I post more in the general discussion forum but I wanted to share a bit about a very dear friend of mine.
He loved Captain Kirk. Kept a picture framed on the wall of his living room at two apartments.
He would have played Star Trek Online. He loved MMOs. We used to discuss Star Trek into the wee hours of the morning. We even played City of Heroes together back when Cryptic still ran it, remaking our friends in the character creator.
His name was Bobby. He was one of my dearest friends in college. He was a certifiable nerd and we followed news of a Star Trek MMO from Perpetual together closely I nearly had him hooked on City of Heroes if WoW hadn't sunk its teeth in first.
He was a photographer, a cinameatographer on multiple short films, and a devotee of Star Trek who was amused that we had both read the encyclopedia cover to cover.
I remember he latched onto a quote from "Shore Leave" (TOS):
"I'm not coming back, Jim. I'm not coming back."
On February 16th 2007, he didn't come back. I arrived home to find a police car at my apartment and our roommate Jason was left with the duty of informing me that Bobby has been murdered.
Bobby loved Star Trek. We spent hours tweaking our designs in the Cryptic character creator for City of Heroes. He's the reason most of his friends played WoW. And he would have been the reason that most of us played Star Trek Online.
The captains of the Enterprise were all fictional and yet they were all heroes to me both growing up and as an adult.
But Bobby was so full of hope for the future. He was a devotee of Ray Bradbury's writing and Harlan Ellison's and he genuinely believed in Gene Roddenberry's vision. No one I've ever known believed in a brighter future than he did, in progress, in progress towards enlightenment, in Gene Roddenberry's vision of tomorrow and all the fantastic tomorrows that could be foreseen. He was not only a cultural progressive (and I use that word without political inflection) but someone who sought a life that could be admired by people hundreds of years in the future.
Just four years later, he's not here with us.
And I want it to be understood that at the sentencing of his killer, one of his friends showed up in his Captain Kirk T-Shirt, for the courage, for the fearlessness that represented to Bobby.
There are so many things I cannot think of without thinking of my very dear friend. But Star Trek is one of them. Star Trek Online is one of them.
And whatever mission I play, whatever fleet I join, I know that Bobby, the eternal optimist who was always just a bit ahead of his time, is playing with me. seeing the bright side, the undiscovered countries.
At his funeral, they played "Amazing Grace" but those of us who were his friends knew that the only suitable version was the bagpipe rendition played at Spock's funeral... and that was the only funeral I have ever attended or will ever attend to play Darkmateria's Captain Picard remix.
I remember that a friend said that our love for him as a brother was between here in and the moon but they would have said Delta Vega if the audience would have caught the reference. Hundreds of people at that funeral but only a few caught the nuances, the references, the in-jokes.
What I want to say to the STO Community is simple: treasure your friendships. Treasure each moment. And never forget your heroes.
To me, Bobby is in the realm of legends now, like a Captain of the Enterprise. He loved exotic women. He settled disputes. He had a twinkle in his eye that foretold the future. He loved action and appreciated the potential of things still developing. He believed in Roddenberry's tomorrow. He stood as as a testament to the human will and imagination.
I wish he could be here with us.
It was... fun.
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