Work Text:
I must go back to the stars again,
On that endless vacuum ride
And all I ask is a starship,
And that Vulcan by my side.
And velvet space, a star-strewn path,
And a new planet bound;
And galaxies spin and quasars pulse,
And infinite diversity found.
I must go back to the stars again,
For Antares calls me there;
A faraway star, it beckons to me,
As I stand in the cool night air;
And all I ask is my old crew back,
And the center seat again;
For I’ve always known, that’s where I belong,
I and my Vulcan friend.
I must go back to the stars again,
To the life that I love so well;
To the living rocks and the loving clouds,
And the places where they dwell;
And all I ask is a captain’s luck,
And the Enterprise at my command;
And to go nowhere I’ve gone before,
Nor any other man.
--With thanks to John Masefield…