Final Thoughts
As I lay here amongst the twisted wreckage, I can feel my life ebbing away from my body. I know that my adventure is nearly over, that I will soon be taking that final journey that I have managed to elude so many times. Yes, death and I are old friends; I've cheated against it enumerable times, but I've also sent many brave souls to its icy cold grip. It's getting darker, I'm having a harder time breathing, and yet I suddenly find my thoughts drifting back to my last adventure, the one that brought me here to my final moments.
I see myself boarding the Enterprise B for it's maiden voyage, meeting Captain Harriman, Ensign Sulu, the tour of the ship, my annoyance at those damned reporters. My anger at myself for not being young enough to be sitting in that chair, I can remember the distress call, my disgust at Starfleet for letting a ship out of dry dock that had not even had a tractor beam installed yet, the loss of the first transport ship, and my frantic dash through the ship to deflector control. I remember the jolt that sent me to the deck, waking up and finding myself able to relive any moment from my life with but a thought, having the ability to save all those that I had not been able to save the first time. The appearance of a man as I was chopping wood, his telling me that he was from the future, and that he was the captain of the Enterprise. I recall him telling me how he needed my assistance in stopping a disaster from happening again. I can see myself turning my back on him, telling him that the galaxy owes me. My jumping of the gorge, and my realizing that all this is fake, that I have been given the chance once more to make a difference and to help save another Enterprise and its crew.
I can now see me standing on a planet light years from where this journey began, my confrontation with Dr. Soran, my leap to the other side of the mangled bridge to retrieve the controller, the creaking and bending of the metal as it finally gave away. I see myself tumbling and falling down the side of the mountain. I see myself lying amongst the twisted wreckage, the taste of blood in my mouth, the piercing stab of pain in my chest when I take a breath.
I'm suddenly looking up at Picard, asking him if we did it, if we made a difference. I hear him telling me yes, and my responding that it was "the least I could do for the Captain of the Enterprise".
The pain is starting to get worse, I cannot seem to get my eyes to focus, I think of my crew, I wonder how they'll take the news that my time has come, that death has finally claimed me. I wish that I could see them once more to tell them how much they meant to me, that they were more than just my crewmates, that they were my friends, my family. Spock, I'll need no analysis this time. Bones, take the day off, there'll be no last minute cure for me. Scotty, keep the ship together. Chekov, plot me a course. Sulu, ahead warp factor nine. Uhura, open hailing frequencies one last time let death know that I am ready for it.
I look up at where a gray shadow looms over me, knowing that the end is now here….
"It was fun…."