GUILT

GUILT

It's enough to say that there's a drive-generator on board this ship
which is the complete and final justification of all the hell you people
on the Bridge have been put through. --James Blish

Their minds are small. They never dream huge dreams.
Inertia, Cynicism have captured all.
I dream of moving faster than light beams
And looking in Death's face and standing tall.
I reached for interstellar flight, and then
For immortality--not for myself
But for the West, for mankind. Only when
I knew the price, my conscience shook itself.
Two hundred thirty-one brave, young dead men
Invade my mind at night and babies cry
On laboratory tables for my sin
And their friend Justice shouts that I must die.
He chose sweet death to heal his mental scars
Bliss Wagoner--the gateway to the stars.