The final solar telemetry report confirmed what everyone already knew but refused to say out loud: their sun was dying. It was swelling, a bloated red giant swallowing the inner planets and choking his home world in a perpetual, toxic purple haze., but Michael refused to sit still. Working out of an abandoned hangar, he spent months as a rogue engineer, piecing together a vessel from salvaged titanium, stolen blueprints, and experimental ion drives.