Despair is a d**h sentence. Once you stop believing… that's it, you're dead. That's just the way things are. It's guaranteed. Once that belief has gone, you might as well end it yourself. Twist a screwdriver through the belly of the console and headbu*t your way to freedom. Because at least, that would be quick – some respite from the slow, lingering d**h of the hopeless.
For weeks now, it seemed to me, that that's what the tiny beeping blip on the scanner had been to us; a reason to hope. A reason to keep going. Day by day, that little blinking light was getting closer. When it first came into view, we dared to picture redemption, enough fuel to last a lifetime… Maybe even human contact. That little innocuous dot kept us believing that, even in this vacuum, this great black desert, there might still be life.