Most Veterans got to enjoy the celebrations of War’s End, but we Cowboys, and the other Ageless, got truncated real quick. It started when the media asked how someone scarred by twenty years of War could be trusted in normal society with a deadly weapon. They provided a platform for “experts” to demand the confiscation of our weapons, our ships, and even our partners. The War was over after all. What need did we have for weapons?
I arrived late to the celebration at Old New York. I was late enough that I did not have time to celebrate at all. My guide never arrived. That was my first clue that while The War was over, we would not yet know peace. It is the lot in life for Veterans to always have problems with that notion. We fight, and then we are forgotten. To their credit, America tried to remember the Veterans. But it is hard to remember a warrior, when you try to forget The War.
I remember the celebration at Old New York like it was yesterday. I found myself with old friends, some of the few who survived the fall of Yosemite. They held me together. Well, they say that we held each other together, but they were always stronger than me. Don’t trust them if they say anything different. They met me in Old New York and we celebrated the fact that we still lived. Not that we won. Just that we lived. It was a really awesome night.
After The War, we went to Old New York for the celebration of War’s end. The celebration went on for months, as Veterans came from across known space. Whether retiring or on liberty, the Veterans came home and celebrated with the people who came to meet them and thank them for twenty years of service to humanity. It was amazing, and we will never forget it.
Stories, and the ability to tell them, are one of the many things that make us human. Our imaginations drive us to do things we don’t yet know how to do. Our wishes make us grow, our growth makes us learn, and our learning makes us realize just how little we really know. And it is stories that make our imaginations run wild, or wishes expand, and bring us the knowledge we crave. Please, never deprive our children of the stories that made us who we are. Human.