The moment the hibernation pod closed, countless thoughts flashed through Jiang Xuezhou's mind.
She had even considered that once she fell asleep, she might never wake up again.
Yet despite the turmoil in her heart, she did not feel even the slightest fear.
She could feel someone holding her hand.
The warmth reaching her through their fingertips was not only the blood flowing from her body, but something else as well.
She did not know that person's name, nor could she remember her face. She only remembered that she was a gentle older sister.
She had always been here.
And she had waited a full 215 years...
As she peacefully drifted off to sleep and closed her eyes, Jiang Xuezhou, unconscious aboard the Orion cruiser as it jumped into the hyperspace route, completed their first and final meeting.
It was a very, very long dream.
In that dream, she met many people.
Though the dream-version of her was asleep and had not opened her eyes even once, everyone there seemed to know her.
Both her face and her name.
Vaguely, she sensed that she had not come here alone.
Someone who had set off alongside her—or perhaps a moment later than her—had already arrived before her and told them her name.
In that unseen darkness, she was not alone.
Then, a hand gently brushed across her forehead.
Along with a warm whisper.
"...You will survive."
"Your companion is a brave child... and his courage is no less than any of ours."
That voice was like a torch dispelling the darkness, illuminating her entire world in an instant.
When the light of dawn arose, all the darkness surrounding her seemed like colorless sludge, collapsing beneath that increasingly brilliant radiance.
Faintly, she heard another voice.
It was filled with unwillingness and drawn