Chap­ter 12 focus­es on Mickey3, the third ver­sion of an indi­vid­ual who has suf­fered immense trau­ma from the loss of two pre­vi­ous bod­ies. The emo­tion­al bur­den of los­ing his orig­i­nal body is immense, with mem­o­ries of the trag­ic event haunt­ing him deeply. Ini­tial­ly, Mick­ey grap­ples with fear and a con­stant sense of impend­ing dis­as­ter, as he waits for some­thing else to go wrong. His exis­tence becomes dom­i­nat­ed by these fears, and each day feels like a strug­gle to find mean­ing in an over­whelm­ing sense of loss. Over time, though, Mick­ey begins to find solace in read­ing the his­to­ries of failed colonies. These sto­ries pro­vide him with a new per­spec­tive on humanity’s expan­sion into the uni­verse, reveal­ing how the opti­mistic nar­ra­tives taught to him in school were often incom­plete, hid­ing the harsh truths of failed col­o­niza­tion attempts.

Through his research, Mick­ey dis­cov­ers that many colony ships set off into the unknown with inad­e­quate knowl­edge of their des­ti­na­tions. This lack of prepa­ra­tion often led to cat­a­stroph­ic out­comes, as colonists faced unfore­seen chal­lenges that made their new worlds inhos­pitable. One sto­ry that stands out is that of a failed colony on Asher’s World, where set­tlers arrived full of hope only to dis­cov­er that the planet’s envi­ron­ment was unliv­able due to con­di­tions that hadn’t been antic­i­pat­ed. This his­to­ry serves as a painful reminder to Mick­ey of the unpre­dictable nature of space explo­ration, and it forces him to reflect on his own past. His reflec­tions on these sto­ries mir­ror his per­son­al loss­es, draw­ing painful con­nec­tions between the fate of past colonists and his own strug­gles with sur­vival and iden­ti­ty.

Amidst this peri­od of self-reflec­tion, Mick­ey forms a con­nec­tion with Nasha, a fel­low crew mem­ber aboard the ship. They first meet in the carousel, an area designed for phys­i­cal fit­ness in micro­grav­i­ty, but Mick­ey is more inter­est­ed in his research than the exer­cise rou­tines. Nasha, how­ev­er, doesn’t let him remain in iso­la­tion. She dis­rupts his focus with her play­ful ban­ter and grad­u­al­ly opens up about her life, reveal­ing how her immi­grant back­ground and strug­gles shaped her deter­mi­na­tion to become a com­bat pilot. Through their con­ver­sa­tions, Mick­ey begins to under­stand Nasha’s strength and resolve, find­ing a sur­pris­ing com­fort in her per­spec­tive on life.

Their bond deep­ens as they con­tin­ue to share sto­ries and hopes for the future, find­ing com­mon ground in their desires to sur­vive and thrive in a chal­leng­ing envi­ron­ment. Nasha’s resilience and opti­mistic out­look stand in con­trast to Mickey’s ini­tial pes­simism, pro­vid­ing him with a sense of hope. As the ship nears its des­ti­na­tion, Nifl­heim, both of them share a sense of antic­i­pa­tion, believ­ing that this new world will offer them the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a fresh start. How­ev­er, as the ship enters orbit and they pre­pare for deploy­ment, they are faced with an unex­pect­ed rev­e­la­tion. Instead of the lush and wel­com­ing land­scape they had envi­sioned, they are greet­ed with a bar­ren, frozen plan­et, leav­ing them to face the grim real­i­ty of their sit­u­a­tion.

The stark, frozen world of Nifl­heim shat­ters their expec­ta­tions and brings a wave of uncer­tain­ty. Mick­ey tries to reas­sure Nasha by draw­ing par­al­lels to Earth­’s past, where life thrived in harsh con­di­tions. He tries to main­tain hope that they can still find a way to sur­vive, but the uncer­tain­ty of the sit­u­a­tion becomes over­whelm­ing. A sud­den com­mand for imme­di­ate deploy­ment only adds to their grow­ing sense of anx­i­ety, as they are left with lit­tle time to process what lies ahead. With sur­vival now uncer­tain and the land­scape far from what they imag­ined, Mick­ey and Nasha must find a way to adapt to the harsh con­di­tions of Nifl­heim and deter­mine their next steps.

As the chap­ter pro­gress­es, Mick­ey must con­front not only the exter­nal chal­lenges of sur­vival on an inhos­pitable world but also the deep­er emo­tion­al scars left by his past. His strug­gle with loss and iden­ti­ty becomes inter­twined with the harsh real­i­ties of their mis­sion, forc­ing him to nav­i­gate both phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al tur­moil. The ten­sion grows as the crew faces the unknown, with their futures uncer­tain. The chap­ter ends on an unre­solved note, with Mick­ey and Nasha prepar­ing for what lies ahead, unsure of what they will find on the frozen plan­et, and whether they can over­come the chal­lenges they face togeth­er. The jour­ney ahead is filled with ques­tions, not just about sur­vival, but about their abil­i­ty to main­tain hope in the face of over­whelm­ing adver­si­ty.