Tuan woke up and filled his lungs with the taste of freedom. He had long dreamed of having a private room like this – one where he could lie down comfortably and drift into sleep, instead of the crowded dormitories or the suffocating bio-cryopods he had been forced to live in back when he was still at L.A.B.
During the first few days aboard the old spacecraft, Tuan’s steps had felt noticeably unsteady. Yet ever since setting foot on the new ship, that sensation had completely vanished. It was all thanks to the gravitational field generated by the youngest ring. The gravity here was equivalent to that of Mars – roughly one-third of Earth’s. As someone who had been carefully selected and rigorously trained, Tuan was fully aware that gravity was one of the critical factors directly influencing the survival of future generations. For that reason, having a built-in gravity-generating system aboard the spacecraft was something truly worth cherishing.
Tuan’s private quarters were decorated in a Funky style, distinguished by the fusion of warm and cool color tones. The combination of violet-blue and orange-yellow not only created a striking contrast but also reflected the two distinct facets of his personality. To Tuan, violet-blue was his favorite color, symbolizing freedom and an ego that yearned to grasp the boundlessness of the universe. Orange-yellow, on the other hand, represented the surging passion of youth – an inexhaustible current of optimism that gave him the confidence to pursue his life’s goals.
Tuan stepped down from the bed. Above the headboard hung several space photographs he was particularly fond of. Nearby stood a large lava lamp and a distorted mirror of strange, irregular shape. In one corner of the room sat a medium-sized sofa set, its backrest adjustable to the user’s preference. Whenever he reclined against the soft cushions, Tuan could gaze at the stars through a thick reinforced window installed right beside it – an elegant design that offered the sensation of drifting freely through the heart of the cosmos. The room’s advanced audio system would automatically play melodies suited to his emotional state, perfecting a relaxation experience that seeped into every pore.
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All of these amenities were privileges reserved exclusively for Valentina and Tuan, granted for having passed the stringent selection process organized by L.A.B. The interior design team had customized their rooms according to their preferences before the United Nations launched the ALIEN spacecraft toward Titan. Arnaldo alone had joined later, which was why he had to design his own private quarters himself.
Over the past few days, Tuan had been plagued by guilt, knowing that his impulsive actions had brought trouble to everyone. He had been quietly searching for an opportunity to make amends, even if only in part, to his two companions. Fortunately, that opportunity had knocked on his door just yesterday afternoon.
When Arnaldo proposed the duty-shift plan for the control room, Tuan had immediately volunteered to take the first shift so the other two could return to their quarters and rest at ease. He had expected the watch to be dull and uneventful, yet things gradually became far more interesting than he had imagined. The scene from last night still made his heart swell with lingering excitement.
After only about four hours of travel, Uranus began to enter his field of view. According to the astronomy books Tuan had read, the planet was described as possessing a massive ring system similar to Saturn’s, yet so faint that it was nearly impossible to see clearly from Earth. And yet now, he was witnessing that shimmering beauty with his own eyes at an incredibly close distance – so close that it felt as though he could reach out and touch it.
Compared to Saturn, Uranus’s rings had a completely different structure. Because its rotational axis was tilted dramatically, almost parallel to the ecliptic plane, everything about this planet appeared stranger than its siblings in the Solar System. If Saturn’s rings spun like a spinning top played with by children, then Uranus’s rings moved more like a wheel slowly rolling forward.
The longer Tuan gazed at the ice crystals shimmering with rainbow light, the more he struggled to resist the urge to reach out and scoop that glittering stardust into a massive jar to keep as a souvenir. What was more, according to Freya’s calculations, in less than eight hours the ALIEN spacecraft would enter Neptune’s domain. And so, Tuan decided to stay on duty past midnight to bid farewell to the final planet before the crew entered the Oort Cloud and officially departed from the Solar System.
