Paying Respect (TRINITY CREW)

[Roger Davis]

[February 17th, 2523]

It had been quite a hectic year so far. First the threat from Sakura waking from her coma and threatening violence on the entire crew in her unstable state, being treated like kings by the duke and subsequently being betrayed by him in the mission, being boarded by the Alliance, fighting through no fewer than three heated battles, having the ship shot out of the sky and crashing to the ground below... It's a wonder Trinity and her crew survived it all. Well, they hadn't survived scot-free. There were varying degrees of injuries among the crew ranging from scrapes to near fatal bullet wounds to serious mental and emotional trauma. The ship itself had nearly died and took quite a while to bring back to a functioning state.

And of course there was James. As the situation became increasingly dangerous, James placed himself further and further into the path of danger to protect his crew. His increasingly heroic and self-sacrificing efforts culminated in his death when fighting off the very last of the attackers and ensuring the safety of his crew.

And here Roger was, simply sitting in the Cargo Bay looking over the box that was the temporary home to their late captain as they transported him back to Hera. The gunhand hardly had a chance to get to know the man more than the rumors from the others but seeing James in action verified all their stories about him.

Roger had been aboard Trinity just since the new year but he was already confident that this was a place he wanted to stay. There was a certain brotherhood that existed between the three other veterans and himself. Though he had never directly served with any of them it was still there, a common bond that was so crucial to a man like Roger, someone who had been lost since the war ended. Roger only needed to mention his military record when first meeting him and James had immediately accepted the gunhand and trusted him.

Now that relationship was ended. As brief as it had been, Roger was tied to the man who now lay cold and unfeeling in that box, never again to draw breath. For someone who was very comfortable with taking life, Roger had never gotten desensitized to death. Indeed, life was precious. Just because Roger felt that violence was often a justifiable course of action did not exclude him from also valuing life. It would be expected when losing a friend, a commander, but he felt the same even for those lives he took... well most of them. Luckily he never before had been burdened to carry their bodies for an extended period of time as was required now with the transporting of James' remains.

Roger didn't know the captains denomination, if any, but he took the time to pray as he sat there. He prayed for the forgiveness of James' sins. He did not mean to judge but there were probably quite a few. The man had died while killing others after all even if done in self defense. He prayed that in death James had found the peace that they all were looking for. He prayed for James' family and the rest of the crew that they may overcome their grief and keep James alive in their hearts through their collective happy memories of the man. Finally he prayed to see the colonel again when it was his time, whether that be from a violent death in a few days or going quietly in 60 years. The gunhand became immersed in his silent prayers, no longer paying attention to the physical world around him in the cargo bay.

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sidney had spent the day in contact with the Clark family, setting up the details for the funeral and turning over James body. It wasn't going to be till later that night that they made the turnover but it had kept him busy getting it all set up.

The Trinity itself was a shattered husk of what it used to be. Sure they had her fixed up and flying again but it wasn't whole without James, and it probibly never would be again. When Sidney was done with all the waves he needed to make he went down to the cargo bay. The place was empty except for the box that new held James remains.

Roger was already down there on the cargo bay floor near the remains when Sidney out on the catwalk. For a moment he stood there and looked down not wanting to inturrupt. Everyone was coping differently. Sidney himself, well he wasn't someone he needed to cope. He had faced the death of many others through out his life and this was no different.

Sidney walked down the stairs and over toward Roger. He said nothing, only offering a nod instead. He stood there looking at the coffin for a bit. His eyes looked like stone, his lips straight. There was no emotion on his face, as if nothing had changed from before. Sidney couldn't help but think how he was supposed to keep this ship going. With out James there to keep things in order, to keep Sidney under control this kind of thing was much more likely to happen.

[Roger Davis]

After a few minutes, Roger finally looked up from his prayer to see Sidney beside him. Who knows how long he had been there. The man was not one to speak and announce himself even in regular circumstances. The look on his face was as cold and apathetic as ever. Perhaps it was just a mask to hide the pain he felt at the loss or perhaps a life of violence had desensitized Sidney and Roger was just lucky it had not done the same to him.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Roger quoted with the hopes that his words might comfort Sidney if the comfort was even needed.

