The hum of the orbital station’s engines was a familiar rhythm to Captain Bianca Bell and Dr. Irina Dyvyn, but today, it buzzed with urgency. Their mission: to calibrate the newly deployed satellite, mankind’s most sophisticated quantum relay for deep-space communication. The launch had been flawless, but the data transmission anomaly was growing by the hour. If it wasn’t fixed before the 24-hour window closed at exactly 16:00 UTC, Earth’s connection to Mars colonies—and the first human expedition to Europa—would collapse.