182: There is still hope

Keith Sorenson was curled up on the floor outside the office, looking gray and listless.

He leaned against the cold alloy wall like an abandoned statue.

It seemed the medical pod's treatment had repaired the muscle atrophy and organ failure caused by his long-term stasis, but it could not cure the bone-chilling cold in his heart after learning the truth—the era he belonged to saw humanity as the masters of stardust, but ten thousand years later, they had become stray dogs.

In these ten thousand years, humanity had not ushered in progress and glory, but had instead waited for a long and rapid slide—a slide that kept falling toward the abyss.

"Even the homeworld… is lost…"

Keith muttered to himself, oblivious to his surroundings. Deep despair, like viscous asphalt, wrapped around him from all directions, seeping into every pore, occupying every nerve, leaving him unable to move—unable even to make a sound.

The office door slid open quietly. Xi Hai walked out and immediately saw the gray-white Keith on the floor.

Warm yellow light flowed out, forming a clear boundary with the cold corridor.

"Mr. Sorenson."

After letting White Shark leave from the other side, Xi Hai walked toward the person curled up on the ground.

"Since you're here, would you like to come in and sit for a while?"

Keith didn't move, not even changing the rhythm of his breathing; he just stubbornly stared at his own fingertips.

Xi Hai thought for a moment. His first reaction was to reach into his jacket pocket—but once he did, he realized he no longer kept cigarettes there.

So, he thought for a moment, went back into the office, took two metal cups, and poured two cups of hot water.

Then, he returned, placed one cup on the deck beside Keith's left hand, and naturally leaned against the wall, sitting down beside Keith.

Wisps of heat rose from the cups, carrying clusters of white mist that drifted in mid-air.

The two sat side by side, and the only sound in the air was the occasional tapping of fingers against the floor.

"I heard from the medical department that you're recovering well."

Xi Hai spoke softly, his voice low, as if chatting with an old friend.

"Physiological indicators are stable."

Keith replied dryly, his gaze still fixed on his slightly trembling fingertips.

"Thank you for the treatment."

Xi Hai nodded, acknowledging the thanks.

"You're welcome."

"Seeing a fellow countryman from the golden age wake up is a cause for celebration, both for me personally and for all of humanity."

Keith finally turned his head, a bitter smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"golden age?"

"All of humanity?"

As he spoke, he looked at Xi Hai's attire. The black Imperial Navy Supreme Director uniform looked capable, mighty, and serious, but the rank could not be discerned.

"This… General, did the golden age you speak of leave humanity with such a… bottomless mess?"

"What is there to be happy about in my waking up—what right do I have to feel happy?"

"We have lost everything—everything!"

He squeezed out the last two words through gritted teeth, a hint of imperceptible choking in his throat.

"No, no, no."

Xi Hai shook his head gently.

He cast his gaze toward the empty wall opposite, as if by staring at it, he could pierce through the steel and see the starry sky outside.

He calmly corrected, "What you say is biased."

"Perhaps we have indeed lost a lot, but we haven't fallen to the point of losing 'everything'—"

"We are still alive."

"What is the use of that—!!"

Keith shouted in a sudden breakdown.

"Just us! A so-called 'us'! Just being alive!"

"Can we change this damn state of humanity?!"

"We lost our territory, lost our heritage, lost our dignity, lost our history—"

"We even lost our homeworld!"

"How can a race that doesn't even remember where it came from have hope, how can it have a future?!"

Keith had started to cry. Xi Hai listened quietly. After a while, when the crying faded, he replied calmly:

"Whether there is hope is not for you to decide."

"I know you are currently in the midst of a huge disparity."

"Falling from heaven to hell will bring you huge emotional fluctuations."

"Crying, breaking down—it's normal. This is proof of your humanity, and it is your right as a human."

"But—"

His tone suddenly became a bit more serious.

"But I know you aren't truly in despair, right?"

"People who are truly in despair would have already raised a pistol and followed that great era to its end the moment they learned all this."

"You chose to walk to my office, to shout here, to weep here."

"This is only because there is no complete despair in your heart—you have not given up."

"But the sliver of hope that exists in your heart is too small, too ethereal, so much so that you dare not even admit that it is hope."

"You need a person, a pillar, an external force to affirm the sliver of hope in your heart, so that you are willing to believe in yourself, aren't you?"

Keith slowly raised his head. His eyes were red, and he no longer stared at his fingers.

He looked at the floor beneath him and the cup of hot water still steaming on the floor.

"But… but…"

"There are no 'buts'."

Xi Hai interrupted him.

"Follow your own heart, instead of timid suspicion."

"Besides, the humanity you see teetering on the edge has already endured for ten thousand years after ten thousand years."

"We can certainly be reborn from the flames again and again, and we can certainly continue to walk through ten thousand years after ten thousand years—until the end of time, until the end of the universe."

"Listen to me—say it with me: Hope still remains."

Keith stared blankly at Xi Hai.

"Hope… still remains…"

Xi Hai nodded. He picked up the untouched cup of hot water from the floor and placed it into Keith's cold hands.

The latter subconsciously grasped the cup. He brought it to his face, blew on it gently, and enjoyed the comfort of the heat brushing against his face.

