Subject: Grail: Thank Q - Cochrane's Funeral

(OOC: I am still waiting for some of you to answer the roll call. Please do

it as soon as you can. )

<<Stardate 47307. 16 - 23:30>>

Although the ship was on red alert status, there was no real or imminent threat to it. The sole purpose of it was to have everyone on their toes, due of us being so far off (or in) course. Yet, this damned journey had already claimed it's first victim. No other than our captain. Zebediah Cochrane. And someone had to something about it...

"Attention!" Corvette Hunt shouted and the firing squad raised their weapons.

"Reload weapons!"

"Aim!"

"Fire!"

"Reload weapons!"

"Aim!"

"Fire!"

Cochrane's funeral was on it's way. A traditional navy salute of 21 cannon salvos being done on the holodeck. Despite the red alert situation, all senior officers where present here to say goodbye to their captain. No one, or almost no one knew him, because we all came from very different assignments. He was, sort of saying, the only man who wasn't here to pay for something on this trip, and yet, he was the first to go.

How many more where they to follow his path? Tenths? Hundreds? Perhaps thousands due to this trip?

Who knows what lies beyond? We might encounter peaceful species and we might kill them because of our ignorance... We might find aggressive species, and we might end up destroying them, or they destroying us... We might even be the ones who bring back something from out there, that might bring the ending of all known life in the quadrant....

Yet, who knows?

We might find happiness beyond happiness.... An escape from our past, and a

hope into the future...

We might find peace...

It's a gamble... The gamble of life...

Yet, for this man, that was over. Finally over. He didn't had to live with the uncertainty of what to do next. To take care of his crew and his people. To be the one held responsible for our actions in the unknown. Now that responsibility lied in a new man. The question is, will he be up to the challenge?