William Shakespeare's Serenity

Capt : A dozen years have pass’d since this took place, And all that time hath Parliament kept hid The secret of this world, till River here Unearth’d it from their minds. They feared she knew. And right they were to dread, since many more Among the spinning worlds would know it too. And someone has to speak for those now dead. For divers reasons did you join my crew But all have come together to this place. I’ve in the past demanded much of you. Today I ask yet more ; perhaps for all. For this I know, as I know anything : That they will try again. Another world Will be the lab for this experiment. Or maybe they will sweep this landscape clean And in a year or ten attempt again. They’ll swing back like the needle to the north To the belief that they can better men. And I hold not to that. Here from this grave I will not run. I aim to misbehave.

 o0o -

Capt : There’s more to flight than buttons, albatross, More to the pilot’s role than charts and maps. You know the foremost rule of flying ? Aye, I know you do, since you know what I’ll say Before I part my lips.

Riv : I do, but yet I like to hear you say it nonetheless. Capt : ’Tis love. Though you know all the math the ’verse Contains, if in the sky you take a ship unloved She’ll shake you off as sure as worlds turn. Love keeps her in the air when she should fall And tells you that she hurts before she keens. It makes her home.

Riv : The storm is getting worse.

Capt : We will endure a while, till it disperse.