At this point, Arnaldo hesitated. He stumbled over his words for a moment before finally speaking.

  “Um… I can promise you this. No matter how dangerous the journey ahead becomes, I will always be the first to step forward and protect the two of you. I’ll face every hardship alongside you. From now on, your lives won’t be plagued by nightmares every night. There will be no more surgeries. No more routine examinations. You will live fuller lives in the future. So… I hope the three of us can truly walk this long journey together.”

  Valentina and Tuan exchanged a smile. The wall that once separated the three of them had now been completely torn down. Tuan stepped forward and took hold of Arnaldo’s wrist. The other followed. Three arms intertwined, forming a sturdy triangle – like an unbreakable promise, binding the souls of three once-strangers into a single, inseparable whole.

  “So what do we do next, Brother Dol?” Tuan asked.

  Arnaldo returned to the conference table and pulled up a series of news articles that had caught his attention.

  “There’s an article here that’s rather interesting,” he began. “A Scottish writer named Duncan Lunan once analyzed radio signals received from the Black Knight satellite in Norway. He concluded that those signals formed a star chart – a navigational map pointing toward the binary star system Izar in the constellation Bo?tes. He believed that an extremely advanced civilization existed there.

  “Coincidentally, in 2101 – ten years before the message from the Black Knight was transmitted to Earth – the famous psychic San Ventagon claimed she had dreamed of a blinding flash of light while gazing in the direction of the Herdsman. At the time, no one paid any attention to her words. But the moment the Black Knight’s message appeared, her statement was suddenly hailed worldwide as a great prophecy.

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  “I don’t usually believe in spiritual or mystical stories like these,” Arnaldo said, “but right now, we don’t have many paths left to choose from. So I asked Freya to calculate a possible flight path to the Izar system. It’s about two hundred light-years away, and at our current maximum speed, we could reach it in roughly seventeen months. That’s a timeframe worth considering.”

  Valentina, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up.

  “I have a question,” she said. “If what Ventagon saw was a blinding flash of light in Bo?tes, then wouldn’t that mean the place already exploded – just like our Solar System? Maybe they were destroyed by some unknown force, and that’s why they sent the message across the universe, to warn other civilizations to escape as soon as possible.”

  Valentina’s skepticism was entirely reasonable. Arnaldo silently admired her sharpness.

  “You make a good point,” he said. “So what do you think we should do now?”

  “I think our top priority should still be escaping the Solar System as soon as possible,” Valentina replied. “As for where to go next… I’m sorry. I don’t know.” Her voice gradually trailed off.

  “That’s fine,” Arnaldo nodded. “You’re right. Survival comes first. Everything else can be figured out later.”

  Tuan suddenly cut into their conversation.

  “Hey, doesn’t this ship have a name, Brother Dol? We haven’t talked about that at all.”

  “Officially, it does,” Arnaldo replied. “Its designation is ELE-SP013. It’s a bit long, so I don’t usually mention it.”

  “Then why don’t we give it a proper name?” Tuan suggested. “Vale and I don’t like being called by code names, so I’m sure the ship doesn’t either. It’s going to travel with us for a long time, after all. Having a meaningful name would be a good first step toward making this journey go smoothly. Don’t you think?”

  “Hm. Not a bad idea,” Arnaldo considered for a moment. “Then let’s call it Light of Hope. It’s meaningful, and it fits the ship’s purpose.”

  Valentina and Tuan stared at him with judgmental expressions. Tuan pouted.

  “That name is so boring, Brother Dol. Earth Squadron sounds way better than that.”

  “What’s with all this ‘Brother Dol’ nonsense anyway? And you’re acting like Earth Squadron is such a great name.”

  “Your name’s too long, that’s why. ‘Brother Dol’ is easier to remember. Besides, we’re superhumans saving Earth – Earth Squadron makes perfect sense!”