TITLE: To Serve the Living
AUTHOR: Ster Julie
SERIES: TOS
RATING: G
CODES: Amanda
ARCHIVE: Yes, but only where I post
SUMMARY: Amanda receives the flag that had covered Spock's burial tube.

A/N: Quotes taken from The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key

--ooOOoo--

Amanda was surprised to see the carton when it arrived at her home. A package for her from the Enterprise? She knew that the ship had been destroyed weeks ago when Spock's friends had rescued her son from the Genesis planet. What could this be?

Amanda gasped as she opened the box and saw the folded Federation of Planets blue flag, folded in the traditional tri-corned way. Even the enclosed note had the traditional wording: We present this flag to you on behalf of a grateful Federation.

Amanda ran her hand over the smooth fabric as her eyes misted over with tears. This flag had no doubt covered Spock's coffin on that terrible day he died. She clutched the flag to her bosom, so grateful that her son was once again alive. Spock was not yet whole, but he was making tremendous progress.

Amanda pondered what to do with the flag. Should she return it? Donate it? Sarek was on Earth, pleading for leniency for the Enterprise 6 (as the media had dubbed them), so she couldn't ask his advice at the moment.

Amanda made a capricious decision. The dawn was glorious, with a delicious breeze blowing. She unfolded the standard and raised it in the garden where it danced merrily in the wind. Pulling a padd from her pocket, she called up the poem written on Earth in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, "The Star-Spangled Banner." Most of the poem did not apply to this Federation flag, but some lines made her smile while others made her weep.

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

Amanda closed the padd and wiped her eyes. Yes, Spock had seen more than his share of "bombs bursting in air," "the havoc of war and the battle's confusion," and "the gloom of the grave." Thankfully, his stay in that grave was short-lived and she could behold his living form once more.

Amanda noted the time and realized that she was due at Gol in an hour for Spock's classes. She took down the flag and returned it to the box. She placed it in her closet to deal with another time. This flag had served the dead. It was time now for Amanda to serve the living.

END