Path: newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!31600fab!not-for-mail From: Stephen Ratliff Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Subject: NEW TNG Duty, Loyalty, Trust, Honor [G] (Marrissa Stories) Organization: Alt.StarTrek.Creative Virtual Staff Office Message-ID: X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.92/32.572 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 87 Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 06:09:39 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.188.72.79 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net 1107065379 63.188.72.79 (Sat, 29 Jan 2005 22:09:39 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 22:09:39 PST Xref: news.earthlink.net alt.startrek.creative:162169 X-Received-Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 22:09:39 PST (newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net) Title: Duty, Loyalty, Trust, Honor Author: Stephen Ratliff Series: TNG, Marrissa Stories Rating: G Codes: Summary: What four words mean to Marrissa I'm Marrissa, and I'm an officer in Star Fleet. Many people have asked me why I am. It's not something easy to explain. If it was, then I probably wouldn't deserve to wear this uniform. You don't wear the red and black for simple things. It may start out that way, but by the time you make Lieutenant, it's more than a job. I first put on this uniform when I was twelve. It was an honor, one which I was not prepared for. The Captain intended to give me the minimum duties, and let me fall into what he described as the role of an Age of Sail Midshipman. I learnt the rules, traditions, and goals of Star Fleet from the Enterprise's officers. I spent hours honing my skills. I can still calculate in my head the ship's position within a hundred meters, if I know the relative position of three stars. I can handle a formal duel with swords, or defend myself from an irate Klingon. I spent hours losing simulation after simulation in tactics, learning from each one ... Yet that didn't teach me duty. Duty I learnt from watching others. I saw Lieutenant Worf jump in front of a disrupter bolt meant for someone else. I saw Commander Data, heedless of incoming fire, rush to save a little boy who wandered into the middle of a fire fight. I saw Commander La Forge repairing alien machines he'd never seen before that threatened to explode at any moment. And I experienced it myself, when Commander Riker spent hours helping me learn my new responsibilities when promotions and transfers made me the senior helmsman on board. He guided me through scheduling, evaluation, and training, teaching me everything I should have known before I'd put on the uniform. Duty, important as it is, isn't all I learned back on the Enterprise-D, nor is it the only reason why I wear this uniform. There is also loyalty, the esprit de corps which infuses the core of Star Fleet. It is not given freely. You have earn it. You have to show that you're a part of it. It was not something I received easily. I had gotten my rank and posts through some truly unusual situations, not the least of which was the age I was at each promotion, and that loyalty was probably withheld for that very reason. Still loyalty goes both ways, and I tried to show the loyalty that I'd seen between the crew of the Enterprise-D to those that I served and commanded. I'm certain that those under me during my time as Chief of Security felt no loyalty to me, but I did to them. It was not until I arrived on the Stargazer using Halifax as my name, that I felt that loyalty in return. I was young and headstrong, and drove my pilots hard. I made sure every one of them were the best that they could be, and told them so. I lead from the front, and would not let my pilots hang. I earned their trust and they rewarded me with loyalty. Trust, that's a very important thing to have. You have to have it in yourself, in your fellow officers and crewmen, and in the organization as a whole. Others have to have the same. I trust my officers and crewmen, and they've learnt to do the same. They know they have my loyalty, and that I trust them to have the same. Duty, Loyalty, Trust ... together it leads to the Honor. I'm not talking about some medal or base platitude. No, Honor is more than that. Honor can be found in the duty which you follow, towards your task and your fellow officers. Honor can be found in the loyalty to your ideals and your fellow officers. Honor can be found in the trust that you've been given. There is no honor without those three. And without honor, there is no duty, no loyalty, and no trust. I'm Marrissa Amber Picard, Captain in the United Federation of Planet's Star Fleet, and that's why I serve. Not because I was born to it, not because of what I was given in her service, but because of the sense of duty, loyalty, trust, and most of all the Honor of the Fleet. Author's Note: There is an ongoing story being written that will be becoming the First Stargazer Mission in which Marrissa reports on board using the name Marrissa A. Halifax. This is a legal name for her to use as she holds the title of fourteenth Princess of Halifax in her role as next in line to the throne of Essex. This story was written with that story in mind. -- Stephen Ratliff stephen trekiverse org "I don't know if I'm cut out to be Captain. First Officer maybe. I understand there are no real qualifications." - Counselor Troi, ST:TNG "Disaster" NewMessage: