Mickey3 reflects on his expe­ri­ence as the third iter­a­tion of him­self after two pre­vi­ous bod­ies died in trau­mat­ic cir­cum­stances. The emo­tion­al weight of los­ing his orig­i­nal body is felt deeply, with the mem­o­ry haunt­ing him as he ini­tial­ly rid­dles his time with fear and expec­ta­tions of dis­as­ter. Over months that turn into a year of mun­dane exis­tence, Mick­ey finds com­fort in explor­ing the his­to­ries of failed colonies, find­ing that the nar­ra­tive he learned in school paint­ed an over­ly opti­mistic view of humanity’s expan­sion across the uni­verse.

He learns that colony ships often under­take per­ilous jour­neys into the unknown with­out suf­fi­cient infor­ma­tion about their tar­gets. The sto­ry of a failed colony from Asher’s World res­onates painful­ly with him; the colonists arrived only to dis­cov­er that their ide­al tar­get was inhos­pitable due to unfore­seen envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions. This read­ing trig­gers reflec­tions on his own past and tragedies.

Mick­ey even­tu­al­ly inter­acts with fel­low crew mem­ber Nasha after the trau­mat­ic events that led to his recent exis­tence. They meet in the carousel, a cen­trifu­gal area designed to main­tain phys­i­cal fit­ness in micro­grav­i­ty, albeit with Mick­ey more focused on read­ing. Nasha inter­rupts his thoughts on past colony fail­ures with play­ful ban­ter, reveal­ing her own life expe­ri­ences that shaped her jour­ney towards becom­ing a com­bat pilot.

As their rela­tion­ship devel­ops, Mick­ey learns about Nasha’s immi­grant back­ground and her deter­mi­na­tion to join the mis­sion. They bond over their hopes for their des­ti­na­tion, exchang­ing light­heart­ed remarks amidst seri­ous themes of sur­vival and poten­tial dis­as­ter. When the ship final­ly approach­es Nifl­heim for orbital inser­tion, antic­i­pa­tion fills the air, but instead of see­ing lush land­scapes, they are met with a stark white plan­et, reveal­ing a frozen world rather than the wel­com­ing haven they imag­ined.

Mick­ey tries to instill hope in Nasha about their poten­tial future, draw­ing par­al­lels to Earth­’s ancient envi­ron­ments, while uncer­tain­ty looms with a sud­den com­mand for imme­di­ate deploy­ment aris­es, leav­ing the prospect of sur­vival and the next steps unclear .