When Yang Ming saw Hera again, he was startled by her mental state.
She sat dazed in the corner, her once bright eyes now lacked luster, her long hair simply tied back, the tips showing traces of dirt;
Her once somewhat adorable face was now pallid and made one’s heart ache.
"Bring a cup of warm water."
Yang Ming instructed Lyu.
The few robotic maids in the cabin immediately lowered their heads and left, leaving Hera by the floor-to-ceiling window.
This supply ship had been a cozy birdcage that Yang Ming had renovated for Hera.
They had spent two joyful years here, where Yang Ming had relieved much of his stress and had even grown dependent on it.
Unfortunately, due to their respective peculiarities, Hera and Yang Ming could no longer maintain this game of seeking a sense of family from each other.
Yang Ming asked gently, trying to appear tender, as he reached out to hold her frail shoulder.
"He’s dead," Hera said softly.
Hera whispered, "My dad, Nardo, and Professor Pat."
"Did Lyu tell you?" Yang Ming frowned slightly.
He hadn’t received a reminder from Lyu.
After being frightened by another Mechanical Thought Body, Lyu had been focusing on investigating within the Empire’s network.
Hera did not answer directly, suppressing her swelling emotions.
She just slightly looked up, letting the distant starlight fill her vacant eyes.
Yang Ming sat on the edge of the sofa, silently accompanying her, holding Hera in his arms.
He was quite fond of this little woman, even if she chose to continue her research work and left his side.
"What’s the meaning of this work?" Hera asked hoarsely.
"Theirs, mine, ours."
Hera’s eyes gradually reddened, and her voice began to tremble,
"What is our meaning? What are we pursuing? What is science research seeking? Has our work contributed to human society?"
Yang Ming could only remain silent, listening to Hera’s outpouring.
"The education I received since childhood clearly told me that scientific research is a contribution to the advancement of human civilization, but now, it’s become a slaughter knife for mutual destruction."
Hera wiped her fingers across the corners of her eyes, then stared blankly at her fingertips.
"There’s actually no need to consider so much," Yang Ming said softly, "it’s just a political game between two nations."
Hera asked, "What is the purpose of politics? Is it to prevent more humans from living peacefully?"
Yang Ming replied, "To ensure social order, maintain stability of the social environment, clarify the distribution of individual benefits, with the side effects of creating a privileged class, majority oppressing the minority, and periodic restructuring of order. Politics is the art of manipulating people. Levi Sherman once said so."
"But my dad and the others killed more than five hundred million humans!"
Hera suddenly broke down, her entire body trembling slightly, shouting repeatedly,
"I still couldn’t stop them, even though I had already calculated what they were going to do, but I didn’t expect them to directly detonate dozens of insect swarms!
"I clearly predicted their actions!
"They wanted to destroy trillions of people in the Empire, they wanted to destroy half of the existing civilizations in the Galaxy!
"They’ve done this work for so many years, just to destroy part of humanity, to kill those old men, children, pregnant women, beings incapable of participating in any war!
"Is this their purpose? Is this the value of their work!
"I don’t understand! Ming, I don’t understand..."
Yang Ming was sorting his words in his heart, speaking softly,
"There’s something you must understand, even if you stack up all of human civilization in the Milky Way, the total mass is less than a single main-sequence planet.
"The current resources and planets in the Milky Way, humans have only developed one ten-thousandth, one-millionth, or not even that proportion.
"Furthermore, humans in the Milky Way are just a branch of high-dimensional human civilization at a lower dimension, to high-dimensional civilizations, these trillions of people are just a fleeting fluctuation, what’s important is the material conglomerate within this cosmic space in the Milky Way.
"All scientific progress is meaningful.
"It is the only driving force for the continual advancement of human civilization, and what you do is meaningful as well.
"The invention of high-energy ion beams beyond becoming the main weapon of the human fleet, has also been applied in energy transmission and microscopic particle observation.
"From the perspective of human society, Hera, your research has saved billions of people who should have perished in this insect swarm disaster, which otherwise would have affected even more innocent people."
Hera trembled as she said, "It could have been without so many deaths, they are just like us, human individuals..."
The robotic housekeeper brought over the warm water.
Yang Ming took the cup, gesturing for the housekeeper to leave first.
"Alright, after releasing your emotions, let’s have a good talk."
Yang Ming gently patted her back.
Hera obediently took the cup, sipped a few times while holding it in her palms, and then gently sighed.
They remained silent for a few minutes, feeling each other’s warmth, enjoying the tranquility.
Hera’s body no longer trembled.
"Your father’s matter is indeed a certain inevitability," Yang Ming asked softly, "was he silenced by the New Federation?"
"I don’t know," Hera gently shook her head, "I initially thought, I deeply resented him, but later found out, I just yearned for his approval, I always thought I wouldn’t care about him anymore, but upon receiving the news, it still affected my mood."