As the video feed showed me a panoramic view of half-naked, filthy, shaven, scrawny people--if the term 'people' was even applicable to such things, those barbaric creatures covered in their own blood and entrails, in feces, those animals butchering one another with weapons sculpted out of bone--I couldn't help but find some sort of irony in it, in everything.

My journey to outer-space was declared by politicians, celebrities, poets, and the common everyday folk as a reflection of the human spirit, of curiosity, of perseverance, of the human instinct to explore the unknown. And what did I find at the culmination of my journey to the unknown? The human spirit reflected clearly to me, standing the test of time and millions and millions of miles of distance, in some far away star system there was humanity and humanity was doing what humanity did best.

I watched the video feed with disinterest while my co-captain sobbed and begged me to cut the feed, but I didn't. I couldn't take my eyes off it.

"It's the same here and back there and everywhere," she said. "People killing for no goddamn reason. Why are they doing this, for what reason are they...please, captain, just turn it off, the feed, turn it off."

When I didn't respond, she shoved past me and killed the feed herself.

"Sir, sir," my helmsman said. "I...have bad news."

"What?" I said.

"Our fuels...we're out."

"You've got to be kidding me," my co-captain said.

"I wish it was just a joke, but..."

I stepped on a hover pad and descended to ground level. I loosened my tie and removed my blazer, discarding it on the floor.

"Everything is just a joke," I said. "We're here on some sort of journey with some sort of philosophical meaning attached to it, but it doesn't really matter. Nothing matters."

I ordered my helmsman to land somewhere far away from those creatures. I had no concerns about my own safety but I still had a crew to take care of. In this universe without meaning I still held onto ideals of duty and honor and all that crap for a reason that escaped me.

We will die, for sure, but we will die fighting. That human spirit crap may be a joke but I will have the last laugh.

Knowing fully well the amount of bullshit I was about to spout, I said this to my crew as we prepared our landing, "Let's survive, and show these brutes what it means to be human."

My crew held up their guns. "For humanity! For humanity! For humanity!"

Yes, that's right, I thought and laughed and laughed and laughed within myself.

For humanity.