"So, we all got some war history but I wasn't part o' yer unit or nothin'. Mind tellin' me a bit about you and James from back when?" Roger asked. Talking about the war would typically bring up 'bad' memories for most but Roger was guessing that Sidney would only find good memories when thinking back about James.

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sidney just listened as Roger said a few words over James'. It had been a long time since Sidney had believed any of that did any good. Though it could never hurt to have some kind words said for the fallen.

Finally Roger asked him a bit about him and James back in the war. The two of them had a lot of history with each other back in the war. Sidney didn't look at Roger, and his face didn't make any sign of sadness even as he thought of that past. "Boros, July of 2506. My unit was dropped down to work with the resistance there. They had just given us a fresh batch of men to up our numbers after we succeeded in defending Verbena the fisr time." Sidney started. "James was a green Lieutenant then. Our teams were split up and to be honest he was a bit reckless. I figured he was going to get himself killed before I got the chance to chew his ass in person for being so reckless."

Yeah James was reckless alright, thet hadn't changed but he always did it for the right reason. He seems to run in blind and walk away the hero. To many times in the war Sidney saw James pull the impossible off. "He would charge in with out thinking, with out evaluation the risk. Somehow though he walked away from it. In fact had he not taken the risks he had I don't think any of us would have left Boros. I owe him my life, serveral times over." James was truely an unsung hero of the war. The kind that would be a legand.

[Roger Davis]

"I guess somethings never really change, eh?" Roger replied. That little snippet of history on Boros 17 years ago was eerily similar to their own situation. James was reckless then and had been reckless on New Canaan. In both instances he had saved the day and the lives of the others in his command. Well, generalities and lack of detail tend to make things easier to compare but Roger liked the idea that there was some easy pattern to James' history, a truly great man, someone who had acted selflessly for two decades.

There was something else that Sidney said that stuck out. It of course had nothing to do with James and Roger hated to change the subject but he wasn't really getting anywhere with Sid. It appeared that their new captain was neither one for tears or even for quiet self reflection in such times.

"You mentioned Verbena. Back in '06, right?" Roger gave a slight chuckle. "Small 'verse. What were there, maybe five thousand Browncoats in that very localized engagement? Most of that fighting happened right in my home town, some of it even right at the Davis homestead." The thought reminded him naturally of the war but also brought up a realization that he hadn't had a single word with his folks since before joining up with the Trinity.

[Sidney Bainbridge]

Sidney was a bit surprised that Roger knew about the fisrt assault on Verbena it was a battle that when mostly unnoticed in the war. The fact that he was there at the time was quite the coincidence. "Yeah right about five thousand of us. That was just before James joined the 217th."

Sidney paused a moment and thought over the engagment back then. They fight was right in the town there not far from the river. Sidney's group had branched off and gone in to the farm land to get around the back of the Alliance forces. Odds where it was him and his men that had fought right there on the Davis land. "Back in that battle I remember tracking through the farms, Wouldn't be surprised if that ment we are the ones who tracked through your family homestead. What was it that made you join the war?"

[Roger Davis]

The topic might not be exactly about James but Roger had succeeded in catching Sidney's interest... or so it seemed. Finally there was something the two could really talk about.

"Why I joined?" Roger repeated. "Well, other than the fact that they invaded my home? I believe in the cause of independence and my pa was a big supporter of the Browncoats even before they hit Verbena. He was headin' any civilian support you guys may have received, extra rations or medical care. I was seventeen so I helped out a bit, maybe got a little closer to the fightin' than my parents would'a liked."

"The war o' course found its way back to Verbena. I turned eighteen a few days after the fightin' really started to get heated in '07. Got thrown right into the middle of things as an irregular from there and fought the duration of the battle until it ended in December. A short time later I got shipped off to the academy for officer trainin'." Roger paused before dragging out his story any further away from the simple question that had been asked. "Fifteen years later and here I am."

