Galactic Council Record No. 2020
All races across the universe undergo natural selection. Few go so far as to let it run its course unchecked, though this is true of some particularly proud or warlike species like the dragonlike Yywrack, feared pirates and plunderers. Some have escaped it to varying degrees of success.
Except for one. Humanity. They have beaten it back, killed it completely. But on the galactic stage, strength came above all else. Strength of the individual, and strength of the species. Some among the stars, like the mysterious inhabitants of the Pleiades, took this idea so far that they pursued strict eugenics programs, to ensure the purity of blood of their brethren. Others still forewent natural reproduction and became a race of clones edging towards physical perfection. Rogues from these types of species made perfect, untraceable mercenaries. All species are united in allowing Darwinism (though none knew it by this name at the time) to ensure that the strong survived. Such was the rule of the universe, the law of the stars and the void between.
Not so for humanity. Such was the depth of their compassion that they invented procedures and machinery to fight to save those that could not be saved. Those born without limbs had neural-bonded cybernetic replacements grafted in their place, often performing as well or better than an original one. Humanity battled genetic diseases and regular ones alike, and the Red Cross opened an intergalactic branch that became the forerunning humanitarian aid organisations in the universe. Something to do with being the very first lent it a home turf advantage. Even that word. Humanitarian. Lent to us by them to mean helping those in need, staying the course of nature.
Humanity was unique in treating the sick with a respect that bordered on veneration, on seeing the strength in those set back from the very start. And not one of them was content to settle for the hand that they were dealt. They hadn’t always been this way. Their comparatively short history was littered with examples of a parent abandoning a weak or malformed child. Even just for being born the (perceived) wrong gender. But their mythos, their legends, and their truest history, also bore stories of those that survived despite, despite the cruel jokes of the universe, and thrived in the face of it all. Vulkan. Romulus and Remus. Others beside. Sickness held no fear for humanity, for they bore it with chins raised - a symbol of perseverance in their culture. Where other races continually cast out those the universe had decided, through pure chance, humanity fought for them, raised them up. They started to do the same for children of other races besides their own, too, and Earth gradually became a great infirmary, the considerable resources of the human factions poured into supporting those that needed people there for them.
They were openly treated with distrust for what was perceived as disrespect for universal law, and behind closed doors, they were mocked. How wrong we were. Let it be recorded, shame is upon us all now.
And that was their greatest strength. It saved us all. They died for us, and in doing so showed us even as we worship the strong, we are weak. Even when the Blight came, they refused to back down. They refused to sacrifice those that were succumbing, excruciatingly slowly, to the rot.
Over and above that, they refused to allow any of their number to run. They contained the plague even as it burned like a wildfire through their population, devastating their core worlds in a matter of days. Some did try, not all humans were noble. Some were just scared. But humanity, acting in the first (and, as it came to be, last) time in their history, truly as a cohesive species, set up a perimeter. And though it must have hurt, they shot down their fellows. Blew pirates, traders and civilians alike out of space, condemning them to a slow death not unakin to that the infection brought, all to ensure this mysterious infection did not spread beyond their space.
In the end, natural selection caught up with Humanity and dragged their whole species into the darkness. But even as it inexorably did so, they fought tooth and nail to prevent it from taking us all with them. With the blood of their own people, of their own brothers and sisters, they burnt a firebreak across the stars and saved every one of us. Whenever we look at the Black, the dark between stars, we remember them. To them we owe everything.