[Verse 1] Cadets, stand at ease. Hear me plain. You know the docks, the yards, the rings, The lunar slips, the Martian vaults, The black-hulled reach of outward things. You wear the seal as if it came With all this iron cast complete. It did not. Worlds are never kept By steel alone, nor by the fleet. Before the moons were bound in law, Before the Belt ran grain and ore, One founder learned what kings must learn: One mind alone can hold no more. He took a realm by nerve and speed, Then forged the houses, line by line, And from that burden rose the rule That carried us beyond the sky. [Chorus] This is the Second Founding: One law through years of dark, One living chain of judgment Beyond the reach of spark. By wisdom read, by courage done, By justice held, by measured hand, We bore the realm to Centauri And made the far worlds stand. [Verse 2] The houses rose from freight and fire, From relay pits and casting floors, From captains who could read the whole Through bad tags, dust, and broken wars. They learned the road is worth a fleet, The bridge can weigh more than a field, The plant that prints replacement frames Can turn the fate of any shield. They learned reserve is not for pride, But for the hour the line runs thin, That signal must stay short and clean, And waste begins where noise begins. They learned command is burden first: To feed the front, preserve the chain, To spend with measure, hold with care, And leave the realm with larger gain. [Chorus] This is the Second Founding: One law through years of dark, One living chain of judgment Beyond the reach of spark. By wisdom read, by courage done, By justice held, by measured hand, We bore the realm to Centauri And made the far worlds stand. [Verse 3] At Luna first the lesson held. At Mars it hardened into steel. A signal from the cradle-world Arrived too late to shape the real. So fleets were built like older realms, With houses sworn to route and rate, To fuel and shield, to watch and brake, To what must live, and what can wait. Machine-speed labor built the hull. Machine-sight kept the watch afar. Human judgment bore the realm From Earth through black to every star. A captain’s worth was plain to read: The net ran thin, the reports ran true, The freight got through, the people lived, The mission held, the hull held too. [Verse 4] Then Proxima Centauri called, Four light-years hard through dust and cold, Through fusion fire and shielding mass, Through braking burns and decades told. No Earthside voice could cross in time. No cradle-world could steer that far. So law rode outward in our hands Beyond the Sun to Centauri’s star. Wisdom held the mission whole. Courage made the lonely choice. Justice bore the living chain. Measure governed steel and force. So hear me now, you heirs of fire, You do not stand in ease or fame. You are entrusted with the thing That lets a people keep its name. [Bridge] A crown is signal through the dark. A throne is freight and guns and grain. A house is what a captain holds Through distance, fear, and loss, and strain. Its patent lives in what it keeps. Its title in the load it bears. Its heraldry in ordered fires. Its honor in answered care. Take this into every watch. Carry it clean through every star. The law lives only while you do. That is what kindred legacies are. [Final Chorus] This is the Second Founding: One law through years of dark, One living chain of judgment Beyond the reach of spark. By wisdom read, by courage done, By justice held, by measured hand, We bore the realm to Centauri And made the far worlds stand. This is the charge I lay on you: Hold fast, hold clean, hold true, hold far. You are not heirs to ground alone. You are heirs to what made us worthy of the stars.
