Author note: This is my response to a mini-challenge from my friend Mira-Jade. She asked that I look into George Kirks thoughts in the moments before his death. This is short, but, I hope, still enjoyable.

Moment of Truth

Good men must die, but death cannot kill their names.-Proverb

It is but a tick of the clock; the moment when life becomes death. It is the blink of an eye, that fraction of a second when the possibility of life evaporates and assured death appears in its place. It is a beat of his heart in which George Kirk recognizes his duty and says goodbye to life as a husband and father.

He didn't ask for this. But he would not shy away from it either. He knew what he needed to do. He would give the murderous Romulan a mighty black eye, a reason to pause and rethink his strategy. It would give the crew, his family, the additional minute they needed to get away. To get to safety.

His mind raced as the seconds counted down to impact.

He won't be there for his son's first steps. He won't be tossing the ball around or taking his son to any baseball games. He won't be there to help the boy with his homework or hold him when he cries.

He will miss his son's first day of school, his first date, his first time behind the wheel of a car. So many firsts...gone. He had so much to teach Jim; so much to show him.

He wanted to be there as an example in life, not in death.

He won't be there for Winona either. He won't be her shoulder to cry on, her rock to lean on, her partner in life.

He worries for her.

He had studied them: Heroes; men and women who had given their lives in service of their ideals. He certainly did not count himself among them. If their experience was anything like what he was feeling, at the moment, he doubted they felt like heroes either.

History doesn't speak to those the hero leaves behind. It glorifies the sacrifice of the individual, but casually forgets those left alive, those so fully invested and dependant on the one who was lost.

As death rushes toward him at breakneck speed, he calls out to them, reminding them of his love.