An elegant, restrained captain x an ETO Greater Unity biologist and female officer
Prologue
For a long time afterward, a rumor circulated aboard the Blue Space: Captain Chu Yan had joined the Greater Unity faction.
At first, nobody believed it.
Not until someone carefully compiled the evidence.
The captain had consulted historical records on Evans and species communism.
The captain had studied the Book of Rites: The Conveyance of Ritual.
The captain had spent weeks searching for theoretical biology, non-terrestrial life models, and cosmic sociology.
The captain had proposed "cosmic unity."
They said he had even uttered these words himself:
"A single spark can start a prairie fire."
The chain of evidence was complete enough to be unsettling.
Finally, someone couldn't help asking Chu Yan.
"Lieutenant Colonel Chu, did Captain Chu really join the Greater Unity faction?"
Chu Yan was checking a set of population genetics data. At the question, she paused for two seconds.
"No."
"But he is studying Greater Unity, isn't he?"
"...Yes."
"Wasn't cosmic unity his idea in the first place?"
Chu Yan didn't answer.
The other person immediately understood something. "Then what about 'A single spark can start a prairie fire'?"
Chu Yan finally looked up.
She wanted very much to explain.
For instance, Chu Yan had initially studied Greater Unity only because military orders had no effect on her. For instance, the so-called cosmic unity was, at its core, an epistemological attack on sample size. And then there was the fact that the man had eventually spent a long time expanding a theory originally meant only to stop all life on Earth from reproducing, until it encompassed the entire universe.
But no matter where she started explaining, it seemed it would only make the whole thing more suspicious.
Chu Yan fell silent for a moment.
"It's not what you think."
The next day, a new version spread across the Blue Space.
"Lieutenant Colonel Chu refuses to deny that Captain Chu has become an important theoretical advocate of the Greater Unity faction."
A few days later, the story changed again:
"They're trying to convert each other."
Many years later, Chu Yan had to admit that the last version, though the most outrageous, was also the closest to the truth.
Because at the beginning, they really had both wanted to bring the other over to their side.
Only neither of them succeeded.
Chu Yan couldn't make her believe that life was inherently worth continuing.
She couldn't make Chu Yan believe that ceasing to reproduce was the only end for all life, either.
They simply traveled a long way together.
Far enough that Earth became a direction behind them.
Far enough that "Greater Unity" no longer belonged only to humanity.
Far enough that one day, she finally realized:
The man who had once earnestly urged her to spread extinctionism throughout the universe had never wanted to preserve only human civilization.
He wanted to preserve her, too.
Shuizexi: The captain just painted Yanyan a grand, universe-sized promise...
Shuizexi: No wonder he's the captain of the "Blue Space Pancake Pan"...
Shuizexi: Yeah... The shapes of the letters E, T, and O prove Captain Chu Yan is ETO's most direct evidence!
Theme: A fish out of water is no longer a fish.
