Valentina took a deep breath and gently patted her cheeks with both hands to encourage herself. She reminded herself to become truly brave, so that she could face the hardships awaiting her in the future.

  Valentina stepped into the bathroom and dressed herself in a four-panel halter top in a soft shade of blue. The smooth fabric accentuated the innocent lines of her face, making anyone who caught a glimpse of her instantly fall for her charm. She chose to wear it today because it was her favorite outfit – a marker of a new milestone, where she resolved to live each day more fully.

  Adjusting the kh?n l??n wrapped around her hair, Valentina boldly stepped out of her room. When she reached the dining area, she found Tuan seated at the table, eating. The outfit made him stare in stunned admiration for quite a while before he reluctantly refocused on his breakfast. The two chatted cheerfully as they ate, and Tuan did not hold back his compliments on Valentina’s outfit, making her smile shyly to herself the entire time.

  After finishing their meal, the two walked together toward the control room. Arnaldo suddenly appeared from inside, startling Valentina and making her instinctively step back. In that very moment, she realized she could not keep reacting this way forever. She steadied herself with a few slow, gentle breaths. Her heartbeat gradually calmed, and the pain in her stomach eased. Though her hands still trembled slightly, Valentina clenched them tight and resolved to face the hidden corners of her mind head-on. The flame she had received from the woman felt as though it were fueling the fierce courage burning within her chest.

  Arnaldo sensed that resolve. He was overjoyed that the three of them could now truly move forward together on the journey ahead. Only now did everything truly begin.

  “That outfit looks wonderful, Tereshkova!” The amber light in his eyes softened.

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  ***

  “To begin today’s briefing, I’ll show you a video Freya generated based on the data I collected from the Titan Satellite Observation Station. Freya, please play the footage.” Arnaldo said.

  Freya was an artificial intelligence preinstalled within the control system of the spacecraft ELE-SP013. She had been entrusted with assisting the crew in operating their new home safely and efficiently. Although many of her functions had been locked away and she had been placed in hibernation by the United Nations out of fear of the negative consequences left behind by the Third World War, Arnaldo had still found a way to reactivate her so she could continue serving life aboard the ship. He planned to completely remove all of Freya’s security restrictions in the future, but for now, there were still many higher priorities that demanded his attention.

  The footage simulating the collapse of the Solar System began playing across the conference table.

  It opened with an image of the Sun being attacked by a mysterious force from the shadows before erupting violently, unleashing a massive wave of radiation along with an enormous amount of stellar matter blasted outward in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, at that moment, all the planets of the Solar System happened to be positioned on the same side, making it impossible for Arnaldo to determine what exactly had caused this catastrophic disaster.

  The explosion rapidly spread throughout space, instantly incinerating Mercury and Venus into vast clouds of dust. Earth became the next victim as the radiation wave swept in, stripping away its magnetic field and erasing all life on the blue planet. The Moon – along with many cities built upon it – was hurled straight toward Earth, creating a horrific spectacle that, had anyone been “fortunate” enough to survive and record it, would surely have been remembered as a blood-soaked eclipse.

  Life on Mars could not escape its tragic fate either. The asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars was violently destabilized. Massive chunks of rock were knocked out of their orbits and flung in all directions, drifting aimlessly through space before disintegrating into dust – ending their existence as the final remnants of a dying star system.

  As the footage neared its conclusion, the remaining planets of the Solar System were shown slipping from their orbits one by one, becoming rogue planets wandering the cosmos, thus bringing an end to the more than 4.6-billion-year journey of a once-glorious star system.