Never Give Up!

Posted on Sat Mar 11th, 2023 @ 10:32am by Captain Gary Taylor

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Ice Planet
Timeline: After Counting the Cost, MD10
591 words - 1.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Gary had just finished a briefing with senior staff and department heads along with Phoenix. The situation was grim. The Elysium was crippled. It had suffered major almost catastrophic damage. Most of her systems needed major repairs. Warp drive was out and would take extended time to repair it. Life support was also severely damaged and would not support the entire crew at least not now. Shields and weapons were also damaged and offline.

Then there was the crew. Over thirty percent of the crew was dead with hundreds more injured. Some departments were all but wiped out. Flight Control leaped into his mind. There were only a handful left from a department that had once had hundreds. In addition to all of this, the replicators were offline, damaged and given the state of the ship, were not yet a high priority, which meant food had to be found to feed the crew. The emergency rations and food stuffs that weren't damaged would not last long.

Yet despite the devastating events, Gary refused to get down. He knew the crew and their determination. He saw the determination in the faces of Lia and Alicia and Mattias and Malakai, Kara and Rin along with countless others. He also knew how determined Phoenix was and when coupled with his drive to not be defeated, he was confident they would get home. Oh, it might take years, but they would get home.

He got up and went outside and walked through the camp, talking to other crew members, being positive and encouraging. An old holovid of a speech he had seen years before came to mind. A coach by the name of Jim Valano, called Jimmy V by the media and fans had been diagnosed and would later die of cancer. Yet despite that grim prognosis he remained upbeat and optimistic. He had uttered a phrase that Gary had adopted as his own and used when he was in the Romulan prison camp and again now when he met and talked with the crew. He would tell them, "Never give up, don't ever give up." In fact, as he walked and saw the determination on the faces of those, he encountered a song came to his lips and he softly sang as he walked.

I've paid my dues
Time after time
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand
Kicked in my face
But I've come through
And we mean to go on and on and on and on
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the World
I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls
You brought me fame and fortune
And everything that goes with it
I thank you all
But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before
The human race
And I ain't gonna lose
And we mean to go on and on and on and on
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the World
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the World