Babylon 5: Remembrance Day
First of three related stories, and my first attempt to write from an original character's point of view...
Title: Remembrance Day
Genre: Babylon 5
Written: 12/9/95 (Early season three)
Summary: Speculation on how the universe would turn out, a hundred years down the line. Based on what we knew at the beginning of season 3.
"By the Power, the Name, and the Presence, and by the Light, we have come to remember and honor our fallen dead..." Grandma's just starting her Remembrance Day speech, the same one she gives to our family every year. But this year's different. This year thousands and thousands of people are listening to it with us. Some here in this sector of space, but most of them are probably seeing it on their vids at home, lots of them probably wishing they were actually here. 'Course, I didn't know I'd be here, either, until about a week ago.
*****
Everyone's been humming about this Remembrance Day celebration for ages. Making speeches, showing Tri-V documentaries and vid series 'bout the War and all that happened. Guess it's to be expected, it being the 100th anniversary o' the beginning of the Great Peace and all, but it was starting to get to me, seeing as I knew all the stories backwards and forwards, what with great-grandma and great-grandpa having been involved in it from practically the beginning all the way through to the very end. Those were always my favorite stories when I was little, tales of adventures and great deeds, of heroes and true loves. The stories were better than any of the other fairy tales that all kids get told, because these stories actually happened to Grandma's parents and their friends. It makes me mad to see how the "official" versions sometimes get all twisted from the way they really were.
Anyway, I had just gotten home from my best friend Sari's sixteenth Naming Day celebration and was watching a vid-clip of some interviews of the Thought-Camp survivors. It's amazing to think that before the scientific advances we made during the Peace, even the youngest who lived through the Camps would have died of old age years ago. Now our med tech lets people stay active and healthy three quarters of the way to their second century. Still, tech can't do everything. I was pulling the knots out of my hair by hand, wishing there was an easier way to do *that* other than cutting it off--which Mom keeps on threatening to do if I don't keep it from tangling around my crest-bone--but I like it how it is, long and dark and curly, just like great-grandma's in the old 2-D pictures of her. Just as I was getting the last of them out, Mom comes into my room and I can tell something's up. Her eyes are sparkling and there's this little smile on her lips, like there always is when she has a secret she's dying to tell. So I sit up, all ears, wonderin' what it could be, when she says the last thing I would've imagined.
"We're going to the Monument."
********
So that's how, three days later, I found myself on a ship headed for where it all began and ended a hundred years ago. It turned out that the Council of Planets had just asked Grandma to make the closing speech of the Centennial Remembrance Day ceremony they were holding at the Monument. So all of us--Grandma, Mom, Dad, and me--packed some travel bags and headed out.
'Course, we never could have gotten seats on a commercial ship at this late date, not with everyone who could going to see the ceremony, but we didn't have to. Great-Aunt Susan rerouted one of the military couriers to pick us up (she's not really related to us, but she's been aunt and great-aunt to every one in the family, even Grandma). I guess being a general and holding the Military seat on the Council has some perks. Not that she ever wanted the rank or the position, even though the regens keep her as strong and active now as she was in her fifties. She only accepted them because she felt that as the last of the "Babylon-5 Five" still alive she had the responsibility of making sure what happened back then never happened again. The Council had originally asked her to speak at the ceremony, but she wouldn't. I think Great-Aunt Susan still feels guilty that, a hundred years ago, she lived when the others died. Not that it was her fault. There was nothing she could have done. Nothing at all. And that's what hurts her the most.
*********
We came out of hyperspace with me pressing my nose against the view ports, straining for my first actual sight of the Monument. The officers of the courier had been nice enough, but absorbed with their duties, and after two days in hyperspace I was itching for any change in the scenery. At first all I saw was the planet with it's glittering ring of metal scraps that were all that was left of the Light's greatest stronghold against the Shadows after the Final Battle. But there was even less left of them. For a minute I wondered where all the other ships bringin' people here had gotten to. The courier's captain told us later that they were all in parking vectors on the other side of this system's star, to avoid the risk of damaging the Monument. Then all the thoughts were pushed right out of my head as I saw it coming 'round the curve of the planet it orbited.
