Commander?

Yes, sir.

You have the bridge.

All right, sir.

Are you okay?

Yeah, I think so.

I was just reading this philosophy book that I found.

Oh, boy.

No, please continue.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, Captain, please continue.

What's it about?

The meaning of life.

Huh. And the weird thing is the book was just sitting in the corridor in front of my quarters. Well, our quarters. Thank you. It's called the universe as an ocean. And it's kind of about how we're all tiny insignificant specs. Oh, yeah. No, we are. We are insignificant. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, I never really thought about it that way. I was sort of like looking at those old drawings of the universe from like the earth is the center of the universe. It just made me feel good. Sir, those people were. The nice word is primitive, but dumb. They were dumb. Okay. Well... Is primitive a nice word?

Nicer than dumb? I think ignorant is technically correct. Oh, ignorant is nicer. They were ignorant.

Well, anyway, it's got me super depressed and not feeling real great about the future, considering how

insignificant I am. Oh, there's nothing to feel good about when you think about the future. Really? Yeah. Why didn't you guys ever tell me this before? Personally, I thought it was something everybody knew. Yeah, it's just kind of like the background wallpaper of our lives. Existential, on we of Starfleet. I just looked up that word, enwee. I mean, isn't that really why we're out here to avoid looking inward? Yeah. Look out, so you don't

look in. Right? Explore strange new worlds. Don't think about how yours will end. If the universe is an

ocean, I mean, you could say that there's a universe inside of us as well. Oh, God, I'm starting to get it.

It's contagious. Captain, this attitude is contagious.

Wait, so you're saying that the universe is an ocean and we're insignificant in the universe,

but that we are also an ocean so vast within ourselves that we are also that much more insignificant?

...