"But… I can't see it…"

"General… I can't see it…"

The expression on his face was incredibly conflicted. He seemed to be talking to himself, or perhaps asking a question.

"I only saw infighting and self-destruction in those records…"

"We clearly had an infinite future, infinite possibilities, but we personally chose the worst path."

"Perhaps… this is the original path of history. Humanity, perhaps, carries a tendency for self-destruction in its bones…"

"Prosperity and glory are just flashes in the pan; only decay and oblivion are fate…"

Xi Hai patted his back.

"Don't call me General—that's not my position, and there's no need to use titles in private."

"My name is Xi Hai, Xi Hai Chusiro. We are now—at least for now—talking as friends, okay?"

Keith nodded, so Xi Hai continued.

"You can't see hope because you only see cold numbers."

"And you ignore the stories behind these numbers."

He suddenly changed the subject and asked Keith a seemingly unrelated question.

"Have you seen what humanity looks like when facing despair?"

Keith looked at Xi Hai in confusion.

"Isn't it just panic and infighting?"

Hearing this answer, Xi Hai shook his head with a smile.

"You are too tragic."

As he spoke, he patted the floor with his hand.

"This fleet has thousands of Warships, with 370,000 people on them."

"But when I took them over, this mobile fleet had only 30,000 people and 100-plus Warships left."

"They stayed in one place for hundreds of years."

"No supplies, no logistics, no reinforcements—"

"Nothing."

"Only broken Warships, broken powered armor, and bullets that would make you ache for a long time after firing one."

"And what they faced were alien creatures flooding in like the tide, and 'allies' stabbing them in the back."

"Even if they tried their best, they retreated steadily; even if they died together, it only slightly delayed the enemy's pace."

"Watching the enemy dismantle them bit by bit, devour them bit by bit, yet being able to do nothing—I ask you, is this despair?"

Keith nodded blankly.

Xi Hai continued, "But, how did they face it?"

"Even if the destruction in front of us is invincible, we are willing to step forward—"

"Because that way, we can temporarily block the pace of destruction and fight for a chance for a 'miracle' to happen."

"Those were their original words."

"Did they walk toward destruction as you said?"

"No."

"People united, picked up guns, and died generously for a sliver of hope whose shadow couldn't even be seen."

"And you—you only saw those one-sided records. How can you conclude that humanity has no hope!"

Keith looked blankly at Xi Hai and asked, "But… there are only so few people… only so few…"

"What about those lost civilizations…"

Xi Hai waved his hand.

"We did lose a lot of things, Keith."

"We lost history, technology, the homeworld… We lost those concrete and massive existences, but we never lost 'that'—"

"The instinct to still try to protect, to believe, to connect, to ignite something in the deepest, pitch-black darkness."

"That kind of light looks very weak, and it looks like a gust of wind could blow it away, but as long as it still exists in the blood of humanity, it can always stubbornly light up in the places you least expect."

"As long as this instinct is still there, hope will always be there."

Keith's hand holding the cup gradually stopped turning white from the force, but he still whispered in rebuttal—

"But that bit of instinct, it can't change the general trend, it can't fight against reality…"

Xi Hai looked at Keith's face, which was already covered in tears.

He gently turned Keith's face and looked at him quietly.

"It doesn't need to fight against reality, nor does it need to reverse the general trend."

"It only needs to preserve a seed for us."

"For the next 'dawn'—which we might not be destined to see in our lifetime, but must believe in its existence—preserve a seed—"

"Even if this seed cannot sprout in our limited lives."

Keith listened, and suddenly felt his head being hit by a heavy hammer.

He remembered! He had heard similar words!

That was the one—the first Grand Marshal of the Human Federation, Chen Zhengbang!

He had said such words when leading that ship into the universe!

He had said it! As long as humanity still believes in hope, humanity has hope!

Keith forgot to even cry for a moment.

He stared blankly at Xi Hai. He suddenly remembered a book he had read, which said that human history is always a cycle.

Whenever the end of a cycle comes, a new cycle quietly begins to turn—is this person in front of him the trigger for the start of the next cycle?

"Keith, I don't ask you to believe immediately that humanity will have a bright future within reach."

"Such light promises are too stupid, too frivolous."

"I only hope that you try to believe that every struggle and every resistance we make at this moment has its own meaning."

"I am not a very great person."

"I am just an ordinary person, an ordinary person lucky enough to be hit by history."

"But it just so happens that I, this ordinary person, cannot watch it anymore!"

"I want to create a future, with everyone, to create a future that belongs to everyone!"

"Now, you, from that great era!"

"Are you willing to join me—"

"Thud!"

Keith gripped Xi Hai's hand tightly. There was no more weakness or suspicion in his eyes; instead, it was firm like steel—

"Okay!"

"I understand! Sir!"

"Since hope remains,"

"Let us—smash this damn status quo to pieces!"

"Whether it's aliens or heretics,"

"Let them see what is called the Mandate of Heaven!"

Xi Hai looked at Keith, who had suddenly ignited his fighting spirit, and smiled with satisfaction.

"Okay—that's what you said!"

"Long live humanity!"

"Long live humanity!"