When Arnaldo stepped into the control room, Tuan had just spotted a tiny blue speck adrift in the vast night sky. Only a few hours later, that speck had drawn near, looming majestically beside the spacecraft with an imposing presence, like the god Neptune reigning over the deep oceans.
Its atmosphere bore an icy blue hue similar to that of Uranus, yet it was neither the same shade nor as opaque. Instead, Neptune’s atmosphere appeared brighter and more pronounced, marked by a Great Dark Spot roughly the size of Earth in its southern hemisphere. That region signified a zone of turbulent air, stirred by winds reaching speeds of up to 2,100 km/h – powerful enough to pulverize anything unfortunate enough to be drawn inside. Tuan shuddered at the thought of his own insignificance before such cold, colossal existences that continued to linger somewhere beyond the universe.
Thus, aside from the three planets closest to the Sun, Tuan had now seen every other planet in the Solar System with his own eyes. He believed that countless more worlds with even stranger structures awaited his discovery out there. Merely thinking about it was enough to transform the perilous journey ahead into an exhilarating expedition. At that moment, he looked no different from a child lying awake all night, eagerly awaiting a family outing the next morning – his heart filled with a joy that was simple, pure, and utterly untainted.
After feasting his eyes on Neptune’s beauty, Tuan decided to return to his quarters and sleep. The spacecraft then entered the Kuiper Belt, composed primarily of massive ice crystals. This region was also the home of Pluto – the most famous dwarf planet in the area.
Before long, the spacecraft would break free of the heliosphere and enter interstellar space, then proceed straight through the Oort Cloud across a distance of up to 200,000 astronomical units. Compared to the mere 30 astronomical units separating the Sun from Neptune – the farthest planet – this made the sheer immensity of the Oort Cloud’s boundary abundantly clear.
The next morning, Tuan got out of bed, finished his personal hygiene routine, and headed straight for the physical conditioning room. It was fully equipped with state-of-the-art training gear, including a massive system of adjustable machinery capable of simulating various environmental conditions to help astronauts adapt through training.
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He dove into exercise without following any structured routine at all. Whatever caught his interest, he rushed in to try it, looking no different from a child enthusiastically playing with a new toy. In any case, muscle injuries from overexertion would be swiftly repaired by nanobots, so he paid little heed to them.
After finishing his workout, Tuan changed clothes in the conditioning room and strolled down the adjacent corridor toward the dining area. Since moving into the new spacecraft, he had yet to explore every corner of it. He considered inviting Valentina along, but she was likely still on duty in the control room at that hour. And so, he decided to explore the entire ship on his own.
Tuan wandered around trying to find a path to the upper level, but to no avail. He circled to the opposite side, passed by Valentina’s quarters, and even opened the materials storage room next door, yet still found no way up. Suddenly, he remembered a small, sealed room he had glimpsed while changing clothes in the conditioning room. According to the ship’s structural layout, that room connected to the empty space at the center of the spacecraft. Surely, no one would design a room with such a peculiar structure for no reason.
Curious, Tuan hurried back to check. Sure enough, as soon as he stepped in front of the room, the outer door automatically slid open, revealing a small elevator cabin. His face lit up with delight as he eagerly stepped inside and pressed the button for the second level.
The sight that followed left Tuan utterly overwhelmed. The entire space was bathed in warm light, as if the Sun itself were shining brilliantly overhead. It turned out that the second level was a vast greenhouse, cultivating a wide variety of crops and grains to provide fresh food for the crew. Everything was automated, and a robot could be seen busily harvesting produce and placing it into storage.
…No – wait. Tuan squinted and looked again, suddenly realizing that the robot hard at work in the fields was actually one of his teammates – Arnaldo Méndez.
“Good morning. Feeling refreshed?” Arnaldo lifted his head from the lush greenery, his hands still smeared with soil.
“Uh… I didn’t expect to see you here. And… why do you look like this?” Tuan gaped in surprise, pointing at the farming outfit Arnaldo was wearing.
“Haha. Just killing time with some exercise,” Arnaldo laughed heartily. “Besides, working the fields clears the mind. Helps me come up with plenty of good ideas.”
