A ring…. A simple silver band…
something so small for the significance it carries. It was to have
been his, but the Lords saw fit to punish my lack of judgment by
taking him from me… I still vividly recall the day of the funeral.
As I stood in front of my locker,
fastening the final clasp on the sash of my dress uniform, there sat
the box on the shelf. It was exactly where it had been since I
bought it three months before… but now it seemed to stare right at
me. As if my hands were acting of their own will I reached for the
box, taking the ring from its velvet cage, placing it securely on my
left thumb… a reminder that he should have been at my side.
There it remained throughout the day,
and throughout the next several weeks… until the day I set foot on
the Galactica for the first time. That day the ring returned to its
velvet box on the shelf in my locker, where it sat for two years.
Until today…
Why today? 24 hours ago everything
was as it should be… The Galactica was to be decommissioned… we
were all hanging in limbo, waiting for out next postings… I was
returning to Picon… the final flight with my squadron was only
hours away… a flight I missed due to getting into a little
disagreement with the XO. We never saw it coming… after 40 years
we were thrown into the midst of a war, forced to fight in vipers
that were classed as museum pieces. And I had my first real taste of
combat.
None of us could have been prepared
for this… but we were here… My hands were still shaking from the
adrenaline of landing two linked vipers, thus saving the life of one
of my best friends… it was the least I could do… after all… I
killed his brother. I reach for the velvet box one more time, taking
the ring and slipping it on again, to remind me not only of what I
had lost… but of all that was still left to live for.
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