Work Text:
A Life Beyond
Admiral William T. Riker stepped forward as the swirl of the transporter stopped and their guest arrived.
“Doctor Timicin, welcome aboard. I’m William Riker the captain of the USS Titan, and this is my wife Deanna Troi ambassador of Betazed.”
Timicin smiled and stepped down of the transporter pad, eagerly shaking both their hands.
“It is a pleasure to meet you both and I would like to thank you for your continued help for my planet despite the obstacles that have come up. I was informed that the last helium fusion enhancement test went shall we say…less than smoothly.”
“Doctor Timicin if I may,” Deanna spoke up, “your grandfather was a remarkable man who showed great dedication to his work while he was on the Enterprise. His relationship with my mother-”
“Was something that brought him great joy, I know. He told me about it at his Resolution. I remember her being there. She was so vibrant, so full of life.”
Deanna glanced at the floor and twisted her hands together. “Yes she was.”
Timicin nodded in understanding. “I am sorry for your loss I had hoped I could meet her again.”
Riker cleared his throat.
“Well, Doctor, perhaps we should take you to engineering. I know that your work is on a critical deadline.”
“Please, Admiral Riker, I would like to speak to you two about another matter before that if I could…in private.”
Riker nodded to the transporter chief and Commander Wildman nodded in silent response and quickly left the room.
“I wish to inform you of my plans in advance so if you don’t wish to help you may beam me back down to the planet immediately.”
“What are your plans?”
“I would like to request asylum aboard your ship and not to return to Kaelon II regardless of the outcome of this test.”
Riker's eyes widened. “May I ask why?”
“Because I am about to turn sixty, Admiral, my people now believe I have outlived my usefulness and should be on my merry way to death as everyone has done before me for thousands of years. I’m not going to.”
“You want to go against those traditions?” Deanna asked.
Timicin nodded. “My work has reached a critical point as you said, Admiral. If I leave it now my world is doomed. Perhaps it is prideful of me to think that I can change something that has gone on for generations. That I am so valuable that no one else can accomplish what I have, but…”
Timicin bowed his head and took a moment to collect himself.
“My grandfather was on the verge on discovering a way to save our world,” he continued. “And while his notes and research papers remained the way he thought about challenges and his years of experience in teaching others his knowledge did not. He was valuable specifically because he was older than the other scientists working on the project, and he would have continued to be valuable long after he turned sixty. I am now valuable too and I will not throw all that away because society has told me I should.”
Timicin pulled up a small portion of his sleeve revealing an old sunburn scar that covered most of his lower arm.
“Those who have come after my grandfather have managed to limp our sun along a few extra years, but they have not been happy ones. No doubt my people will claim that that is why they have the Resolution. So that people who are no longer healthy or useful don’t suffer the indignity of living beyond their years, but who is to say when that is? Our medical science has advanced over the centuries we would now be better able to provide for the elderly, but we don’t because it’s tradition. Yet when that tradition doesn’t occur everyone acts like it’s somehow a deeper loss. My sister was in an accident and never lived to see thirty. Everyone said it was a tragedy to die so young and leave so many things unfulfilled, and yet had she been sixty no one would dare say that anything had been left unfulfilled or undone.”
“Timicin I can feel that your sister’s death has affected you deeply perhaps if would discussed it with me you would feel differently about what you want to do. You obviously have family, surely they would be against this?”
Timicin chuckled and shook his head.
“I know her death changed me. That’s what my mother always said when she ranted at me for questioning the Resolution and yelled about your mother putting foolish ideas into my grandfather’s head. But I don’t think your mother was foolish. As for my family…my son and I are estranged, he does not care where I die. That’s the other thing they don’t tell you about the wonderful Resolution, about the pressure it puts on you to do certain things before you’re ready. I was lectured time and again by well-meaning friends that I should have children by a certain age. If I didn’t I would never see my grandchildren. If I waited too long my children wouldn’t have a father for most of their lives and what kind of a life was that to give them? What I should have given my son was a father who was prepared to raise him.”
Deanna and Riker stood there in stunned silence.
“I truly think that time has come for change. However, drastic change requires drastic measures, someone has to lead the revolt for a better life. My grandfather said he could not be that one man, I can.”
Riker and Deanna looked at each other before quickly reaching an agreement.
“Then we stand ready to offer assistance, Doctor Timicin.”
He smiled.
“Thank you.”
The End