It was huge, deep and dark as space itself, but it was a blackness that seemed to shine from within. No nightmares or shadows could ever be that color. Nobody knows quite what it's made of, this rectangle slab over a mile long and half a mile thick. It was the last gift the Vorlons gave us before they went away, with as little explanation of it as they ever gave about anything. They just left it here, sang "For Remembrance", and disappeared. But the words on the Monument--they were all ours. Inscribed into the surface of the slab in the three major languages we had written--all of the species together--an epitaph and a promise in letters carved feet deep into the surface, big enough to be seen from space, lit up bright so that all who passed by would read it and remember the lessons of the past and the price we had paid. And seeing it for the first time with my own eyes, a strange feeling came over me. I felt proud and awed and humble all at the same time.
*********
It's ten minutes 'til the ceremonies begin and I'm all dressed up--something I usually hate doing--ready to go. I'm gettin' real impatient waiting for Mom and Dad to get here so we can get on the Tri-V link together. Grandma's actually gone to where they're projecting the "room" the proceeding's are gonna be held in. But then, Tri-V wasn't developed until Mom was growing up, and Grandma's never been real comfortable with it--which is kinda unusual since most people, especially kids my age, took to cyberspace like a ch'rot to water. Anyway, Mom and Dad finally were ready, and with the familiar Tri-V crackle-buzz we linked into the "room" they had designed for the ceremony. And what a room it was!
Even I was startled by the realism of the scenery. We were "standing" in open space, along with a large crowd of people, right at the foot of the Monument. Not the real Monument, of course, just an 3-D image of it, but it was as knock-down stunning here as it had been just comin' out of hyperspace. The black surface loomed above the podium set up at the Monument's base, the words shining out over us.
Then the speeches started. There were a few politicians there, trying to get noticed, but mostly the speeches were by people who had actually lived through the War and the chaotic years after it, or people like Grandma who were the children of those who had died. So many people. Some speaking of ideals and hopes for the future, some just tellin' their stories. Stories of dark, terrible things, but with light in them as well. A whole group of people from the Telepath's Guild came up, one after another, and simply said "We remember." Nothing more, but all of them projecting remorse for what some of their ancestors had done, and resolve and strength and hope as well. And still more came, to tell about the things closest to their hearts, so that it'd never be forgotten. About good times that came right along with the bad, the small joys that were intertwined with the larger sorrows, and about the light that never entirely went out. Some of it went right over my head, feelings and thoughts that only someone who had passed through that same fire could understand. Some of it, though, was painfully clear. And still more came, 'til there wasn't a person in that room that hadn't been touched in some way. Then Grandma got up and started to speak.
*******
"...and though their souls long ago departed this plane for that place past life where there is nothing but light, we continue to honor their memories. Their actions and sacrifices are reminders to us that the price of freedom is never too high, the obstacles never insurmountable. By their living and their dying, they have touched the lives of all who have come since, ensuring we will never lack for Light, till Universe's end."
For a minute there's silence while Grandma leaves the stage. Then the quiet's broken by a harsh sob. I look towards the sound, and for a minute I'm speechless. The sobs are coming from where Great-Aunt Susan's sitting, still stiff and proper with her silver hair pulled back and General's stripes on her shoulder, while tears stream down her face. Then I see her eyes, grief and loss written so plain in 'em, and suddenly my eyes aren't so dry anymore either. For a second, I understand everything they were all trying to say about the hopes and the sorrows, and the light that only shown the brighter for all the darkness that surrounded it.
*******
The jump-gate opens in front of our ship as we head for home, all the hustle and bustle done for another year. The stories and the memories put away until next Remembrance Day, at least for most people. But not for me, not this time. The things I felt, when I saw the Monument, and after Grandma's speech, they're still with me. Maybe it's time to start thinking about growing up. After all, Great-Aunt Susan isn't going to be around much longer, despite all the med techs do. I'll miss her, but I know that she'll be happier there with the rest of them then she's ever been on this side of life for the last hundred years. And after she's dead, the Council's gonna need someone to keep an eye on them, remind them that the old stories aren't just stories, and what happened the last time we forgot.
I take one last look back at the Monument, reading again the words inscribed on its surface. Then the ship plunges into hyperspace and I look ahead to the future as the Monument's message echoes quietly in the back of my mind.
IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES
FIGHTING SHADOWS WITHOUT AND WITHIN
WE HAVE LEARNED THE LESSONS YOU DIED TO TEACH US.
