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When Admiral James T. Kirk receives a garbled transmission from Space Station Regula One, the current mission of the Starship Enterprise changes from a training cruise to an investigation. The captain of record at the time (at the start of the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) is his old friend, Spock, who realizes the situation has changed and graciously allows the admiral to take command, making it clear it is not about his ego, but doing what is best for the ship and the new mission. In the leisure of this privacy, he tells Kirk that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

Of course, that statement gains resonance at the end of the movie, when Spock sacrifices himself to get the warp drive back online so the ship can escape Khan’s detonation of the Genesis device, and he and Kirk share one last intimate moment before he dies.



Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is all about Kirk not accepting his friend’s sacrifice, realizing it is possible to save him from even death. He risks his career, his ship, his crew, even his son, to bring Spock back. He spends the entire movie turning the grand statement about selfishness and the need to put the good of the collective ahead of yourself on its head, and in the end he is rewarded by standing before the confused, yet very alive, Spock.

For Kirk, he disobeys direct orders from his superiors, because there’s something else going on here. He’s putting his friendship with Spock above everything else. By calling his crew together and organizing the theft of the Enterprise, he is making a stand for something greater than following Starfleet’s commands. The possibility of rescuing Spock has become greater to him than anything else, and throughout the movie, he is put to the test on this. He is marked as an outlaw for not only stealing the Enterprise, but also sabotaging the Excelsior so he cannot be intercepted. He comes into conflict with the Klingons, who call Kirk and the Federation “a gang of intergalactic criminals” because of the Genesis device and who threaten war if they don’t get its secrets. He loses his son, David Marcus, as he tries to fight off a Klingon who is holding him, Lt. Saavik, and the adolescent Spock (it makes sense if you watch the movie) hostage. He is forced to destroy his own ship, the venerable Enterprise, in a plan to keep him and his crew alive and fighting. At the end of this, when everyone finally makes it to Vulcan so they can give Spock back his katra, his father, Sarek, asks Kirk if everything he gave up was worth it to save his friend.

Kirk’s response: If I hadn’t tried, the cost would have been my soul.



Just as there are things to Kirk that are more valuable than serving Starfleet with distinction, there are things in eRepublik that are more valuable than loyalty to country and alliances. You have to look for them, they’re not always visible, but if your mind is open and your eyes are searching, you’re going to find things in this game that will be worth ignoring the orders of your superiors. You’re going to find people that don’t fit within your regimented world; they will inspire you, they will befriend you, and you will follow them, because you will realize THIS is the point of playing this game and living in this world.

Life here is not completely about game mechanics and being part of a team. Quite truly, it is about the simple pleasures. It’s about finding your niche. It’s about growing together with a small band of brothers, finding the honorable fights and jumping into them with blood on your boots and the war cry in your hearts. It’s about expressing yourself, truly as bold and vital as if you were standing on the hill, the first to ever climb it, and screaming to the townsfolk below, I AM HERE! SURPRISE!

Winning a medal is a cause to celebrate, but it means so much more when you have people to celebrate it with. Not just commanders and members of your unit, but friends. Otherwise, it’s just a piece of tin, a notch on your bedpost. Anybody can look upon your profile and see your mantelpiece with the medals you collected, but only a friend is going to give a damn about your story, what you had to do to get them.

Once you find a few people like this, your perspective will be forever altered, and the game mechanics talk will lose the meaning they once had. Your life and the lives of those you love will matter more. You already give up way too much for your country and alliance, you sacrifice so much of yourself so others can benefit. All you need is just one person to tell you, I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE, YOUR FRIEND, and the whole thing will change. You will no longer be in this world for any flag or alliance. You will be here for her.



It’s okay if you don’t get it. Even after he went through death and coming back to life, it’s difficult for Spock, the most logical of us all, to fathom why his friends would risk so much, just to bring him back. As Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home begins, he and his mother ponder this:

AMANDA: Spock. Does the good of the many outweigh the good of the one?
SPOCK: I would accept that as an axiom.
AMANDA: Then you stand here alive because of a mistake, made by your flawed, feeling, human friends. They have sacrificed their futures because they believed that the good of the one… you… was more important to them.
SPOCK: Humans make illogical decisions.
AMANDA: They do, indeed.




Belfast Lough Times: Issue #23