Inside the vessel, everyone settled into their seats according to the mission hierarchy. Zenny took the pilot’s chair, with Locky beside him as co-pilot. Jack stood near the viewports, scanning the void to make sure they wouldn’t collide with any debris. Alice managed the thrusters, while Heloá worked with the ship’s AI, running trajectory calculations. Oliver monitored the gliding systems.

  For safety, Zenny repeated the plan one more time, his voice echoing through the cabin.

  “Listen up. We have enough fuel to reach our objective—the wormhole that formed exactly between Earth and Mercury. One mistake and we’re dead. We’ll be operating dangerously close to the Sun. That wormhole is our gateway to the Adamantina Galaxy. We’re lucky it reappeared when it did… and even luckier that it’s this close.”

  Everyone nodded. The plan was already burned into their minds.

  The General ignited the engines, and the crew tightened their harnesses. Outside, the massive thruster tubes shifted as mechanical mechanisms rotated into position, preparing the ship for launch.

  “Initiating takeoff,” Zenny announced. “Thrusters engaging in three… two… one.”

  The violent G-force slammed everyone back into their seats. Zenny adjusted the trajectory while the ship’s AI locked onto the objective, calculating their path even before they cleared the launch bay.

  As the vessel emerged from the dome, crowds outside raised their arms and cheered. For them, this mission was humanity’s final hope.

  The ship tore through the atmosphere. The crushing weight of gravity pressed against their chests.

  Alice monitored the output levels.

  “Increasing power to fifteen percent.”

  “Power at fifteen percent,” Locky confirmed. “We’re leaving Earth. Brace yourselves.”

  The ship climbed higher until it pierced the final layer of the atmosphere.

  Then the shaking stopped.

  Silence filled the cabin.

  They had left Earth.

  While the ship’s systems calibrated, everyone stared out through the viewports. Space carried a strange feeling—a mixture of calm, beauty… and something deeply unsettling.

  Zenny took a slow breath and closed his eyes for a brief moment before speaking again.

  “Operation Einstein is a go. Good luck to all of us.”

  His voice trembled slightly, though his composure as a General hid most of the tension.

  Locky noticed.

  “We’ll make it,” he murmured.

  Optimism was rare for him, but right now it mattered.

  Zenny gripped the control lever and pushed it forward. The ship began its burn toward the wormhole.

  Heloá began calling out numbers rapidly.

  “Adjust sixty degrees starboard! Set lateral thrusters to thirty-seven degrees port!”

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  Alice adjusted the thrusters with precision while Locky managed the ship’s weight-distribution controls.

  As the distortion grew closer, the entire crew held their breath.

  They had removed the ship’s shielding to reduce weight and avoid the Sun’s gravitational pull. That meant they were completely exposed.

  Suddenly, the wormhole’s gravity seized the ship like a vacuum.

  Everything went dark.

  Around them, space twisted into something that looked like molten glass. The ship was no longer being steered—it was being hurled forward at speeds their minds couldn’t process.

  Alarms screamed as the hull groaned under the pressure.

  “So… this is what the inside of a wormhole looks like?” Locky asked, staring at the swirling light.

  “It’s like everything is melting,” Alice said. “And moving too fast to even see.”

  Just as suddenly as it began, the chaos stopped.

  They had arrived.

  The Adamantina Galaxy.

  Zenny immediately engaged the braking systems.

  The crew gathered around the ship’s central hub as a high-tech console—far more advanced than anything on Earth—rose from the floor. Blue LEDs illuminated the room while a holographic map projected seventeen planets.

  “We need to choose our first destination,” Locky said.

  Zenny leaned over the table.

  “One system orbits a supermassive black hole called Thanatos-36b. Another is a binary star system. The last one orbits a star four times the size of our Sun. That’s where the Sixth Team lost contact.”

  Silence filled the room.

  Then Oliver spoke.

  “This is surreal… completely different from the garbage the SFS showed us.”

  “And a lot more dangerous,” Jack added.

  Zenny’s knuckles turned white beneath his gloves as sweat ran down his face.

  Heloá noticed something else.

  She looked at Locky’s blade.

  “That neon glow… why does it look like that?”

  “Temperature control,” Locky replied calmly. “It absorbs heat and cold, turning the energy into that glow.”

  After a short debate, the crew chose Poseidon—a planet orbiting Thanatos-36b. Their goal was to locate Team One.

  “SFS-N biofuel degrades if it comes into contact with oil or gas,” Zenny warned. “Let’s move.”

  As they approached the small planet near the enormous black hole, Heloá synchronized their systems with the data left behind by Team One.

  Alice’s eyes widened as the numbers appeared.

  “According to relativity… one hour down there equals seven years back on Earth.”

  “We don’t have time to waste,” Jack said. “Gravity is at one hundred and thirty-five percent.”

  The descent was brutal.

  The ship spiraled downward in a violent corkscrew maneuver before finally touching down on a world that was ninety-five percent ocean.

  When they stepped outside using specialized airbag soles in their boots, the gravity hit them like a hammer.

  “Three minutes since landing,” Locky reported. “Perfect touchdown.”

  But Heloá suddenly froze.

  “W-what is that?”

  Everyone turned toward the horizon.

  A massive blue wall stretched toward the sky.

  “It’s a tsunami,” Jack whispered.

  “No…”

  His eyes widened.

  “It’s a gargantuan tsunami.”

  At that exact moment, a Morse signal pulsed through Locky’s helmet.

  DO NOT LAND IN THE OCEAN.

  Locky’s stomach dropped.

  He ran toward the signal.

  “Love, where are you going?!” Alice shouted.

  Locky reached into the water and pulled something up.

  A body.

  One of Team One.

  The suit was inferior to theirs, and the corpse had turned blue from the cold and pressure. Locky ripped the data chip from the helmet.

  “BACK TO THE SHIP! NOW!” he roared.

  The crew sprinted.

  Zenny dragged Alice inside while the massive wall of water closed in behind them.

  Locky ran through the crushing gravity, barely managing to grab Zenny’s hand as he was pulled aboard.

  Alice immediately pushed the thrusters to maximum power.

  By the narrowest margin, the ship cleared the crest of the wave and shot back toward space.

  They had escaped the ocean.

  But in the chaos, they missed something critical.

  To escape the tsunami, the ship had jettisoned most of its artificial weight.

  Now the vessel was too light.

  Without enough inertia, it could no longer resist the immense gravitational pull of the nearby supermassive black hole.

  Thanatos-36b.

  Warning alarms erupted across the cockpit.

  Heloá’s voice trembled.

  “We’re being pulled in… the gravity is increasing!”

  Outside the viewport, the stars began to bend.

  Space itself twisted into a spiral of darkness.

  Zenny slammed the controls.

  “Engines to full power!”

  The ship roared, fighting desperately against the invisible force.

  But the navigation screen displayed a single terrifying message.

  ESCAPE VELOCITY: IMPOSSIBLE

  They had survived the ocean.

  Only to be dragged toward something far worse.

  The event horizon of Thanatos-36b.

  And once they crossed it…

  There would be no way back.