WE WILL NOT FORGET AGAIN.
Fini.
Title: Remembrance Day
Genre: Babylon 5
Written: 12/9/95 (Early season three)
Summary: Speculation on how the universe would turn out, a hundred years down the line. Based on what we knew at the beginning of season 3.
"By the Power, the Name, and the Presence, and by the Light, we have come to remember and honor our fallen dead..." Grandma's just starting her Remembrance Day speech, the same one she gives to our family every year. But this year's different. This year thousands and thousands of people are listening to it with us. Some here in this sector of space, but most of them are probably seeing it on their vids at home, lots of them probably wishing they were actually here. 'Course, I didn't know I'd be here, either, until about a week ago.
*****
Everyone's been humming about this Remembrance Day celebration for ages. Making speeches, showing Tri-V documentaries and vid series 'bout the War and all that happened. Guess it's to be expected, it being the 100th anniversary o' the beginning of the Great Peace and all, but it was starting to get to me, seeing as I knew all the stories backwards and forwards, what with great-grandma and great-grandpa having been involved in it from practically the beginning all the way through to the very end. Those were always my favorite stories when I was little, tales of adventures and great deeds, of heroes and true loves. The stories were better than any of the other fairy tales that all kids get told, because these stories actually happened to Grandma's parents and their friends. It makes me mad to see how the "official" versions sometimes get all twisted from the way they really were.
Anyway, I had just gotten home from my best friend Sari's sixteenth Naming Day celebration and was watching a vid-clip of some interviews of the Thought-Camp survivors. It's amazing to think that before the scientific advances we made during the Peace, even the youngest who lived through the Camps would have died of old age years ago. Now our med tech lets people stay active and healthy three quarters of the way to their second century. Still, tech can't do everything. I was pulling the knots out of my hair by hand, wishing there was an easier way to do *that* other than cutting it off--which Mom keeps on threatening to do if I don't keep it from tangling around my crest-bone--but I like it how it is, long and dark and curly, just like great-grandma's in the old 2-D pictures of her. Just as I was getting the last of them out, Mom comes into my room and I can tell something's up. Her eyes are sparkling and there's this little smile on her lips, like there always is when she has a secret she's dying to tell. So I sit up, all ears, wonderin' what it could be, when she says the last thing I would've imagined.
"We're going to the Monument."
********
So that's how, three days later, I found myself on a ship headed for where it all began and ended a hundred years ago. It turned out that the Council of Planets had just asked Grandma to make the closing speech of the Centennial Remembrance Day ceremony they were holding at the Monument. So all of us--Grandma, Mom, Dad, and me--packed some travel bags and headed out.
'Course, we never could have gotten seats on a commercial ship at this late date, not with everyone who could going to see the ceremony, but we didn't have to. Great-Aunt Susan rerouted one of the military couriers to pick us up (she's not really related to us, but she's been aunt and great-aunt to every one in the family, even Grandma). I guess being a general and holding the Military seat on the Council has some perks. Not that she ever wanted the rank or the position, even though the regens keep her as strong and active now as she was in her fifties. She only accepted them because she felt that as the last of the "Babylon-5 Five" still alive she had the responsibility of making sure what happened back then never happened again. The Council had originally asked her to speak at the ceremony, but she wouldn't. I think Great-Aunt Susan still feels guilty that, a hundred years ago, she lived when the others died. Not that it was her fault. There was nothing she could have done. Nothing at all. And that's what hurts her the most.
*********
We came out of hyperspace with me pressing my nose against the view ports, straining for my first actual sight of the Monument. The officers of the courier had been nice enough, but absorbed with their duties, and after two days in hyperspace I was itching for any change in the scenery. At first all I saw was the planet with it's glittering ring of metal scraps that were all that was left of the Light's greatest stronghold against the Shadows after the Final Battle. But there was even less left of them. For a minute I wondered where all the other ships bringin' people here had gotten to. The courier's captain told us later that they were all in parking vectors on the other side of this system's star, to avoid the risk of damaging the Monument. Then all the thoughts were pushed right out of my head as I saw it coming 'round the curve of the planet it orbited.
