Humanity in the year 3000 has long since slipped the bonds of Earth, weaving cities of glass and alloy into the upper atmosphere and beyond. Orbital rings hum with traffic, and fleets of sleek scout vessels drift between the stars as routinely as cargo haulers once crossed terrestrial oceans. The profession of exoplanet hunting has become as commonplace as cartography once was, with millions of automated probes and crewed observers scanning the void for signs of habitable worlds.

One such probe, after centuries of silent travel, finally pinged back a faint but unmistakable signal from a distant star system. The data revealed a world of roughly Earth mass, orbiting within the temperate zone of its sun, its surface draped in a thin veil of nitrogen‐oxygen atmosphere and dotted with vast oceans that glimmered under a pale, amber light.

The planet was called...

Cion 67.