Chapter 100 — The Ship That Never Looks Back

Blue Light's Target Orientation Ceremony

The Central Observation Hall took on a gentle glow on the morning of the Target Orientation Ceremony, rays of artificial light simulating dawn streaming through the giant glass doors toward the bow, where images of distant stars continued to spread out as they had done for two hundred and fifty-one years of sailing. Khe Lam stood in the middle of a familiar crowd, her hand tightly holding the hand of a five-year-old girl who was looking up around the hall with wide, curious eyes.

"Mom, why are there so many people today?" Kieu Anh Lam asked, her clear little voice rang out amid the murmurs of the crowd slowly settling into their seats.

"Because today is a special day, honey." Khe Lam replied, kneeling down to his daughter's eye level. "Every month, everyone on this ship gathers here, to look forward, to remember the journey we are on together."

Bach Van stood behind the mother and daughter, one hand gently resting on his wife's shoulder, the other holding a small, worn leather-bound notebook - Bui Dac Sinh's notebook, kept by the family as a treasure over the years, now carrying a new meaning in today's ceremony.

Lam Vinh Chi and Doan Bich Thu sat in a nearby row, both grandmothers watching their little granddaughter with eyes filled with love, witnessing a moment they both thought they would never live to see — three generations of a family once divided by secrets and fear, now sitting together, free, with nothing left to hide.

The ceremony began according to traditional rituals - the oath of the Hai Trinh Sutra was recited throughout the hall, the voices of thousands of people blended together into a deep, familiar sound, unchanged for generations. But as the formal ceremony ended, Ung Bao Trung, now in his second term as head of the reformed Star Council, stepped up to the podium to introduce a new session that had become a tradition since the special ceremony five years ago.

"As always, we dedicate the last part of this ceremony to one family sharing their own story with the entire community." he said. "Not to revive pain, but to remind us that the history of this ship was written by real people, with real stories, worth retelling, worth remembering."

Khe Lam stood up, held Anh Lam's hand, and Bach Van walked forward to a small reserved area near the main speaking podium, where their families would sit together while Khe Lam began to speak.

In the crowd, Khe Lam caught a glimpse of Vu Khac Dang standing with Trinh Yen My, both of them watching her with proud eyes, with Ha Dinh Khiem and Phung Bao Nhan standing nearby, familiar faces who had accompanied her since the first days in the Roots Group. Farther away, Than Bao Nghiem stood with his team, no longer wearing the tense vigilance of previous years, just the calmness of someone who had found his right position. Kieu Trong Nghiem sat in the row near the podium, his eyes following his grandson with a pride he never dared to hope to have during his years serving the old system.

She sat down, placed Anh Lam on her lap, opened Bui Dac Sinh's old notebook, not to read from it, but just to feel the presence of the person who had guided the whole journey. As she began to tell, her voice echoed softly but clearly through the small speaker system that had been prepared for this part of the ceremony.

"You know, Anh Lam, the ship Origin left a planet called Earth, two hundred and fifty-one years ago, carrying the ancestors of all of us, to find a new home among the stars." She began, her voice warm but serious. "During that long journey, there were times when adults had to make difficult decisions, not always right, not always honest. For a long time, they hid part of the truth about where we were headed, because they were afraid if people knew, people would panic."

Anh Lam looked up at her mother, her eyes wide open, listening attentively with the innocent concentration of a child being told a fairy tale, even though this was not a fictional story.

"Your grandmother, the one sitting there, waving at you, her name is Lam Vinh Chi." Khe Lam continued, pointing towards Lam Vinh Chi sitting nearby, her eyes shining with silent tears. "She was very courageous, tried to tell the truth at a very young age, and because of that, she had to live away from her family for many years, not being able to see her mother, not being able to see your grandfather."

Lam Vinh Chi waved, a sad yet warm smile on her face, and Anh Lam waved back, not fully understanding the meaning but feeling the love in that moment.

"And there was an old man named Bui Dac Sinh," Khe Lam continued, holding up the notebook for her daughter to see, "who kept this secret safe for so many years, and in the end, helped me find the truth, find your grandmother. He is no longer here with us, but this notebook, you see, is a part of him that still remains, helping us remember his courage."

She continued, simplifying each part to suit the understanding of a five-year-old child, but not avoiding the core truth — about Tinh Vong, about Lam Chu, about those who died, about the ceremony five years ago when the truth was finally told to the entire ship, right in this very hall.

"The most important thing I want you to remember," Khe Lam said, her voice growing softer as she approached the end, "is that this ship can never physically turn back. It can only keep moving forward, toward Tinh Vong, forever. But the people on this ship, people like your grandmother, like Mr. Sinh, like your parents, have learned that we can always choose to look back and look directly at our own truth, no matter how difficult it is. That's the only difference that really matters."

Anh Lam was silent for a moment, thinking with the adorable seriousness of a child trying to understand something bigger than himself. "So will you look back too, when you grow up?" Baby asked.

Khe Lam hugged her daughter tightly, feeling a happiness and hope fill her chest, different from anything she had ever felt during the long journey that took her from a quiet girl, used to keeping everything hidden, to the woman sitting here today, among her family, among an entire community that has learned to live with the truth.

"I believe you can do it, honey." She spoke softly, kissing her daughter's black hair. "Not because my mother taught me to do so, but because it is something people can always choose, anywhere, on any journey, whether it is a journey among the stars, or simply a journey of a lifetime."

Around them, the hall was engulfed in a warm silence, thousands of people from all three floors listening to the story of a family who went through darkness to find light. No one rushed to leave when Khe Lam finished his sharing; Instead, many people lingered a while longer, chatting quietly with the people next to them, as if each ceremony like this left something in them that needed time to subside before they could return to the rhythm of daily life.

Anh Lam, still sitting on her mother's lap, looked up at the giant glass window, where the distant stars continued to sparkle in front of the ship's bow. "Are we really going there, Mom?" She asked, her voice filled with the excitement of a child who has just heard a story bigger than anything she could have ever imagined.

"Maybe not you, honey." Khe Lam replied, gently stroking her daughter's hair. "Perhaps even your children may not make it. But that's not the most important thing. What matters is that we know where we're going, and why, and that we no longer have to pretend to know what we don't really know."

Anh Lam nodded, not completely understanding, but feeling the warm certainty in her mother's voice, enough for her to rest assured, leaning her head against Khe Lam's chest, closing her eyes for a moment amidst the gentle murmur of the gradually fading hall.

Outside the giant glass window facing the ship's bow, the stars continued to spread out, silently and eternally, watching the ship of Origin continue on its never-looking-back journey, bringing with it, for the first time in two hundred and fifty-one years, a new generation born among the stars with the full truth about where it had been, and about what had been sacrificed to get it.