It was huge, deep and dark as space itself, but it was a blackness that seemed to shine from within. No nightmares or shadows could ever be that color. Nobody knows quite what it's made of, this rectangle slab over a mile long and half a mile thick. It was the last gift the Vorlons gave us before they went away, with as little explanation of it as they ever gave about anything. They just left it here, sang "For Remembrance", and disappeared. But the words on the Monument--they were all ours. Inscribed into the surface of the slab in the three major languages we had written--all of the species together--an epitaph and a promise in letters carved feet deep into the surface, big enough to be seen from space, lit up bright so that all who passed by would read it and remember the lessons of the past and the price we had paid. And seeing it for the first time with my own eyes, a strange feeling came over me. I felt proud and awed and humble all at the same time.
*********
It's ten minutes 'til the ceremonies begin and I'm all dressed up--something I usually hate doing--ready to go. I'm gettin' real impatient waiting for Mom and Dad to get here so we can get on the Tri-V link together. Grandma's actually gone to where they're projecting the "room" the proceeding's are gonna be held in. But then, Tri-V wasn't developed until Mom was growing up, and Grandma's never been real comfortable with it--which is kinda unusual since most people, especially kids my age, took to cyberspace like a ch'rot to water. Anyway, Mom and Dad finally were ready, and with the familiar Tri-V crackle-buzz we linked into the "room" they had designed for the ceremony. And what a room it was!
Even I was startled by the realism of the scenery. We were "standing" in open space, along with a large crowd of people, right at the foot of the Monument. Not the real Monument, of course, just an 3-D image of it, but it was as knock-down stunning here as it had been just comin' out of hyperspace. The black surface loomed above the podium set up at the Monument's base, the words shining out over us.
Then the speeches started. There were a few politicians there, trying to get noticed, but mostly the speeches were by people who had actually lived through the War and the chaotic years after it, or people like Grandma who were the children of those who had died. So many people. Some speaking of ideals and hopes for the future, some just tellin' their stories. Stories of dark, terrible things, but with light in them as well. A whole group of people from the Telepath's Guild came up, one after another, and simply said "We remember." Nothing more, but all of them projecting remorse for what some of their ancestors had done, and resolve and strength and hope as well. And still more came, to tell about the things closest to their hearts, so that it'd never be forgotten. About good times that came right along with the bad, the small joys that were intertwined with the larger sorrows, and about the light that never entirely went out. Some of it went right over my head, feelings and thoughts that only someone who had passed through that same fire could understand. Some of it, though, was painfully clear. And still more came, 'til there wasn't a person in that room that hadn't been touched in some way. Then Grandma got up and started to speak.
*******
"...and though their souls long ago departed this plane for that place past life where there is nothing but light, we continue to honor their memories. Their actions and sacrifices are reminders to us that the price of freedom is never too high, the obstacles never insurmountable. By their living and their dying, they have touched the lives of all who have come since, ensuring we will never lack for Light, till Universe's end."
For a minute there's silence while Grandma leaves the stage. Then the quiet's broken by a harsh sob. I look towards the sound, and for a minute I'm speechless. The sobs are coming from where Great-Aunt Susan's sitting, still stiff and proper with her silver hair pulled back and General's stripes on her shoulder, while tears stream down her face. Then I see her eyes, grief and loss written so plain in 'em, and suddenly my eyes aren't so dry anymore either. For a second, I understand everything they were all trying to say about the hopes and the sorrows, and the light that only shown the brighter for all the darkness that surrounded it.
*******
The jump-gate opens in front of our ship as we head for home, all the hustle and bustle done for another year. The stories and the memories put away until next Remembrance Day, at least for most people. But not for me, not this time. The things I felt, when I saw the Monument, and after Grandma's speech, they're still with me. Maybe it's time to start thinking about growing up. After all, Great-Aunt Susan isn't going to be around much longer, despite all the med techs do. I'll miss her, but I know that she'll be happier there with the rest of them then she's ever been on this side of life for the last hundred years. And after she's dead, the Council's gonna need someone to keep an eye on them, remind them that the old stories aren't just stories, and what happened the last time we forgot.
I take one last look back at the Monument, reading again the words inscribed on its surface. Then the ship plunges into hyperspace and I look ahead to the future as the Monument's message echoes quietly in the back of my mind.
IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES
FIGHTING SHADOWS WITHOUT AND WITHIN
WE HAVE LEARNED THE LESSONS YOU DIED TO TEACH US.
WE WILL NOT FORGET AGAIN.
Fini.