Though he still couldn’t pull Valentina completely out of the darkness, Tuan was finally able to let out a quiet sigh of relief. He smiled and pushed himself up, resting his weight on his hands. The code SOYUZ-04 remained etched on his own left wrist, unchanged for nearly fifteen years of his life. Tuan knew that both he and Valentina had chosen to leave the past behind. Only by doing so could they continue living without regret.
Arnaldo had been standing nearby, listening to everything. He realized then how shallow his approach had been. Although he and the two children were all experimental subjects of L.A.B, the children had been forced into it – while he had volunteered of his own free will. Fundamentally, they were nothing alike.
Indeed, ever since boarding the ship, Valentina had consistently avoided him for reasons he couldn’t understand. Even when they crossed paths, it was always by chance. She had stayed in the medical bay for two straight days to care for Tuan, leading Arnaldo to believe she was simply worried about her close friend. He never imagined that trauma from her childhood had fostered such deep-seated aversion toward him. It seemed that during the briefing, he had unintentionally reopened old wounds, allowing long-healed scars to bleed once more.
“What have I done…?” he murmured to himself. The two of them weren’t even adults yet – they were still in the volatile throes of adolescence. And yet, he had approached them in the same manner he would his subordinates.
As their commander, he should have been the one to shoulder responsibility for what lay ahead, rather than placing that burden on two children whose hearts were already weighed down by countless scars. He had even neglected to properly learn about his teammates beforehand – something he should have done before the meeting had ever begun.
The catastrophe had unfolded too suddenly, sweeping him into its relentless momentum and causing him to overlook the emotional state of the others. The human factor was the true determinant of where the ship’s future would lead. They would be traveling together for a very long time. Building a foundation of trust and understanding between the three of them should have been the top priority – not blindly fulfilling personal duties like an unfeeling machine.
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At some point, Tuan had walked over to stand beside Arnaldo. Their eyes met, and they exchanged an awkward smile. Tuan showed no trace of blame – he merely shrugged and tilted his head toward the elevator, silently suggesting they head down together. Once they were seated in the control room, Arnaldo finally spoke, cautiously:
“Can you tell me what happened to Tereshkova?”
With quiet sorrow, Tuan recounted Valentina’s painful past. He recalled how, back at L.A.B, Dr. Giáng Tiên had once described those in charge of Project VOSTOK as a group of fanatical zealots obsessed with wielding God’s power of creation. To them, research subjects were nothing more than “products.” If a product malfunctioned or became unusable, it was simply discarded – responsibility absolved. They believed this to be a divine privilege, and gods, after all, could never be wrong.
Their ultimate ambition was to create a perfect human specimen, then apply that success to accelerate human evolution. Upon achieving this, they would be exalted as “Gods” themselves, worshipped by the masses. That was why all they cared about was results – never emotions, inner lives, or the worthless lives of their test subjects.
The only thing restraining such ambition was the barrier of social ethics – and how “fortunate” it was that L.A.B had been established precisely when they needed it. The facility harbored a web of enticing regulations designed to legitimize every twisted ideal they pursued. Over time, those with warped ideologies congregated there, relentlessly experimenting with new methods while discarding any subjects deemed defective.
Valentina was one of the few successful cases – and had endured more experiments than anyone else. That was why she was terrified of anyone wearing green surgical attire, especially when they reached out toward her. Arnaldo had likely triggered that fear without realizing he had crossed a boundary no one was ever meant to touch.
