The stars once told us stories. Our history and our beliefs were written in the constellations. We watched with awe as new ones appeared brighter than any other only to fade over weeks. And eventually we learned that not every spec of dazzling brilliance even was a star. Some were galaxies teeming with life all their own, and others were planets just listing along in their orbits.

They beckoned us. We yearned to fly high enough to escape our world of trouble and despair. Perhaps naively, we dreamed that the places waiting for us above were better than those we left below. We were wrong.

Where we imagined grand empires and sprawling ecumenopolies we found only traces. Great works of engineering that surrounded stars and housed capital ships abandoned as if their makers simply disappeared. They left their mark on the galaxy and then themselves vanished, stumping even our greatest minds. It wasn’t until first contact that we understood.

It was as if the universe itself were guiding us. Planet after planet in system after system we found the life we’d always questioned. But the very problems we wished to escape plagued our newfound friends. Wars ravaged entire systems, famine devastated others. People we’d only just begun to meet were under threat of extinction from disease. Hope for a more enlightened galaxy seemed lost.

In true Human fashion though, the facts did nothing to discourage us. Where the denizens of these worlds had given up, we refused. With a few likeminded planets, we set off to create that dream.

Fleets of science ships descended on plague-ridden worlds. Their sole purpose: to end the sickness that threatened their people. Transports of artificial food were dropped from orbit as engineers and ecologists aided in the construction of sustainable food production. Even diplomats and doctors stepped up to broker peace and aid the casualties.

Word of our efforts spread like wildfire. Even as progress slowed more and more planets joined our cause. Within a decade our coalition was a dozen strong. Humans working alongside Retisans, Artuyi, and many more to make our galaxy a better place.

I wish that I could say things are perfect. I wish that I could say there are no wars or that disease is a thing of the past. The truth is that there will always be challenges, what matters isn’t perfection but it’s pursuit.