Disclaimer: Still don't own Star Trek.

The last batch of notes for my EXCELLENT reviewers:

Ariennye Dhivae Argelia: To every end there is another beginning and to every beginning there is eventually an end. But I am most pleased that you found great delight along the way. Thank you for the complements for my writing style and my "talent" (though I doubt that there is much there...). I enjoyed having your criticism and encouragement along this journey. Thank you.
Lucillia: A NEW REVIEWER (does Happy Dance). I am sad that this is the only time thatI can add your name to the list, but stillI thank you for your praise. I do hope that you will come and read the sequal...
Karlina Ellison: When you do catch up, I hope that you have enjoyed what you have read. Thank you for enjoying my story and telling me so. I am again saddened that I will only have this one oppertunity to thank you for reviewing, but I hope for more oppertunities if you follow the instructions at the end of this epilogue.
For Schematization, Onaleia, and MuffinsAreLoose: I sincerely thank you for coming in and telling me what you enjoy and what you wishto see more of. Getting reviews in my box on this story was pure joy because of the level of encouragement that you have given me (And that goes to all my other reviewers). Thank you for sticking around for so long, and I hope to see you soon...

The Last bit for this story...

Epilogue

Yet, There's Always Tomorrow

When I stepped off the transporter platform, I knew that there was a difference on the Assurance. Saul was only here for four months, but it felt so much longer. I saw him as a part of my crew, a part that was now missing. And then I remembered Kirk. For all his stick-in-the-mud-follow-the-rules-do-as-you're-told-Federation-mannerism, I could relate with him. The emotion, the relief, the joy that I saw in his face when he saw that Saul was alive showed me that Saul was needed on the Enterprise more than he was needed on the Assurance. The few moments that I stood on that ship told me that Saul belonged there and I could not hinder that.

Carpenter and André were of the firm opinion that Saul had to go back, and told me so the moment that explanations had ceased…was it only a few hours ago? We were able to convince Saul that he was going back to the Enterprise unconditionally, with one exception. I asked, not demanded, that he hold his silence about the nature and location of the Rock. Something that he readily agreed to.

And now he was gone; but not entirely. I could still sense him in the corners of my mind, reminding me who I was and why I did what I did. That moment, when he was in my mind, had given me more purpose for my life than any other contact with any other living being in the twenty some years of my life. It was a moment that I treasured, even though it pained me at the time.

I was sitting in my room, my music blaring, allowing oblivion to creep over me. But it was not the mind numbing oblivion that I desired that day of the slave raid, this time it was almost joyful. It was intangible but I knew that I was somehow different. Saul's stay on the Assurance had changed me, and I was glad for it.

I don't know how many hours passed as I reviewed the events of these four months, but I think it was a good deal of time, because when the computer terminal bleeped at me, it was hard to come back to this side of consciousness. I shook my head to wake myself up and moved over to the terminal, which was continuing its annoying bleep for as long as I ignored it. I was expecting that someone had sent me one of those stupid memos that no one reads but everyone feels necessary to send me because I'm the CO. I was thus surprised when, upon pulling up my mail screen, I found a real letter. My puzzlement quickly turned to happiness, though, as I read its contents.

To: CACOcrimassurance.pir

From: CmdrSpockenterprise.sf.fed

Analise,

Greetings.

I hope that you do not find my writing you to be to forward. André was most insistent that you would find this correspondence agreeable, and thus gave to me your address.

I wish to extend my thanks to you, though I am reminded that doing so is not logical, but I thank you all the same. Your kindness to me was unnecessary, but not unappreciated, and I am honored to have been a member of your crew, even though it was for a short period of time. My stay on the Assurance was most enjoyable. Your crew was quick to take me in, though I was quite the alien, and patiently explain to me the inner-workings of your ship.

You yourself were perhaps that which, to use a human phrase, "kept me going". You gave me an easy and open life to assimilate to while I was struggling to find my own. Your actions were puzzling to me at times, and, as you frequently told me, you are not logical, but even so I am, I am glad that you befriended me.

I must inform you, however, that I do not believe that piracy is a life that I can conform to, and, though I found my time on the Assurance profitable, I believe that I will stay aboard the Enterprise for the remainder of my career. I therefore decline your invitation. And I do ask that you be not alarmed for the safety of the Rock, I shall never reveal its location for the duration of my life. Upon that, you have my solemn word.

My mother told me once that the art of correspondence is spent in answering and then asking questions, in a form of volley. The only question that I can ask, which I have hope you will not immediately dismiss as "boring", is the following, though I hope that you are not offended by it. How did you become the commanding officer of the Crimson Assurance?

I must draw this letter to a close, as my shift begins soon. I shall end, then, with my thanks once again; you have done a service to me that I can never even hope to repay.

Live long and prosper,

Spock

DXVJKE

There it is, the end. But, as I already said, every end promises new beginnings and so it is my pleasure to announce that I have posted the sequal to Flight. It is called Welcome to my Life: the Birth of the Crimson Assuranceand gives the roots of the Assurance: Keath's younger life, how she met Andre, how she got the Assurance, why Carpenter got mixed up in all this, her first raid, and the like. So if you want to know these dark secrets, or you just want to read more about the Assurance gang, I strongly suggest that you read it. To find it, first REVIEW THIS CHAPTER, then go and click the tab with my name on it up in the top lefthand corner, go down my bio page unto you come across "Welcome to my Life" click that and enjoy (Or you could just search for the thing, I don't really care). If you care not to, then I thank you for reading, hope that you review, and bid farewell. Thank you all for reading and I do hope that you enjoyed my essay into the realm of Piracy and amnesiac Vulcans.
Peace and Long Life,
DarkX