[Kalli Ann Bernett]

Kalli walked in to the Cargo bay to hear Sidney and Roger talking about what their past in the war. She walked down quietly to join them, she really didn't have much to say about the war. She was only about five when the war started and she only know that her father was an alliance officer in it. She of course sided with the Alliance back then, and had they asked her that mearly five years ago she would still have been all for the alliance her opinions had only recently changed.

She walked up beside the coffin the body was in and sat down beside it. She placed a hand on the box and sighed. She wished she could explain why the alliance had started that stupid war but their reasons were all lies, everything the alliance ever did was a lie to her.

"What was the war like? Howdid people keep themselve strong enough to keep going on?" The loss of one was enough to rip her apart inside she couldn't imagine seeing friends die all the time like they did. How they managed to keep going was beyond her.

[Roger Davis]

Roger watched as Kalli sat beside the coffin. He hadn't even noticed her enter just as he hadn't noticed Sidney initially either. He wasn't really sure how to talk about the war around her. Apparently her father was high up Alliance military, assuming she hadn't been completely bluffing back when the Esteem boarded them.

"Well, I suppose Sidney could probably answer that question better than me." Roger replied. "I had a pretty charmed experience durin' the war. I never lost a single man until Serenity Valley when a whole bunch of us got hit in one engagement." Roger paused and subconsciously rubbed his thigh where the wound was. "That was the end of my war."

"I honestly don't know who I lost. They carted me out o' there near death. There ain't no Independent army to ask who made it and who didn't or where they are now. You'd think it would be better not to know but it ain't. I know for a fact that I lost men there. Maybe none o' my men survived the battle. But the worst part is questionin' why I survived and the others didn't." That probably wasn't helping her at all.

"I get by doin' what I do 'cause I'm at peace. When it's my time, James' time, or anyone's time then there's nothing I can do about it. James' death was no one's fault least of all yours. There is no sense in beatin' yourself up over somethin' outside your control. I believe that I will see James and all those men from the war again someday. Death cannot kill that which never dies."

[Sakura Kina]

Sakura had been sitting in the shadows of the Cargo Bay underneath the catwalks, playing with a necklace she had on, simply listening to the two ex-soldiers talking about the war. Listening to their stories, there was so much reasoning behind why they joined the cause.. She didn't want to speak as she didn't know if she had the energy to at the moment. So much had happened so quickly the past few weeks and now the one person she trusted with all her heart was dead. Everything yet again became so foreign to her, it felt as if it was her first time on the Trinity all over again. As Kalli walked down the steps of the catwalk to the coffin, Sakura looked up and watched as she also mourned for their late captain's death.

When Kalli asked about the war, Sakura stood up and slowly walked out of the shadows. Her hair was a bit disheveled and her eyes were filled with exhaustion from a lack of sleep, James' death having kept her awake. "War was worse than words could describe. Bullets flying over your head, occasionally hitting an unlucky soldier who happened to look up at the wrong time. Grenades that took out dozens of soldiers at a time, bombing runs that you just couldn't do anything about except pray. Deception, hopelessness, fear, it's all horrible." Sakura still felt a slight weakness in her legs from having sat in the corner of the cargo bay for a long time. Sitting down on an empty box, she looked down at the ground. "How did we keep going?" She looked up at James' casket and smiled. "I would like to say that even in the end, we fought believing we had a fighting chance, but really..." Sakura looked at Sid, then Roger, and finally at Kalli. "But really, we kept going because we knew that if we didn't fight for our family, our planets, our way of life, who would?" Feeling a throbbing pain in her head, Sakura pressed her hand against her head and closed her eyes, trying to push the pain aside. The nausea in her body did not help either, but she knew it wasn't something she could help. Once the pain subsided in her head, she kept her eyes to the ground and sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if all that fighting was worth it since we lost.."