It was a little after Lataro's and K'Lara's sudden wedding. That had been a very happy occasion, and Benton was glad he had been invited to witness. But now there remained a much less joyous duty to be performed: the funeral for all the crewmembers who had lost their lives in the fight against the Kirusans and the Dominion.
K'Lara and Benton sat slightly apart on a pair of stools in the ship's torpedo bay. Unfortunately, they weren't alone, they had plenty of company. Their companions weren't sitting on stools however, they had special accommodations. They lay in modified torpedo casings: coffins.
In the recent battles the Virgo had been through, many brave men and women had been lost to the enemy, the Kirusans, the Dominion, the Shahtar. K'Lara felt it was her duty to keep the death watch over their remains. Someone had to make sure the predators of the afterlife didn't devour them before they had a chance to be sent on their way to Sto'Vo'Kor. Benton was curious about this custom and had volunteered to help.
As she sat, K'Lara told her mute audience the tale of the Virgo's glorious victory over their enemies. She told how Galen and Ek'ra's ultimate sacrifice had allowed the ship's shields to be kept up long enough for the remaining Jem'Hadar warships to be reduced to space dust.
She told how Javier Tara's death had given Valdago enough time to destroy the evil android Solacetta once and for all. She knew that Javier's symbiont, Tara, had survived the struggle, but Javier the host was gone forever.
There were several others who had died during the course of the fighting. K'Lara didn't know the details of their bravery but she knew they all had died with honor, since they wore the Starfleet uniform, and so would not do otherwise.
Then there was Commander Surok, former First Officer, who had been lost so long ago. The Virgo's crew had given him up for dead several times before, yet time and again, Surok had somehow managed to return from the brink of oblivion. But there would be no coming back this time. His body lay in a torpedo beside the others.
As K'Lara was telling these tales, Benton sat slightly apart and quietly pondered the meaning of life and death. He recalled that a famous Earth writer, William Shakespeare, had pondered the same question hundreds of years before. Shakespeare had asked the question:
"To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and, by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep."
Which was better? To live and suffer all the terrible calamities that life flung in your direction; or to die, to just give up? The character Hamlet had been deeply depressed by the untimely and suspicious death of his father, and so was considering these grim questions. But then a new thought came to Hamlet:
"To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all."
No one had ever returned from death to tell what it was like. Was death even worse than life? Hamlet decided that it was fear that drove us to choose life over death, fear of the unknown. We were all just cowards.
Benton mused further. Hamlet had been wrong. His depression had clouded his reason, distorted his whole perception of reality. As a result, life became pointless for him, and he began a steep, swift dive into madness and finally, death.
No, death was not to be feared, Benton decided firmly. The brave men and women who were lying here, each in his own torpedo casing, had not feared it, they had not given up. They had died fighting to their last breath, knowing that their efforts would not be in vain. They were to be admired. And those of the crew who remained among the living had to carry on the proud legacy of their fallen comrades. The only alternative was to turn the ship around and slink back to the Alpha Quadrant and give up. No, they would go on.
Just then, Benton's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Captain Maruu. It was just as well, Benton's thoughts had taken a turn for the maudlin.
The captain looked at the two officers sitting there and said, "K'Lara and Benton. The two of you should go get ready. The funeral services are scheduled to begin in twenty minutes."
K'Lara protested, "Captain! With all due respect, I can't leave these men here unprotected while I go off to find my dress uniform. It's important that someone stay here and..."
Maruu interrupted K'Lara softly, "Commander, I'll keep watch while you two prepare. Dismissed, both of you."
"Aye, Sir," said K'Lara and Benton simultaneously, and left the torpedo bay.
Maruu walked over to the stool where K'Lara had been sitting and perched himself for the lonely vigil over his shipmates.