In the year 2147, humanity had stretched its fingers across the solar system, colonizing Mars, mining the asteroids, and even establishing outposts on the icy moons of Jupiter. But Dr. Elara Voss, a brilliant neuroscientist from Earth, felt the weight of isolation more than most. She lived aboard the Aether, a colossal research vessel orbiting Neptune, where the sun was little more than a distant star. The ship was a marvel of engineering: self-sustaining gardens, AI-managed life support, and labs equipped with quantum computers that could simulate entire universes.
