Emperor Turhan, Sheridan and others in “The Coming of Shadows”

Why are you here, in this place, in that uniform? Was it your choice or were you pressed into service?

Sheridan

It was my choice. The planetary draft didn't start until the war, a few years later. I guess I wanted to serve something that was bigger than I was. Make a difference, somewhere, somehow. You seem interested in why people chose to be here.

It has occurred to me recently that I have never chosen anything. I was born into a role that was prepared for me. I did everything I was asked to do because it never occurred to me to choose otherwise. And now, at the end of my life, I wonder what might have been.

Sheridan

That's why my father taught me to live each second as though it were the last moment of my life. He said, "If you love, love without reservation. If you fight, fight without fear." He called it "the way of the warrior."

No regrets then?

Sheridan

A few. But just a few. You?

Oh, enough to fill a lifetime. So much has been lost, so much forgotten. So much pain, so much blood. And for what, I wonder? The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between. But there is still time to seize that one last, fragile moment. To choose something better, to make a difference, as you say. And I intend to do just that.