Chapter 1
Growing Up on Uranus
On a gas giant at the edge of the solar system, in a small town where everyone was either an engineer, a mathematician, or a physicist, a young alien named POOT was tinkering in his bedroom. Like his father before him, POOT had a knack for invention.
Life in the town was quiet. POOT lived with his mom in a cozy house, surrounded by neighbors who spent their days calculating trajectories and debating quantum mechanics. It was just how things were on Uranus.
But POOT didn't want to be like everyone else. He wanted to be a HeMoroid Miner. HeMoroids (He-Mo-roids: Helium + Molybdenum + asteroids) orbit Uranus, rich with deposits of liquid Helium and rare Molybdenum—essential materials for quantum devices and particle accelerators. Mining them was dangerous, exciting, and one of the most important jobs on the planet.
There was just one problem: his dad. One day, years ago, he told POOT he was going out to get some milk. He never came back. POOT's mom said he'd return eventually. POOT wanted to believe her.
So he waited. And tinkered. And dreamed of the stars.
“Mom always said dad would come back. I believed her... for a while.”