, those who recognize and repudiate their sins are given a change to purify themselves in Purgatorio, the second of three segments in the poem. Therefore, Dante feels Hell is a necessary, painful first step of any man's spiritual journey.
Through the process of spiritual regeneration and purification, Dante prepares himself to meet God in Paradiso. Through the light of God's divine truth, the poet hopes to be ultimately rewarded with perfect knowledge. Yet, the poem itself allows the reader to glimpse at this omnipotent knowledge. Dante reflects that the world beyond the present one is, like reality, rational and orderly. The poem allows us to view this certain, orderly world.
La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy) by Dante Alighieri is in no way a comedic literary work. The only term that relates to the poem is "divine." Yet, it is suggested that Dante himself simply called this work "Comedy." This terms holds relevance to the poem when one understands that the poem is a optimistic process from Hell toward Heaven, or from worse to better. This was the basic medieval conception of comedy. The terms "divine" was added later, probably by Boccacio when he continually referred to Dante as a "divine poet."