Red 20
Kirk looked in her direction as if asking, do you want to go first. She shook her head no because she was in no way ready to stand up in front of everyone and give any kind of speech. He smiled and stood up smoothing down the top of his dress uniform as he went. He stopped at the podium and nodded at the admiral. The man stepped aside giving kirk the stage as he retook his seat. Kirk didn't look the slightest bit nervous and Sam envied him that. Kirk smiled at the audience and with a glance in Marcus's direction launched into his speech.
"wow what a glowing introduction" said kirk sarcastically because even though the admiral had praised him he had also bashed him as well, not to mention reopening old wounds.
When they had worked on her speech last night Jim had a few moments where he went uncharacteristically quiet. When she finally got him to open up about it, he had explained about his father and why it was such a sore spot, as well as his misgivings about this ceremony. Kirk simply did not want to be compared to his father or to live life in his shadow. He loved his father but he was a separate person and wanted to be admired for what he had done.
" while I admire my father for many things, dying is not one of them" said kirk
he looked straight at admiral Marcus when he said that. The admiral frowned in response obviously thinking George had been heroic when he sacrificed himself to save his crew, Jim unfortunately never saw it that way.
"but I did learn one thing from him and that was to never give up, truthfully the only lesson he really taught me…" said Kirk
he trailed off, lost in thought for a few minutes. Khan had inched farther back in the crowd and was now openly staring at Samantha. "she's quite pretty ain't she?" said the man next to him
khan turned to find an old man in a doctor's uniform. The man was old enough to be Samantha's grandfather and was staring at her like a wolf would eye a lamb. It unnerved him and angered him. No one should look at his Samantha like that; least of all a dirty old man.
Khan looked down at the man's shoes and the man followed his gaze with his eyes. While he was bent over khan quietly broke the old man's neck with no more effort than snapping a twig. He crossed the man's arms, resting his hands on his lap. The dead man next to him looked like he had simply nodded off.
In truth, the boy's speech was boring him. The young man ended his speech and the crowd clapped the boy sat back down and Samantha nervously made her way to the podium.
"wow okay, what to say... I had this whole speech planned out, but for the life of me I can't remember a single word" said Sam
some people in the crowd chuckled as if she was making a joke.
" I'm not one for giving speeches obviously and as much as I would like to thank family and friends for being here or inspiration, I'm afraid I can't. truthfully, I wanted to run from this place on day one, in fact the only reason I applied in the first place was because my friend pike pushed me to do so…which led me to here...not even sure how that happened but perhaps it's for the best hey. I don't really feel like a hero and honestly I feel bad about all those who didn't make it and can't be here to celebrate with us this evening" said Sam
okay she was rambling and she was pretty sure everyone in the audience knew she was nervous. He frowned when she said that she didn't have anyone and made his heart ache for his dear Samantha. She had always been there when he needed her and it grieved him that he could not do the same for her.
She took a deep steadying breath.
"speaking of which and I know I should have done this at the beginning, but can I have a moment of silence for those brave men and women who sacrificed everything so we could stand up here and give bad speeches in itchy uniforms and be congratulated by people who didn't even know our names until now?" said Sam
kirk put his hand on his chin to cover the smirk he was now sporting. Khan was grinning at her, oh yes; that was definitely his Samantha. The audience greeted her statement with stunned silence, which Sam partially saw as heeding her wishes.
She bowed her head some as if praying and spotted the band out of the corner of her eye. Oh, how she wished she could just express herself that way instead of having to talk to everyone. People were starting to look up and were getting restless and she still had almost ten minutes to fill before the air show demonstration.
She noted her squad had deserted their spots and was readying themselves for some seriously fancy flying. She sighed, wishing she could be up there with them. she turned back to her audience intending to finish some sort of speech even though she truthfully had forgotten everything they had written. Her glance fell on the band again and she noticed that one of them was holding a violin.
"I know were expected to stand up here and give some grand speech about how heroic or noble our intentions were but truthfully that is not how I best express myself" said Sam
she crossed the stage stopping in front of the violinist
"may I borrow that?" said Sam
the man gave her a shocked look but slowly held out the instrument. She took it from his outstretched hand and walked back to the podium.
"sorry I know this is unorthodox but some things cannot be expressed in words" said Sam
the she set the bow to the strings closed her eyes and just let the music flow out of her and through the instrument. The audience was stunned silent once again as Samantha played her heart out as she danced across the stage.
Khan closed his eyes, he knew this song, hallelujah, Rufus Wainright if he wasn't mistaken, then the parting glass which left several people sobbing, then finally when it's all over by Raign.
She slowly let the last of the notes die and opened her eyes. Kirk was staring at her in open mouthed shock, even Spock looked surprised. She slowly walked back to the man and returned his instruments to him and retook her seat just as the sound of the first engines reached her ears.
Khan noted with pleasure that even Marcus was impressed and so apparently was the rest of Starfleet as one by one they stood and clapped. He smirked and rose with them because her performance was truly magnificent.
He mentally kicked himself; for in all the years he had known Samantha he had never known she was a musician, nor that she was that talented of one. The applause slowly died as the first wave of fighter craft roared overhead.
