Through the triple-paned viewport of my quarters, I watched the wind scour the ice plains outside. A small display integrated into the window frame glowed with the external reading: -229°C. It made no sound, but the sight of that number was enough to raise a phantom chill on my skin, a memory of the brutal cold waiting just centimeters away.

_13:17 Pluto time,_ I reminded myself. _I have to be th...

The broadcast flickered to life, not with the usual news from the Jupiter mission, but with the digitally smooth face of a 90-year-old actress advertising 'Aeturnum Gel.'

"Why visit the stars when you can be one forever?" she purred to the camera, her smile perfect and unnervingly still.

In the year 2122, this was the obsession that truly pulled at humanity. We had colonized Mars and sent probes...