Righteous Side of Hell

Posted on 06 Dec 2023 @ 6:00am by Lieutenant Aria Rice

1,071 words; about a 5 minute read

"Then it is time, Sogh Rice, for you to join us again, so we can both reveal the secrets of what has really happened here. Join me again, and together we will seek out the High Command and learn the truth of...this new galaxy. You may even be welcomed as a Federation ambassador within the Great Hall of Qo'noS."

There are times when life throws things at you. Things you can’t describe or anticipate. There had been this joke, I think Kuran just liked the idea of a Starfleet defector in his ranks. But this time…

This time, it called. It rose up in me, like a tidal wave. Unexpected.

I remember when I first came to the Galileo. I was young. It wasn’t my first ship, I had spent some time on the USS Nova. But the Galileo was so different and I was a young Ensign. It wasn’t even that many years ago. But looking back, I was young. I was worried. I was idealistic.

I remember standing in sickbay with a Vorta defector. Amril. I remember the Chief Medical Officer ordering us to leave. I remember that uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach as I noted my objection. So much anger and hatred in that room, old war wounds ripped open. They saw the enemy.

I just saw someone who was lost, who hid between smooth manners and words.

I remember Stone, a broken man, snapping his anger at an entire Security department. I remember the emotions. It was unfair. I remember when he died, the heaviness I felt. I think it aged me. Or maybe it just taught me a balance. I’m Aria Rice, capable enough, never going to end up teaching at the Academy, able to take a joke, get over excited and dwell in a fantasy world off duty. I’m the wingman, the sidekick, there for my friends. Always there for my friends.

I was friends with Lirha. I even went willingly to her bed. The first time, there were cupcakes involved and no sex. I turned her down. She was in pain, she was hurting and she wanted to feel alive. I couldn’t give her what she needed. So I just held her.

This is not the same woman. Rear-Admiral Lirha Saalm might as well be from the mirror universe with her mannerism. Some aspects were always there, the stubbornness, the single-minded focus on what she needed. Her plans. Her way, no other.

It doesn’t work anymore.

I have been promoted and demoted more times than I care to remember. I’ve been a patsy. I’ve been stitched up like a kipper, as a good friend once said. I’ve worked hard. I’ve believed.

I still believe. In the core principles of Starfleet. Exploration. Diplomacy. Doing what is right, no matter the cost. Not interfering in the natural development of the universe. It’s why we have the Prime Directives. Not all civilisations survive. From their ashes, others rise, the same way it has been on every planet harbouring sentient life.

Even Luna had that. Once, big companies ran it. It was a research station, then a sponsored colony, then a mining operation. But eventually, those fell too, and the people were left behind. We had rebellions, unrest, the same way you had on Earth. Luna, Earth’s Moon, was just an extension. Before we became more independent.

The real problem here is the breaking of the Temporal Prime Directive. I know within our history; it has gotten broken a lot. But it is there for a reason. Going back in time to change the past changes the future. It breaks bonds, it shatters lives. People who could have been born wouldn’t be born. An accident someone survived suddenly becomes an accident no one lives through. A ripple, spreading and distorting. Is it the right thing to change history to save the Federation? Billions of lives at stake, but what if those lives would be lost anyway?

There are too many unknowns.

What led us here? What dark secrets did the Federation and Starfleet deny along the way? How did the hidden shadows suddenly become the main attribute of something that stood for something bigger, something better? Or is it that power corrupts, and the Federation got too powerful for its own good? I want to find out.

Because truth is, if this doesn’t work, there is still a universe out there. The Federation might be lost, but what can rise from its ashes? Can there be a new universe where people live together, accept each other? Can there be a new alliance, different than the one we once had? The Klingons and the Romulans have put their differences aside, so what other potentials are there?

All these things go through my mind, a flash. Saalm said we were dead. I am dead. Scarlet, Gabriel, Sofie, Lily, Mimi, all dead. I understand those who are willing to change the past to keep those they love safe. I feel that tug too, deep in my heart, a wish for it all to change. But it isn’t why I joined Starfleet. It’s not why I exist. I swore an oath to uphold the values of the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet. It means upholding the directives. It means standing there when we could have interfered, as an entire planet of people die because it is the natural course of their development. It means taking that disruptor blast to protect those who can’t protect themselves.

Clearly, now, it means taking a stand. This is not my Starfleet or Federation. I don’t recognise it. Maybe it is dead. But if it is, there has to be something else out there, a new hope for a better future. That doesn’t change the way that things have gone.

Maybe I am on the wrong side of Heaven. But at least I can be on the righteous side of Hell.

Sacrifice is one of the things that Starfleet asks of us. Well, alright. I am sacrificing my career, my relationship with the people that I consider family. I have to. Because the moral options are few and this is where I have settled.

“I will do it.”

RSS Feed