Golden morning light broke slow across Raiju, spilling over a horizon unlike anything Earth had ever offered, cities rising in tiered spires that caught the sun in sheets of pale gold and silver, blue electricity threading through conduits woven visibly into every structure, running along building facades like veins beneath skin, pulsing gentle with the planet's own rhythm rather than anything mechanical.
People moved through the streets below, some walking, some drifting a few feet off the ground on personal grav-plates, tech generations beyond anything Earth had managed to build, and above it all, transports cut clean lines through the sky, silent, efficient, leaving faint trails of blue-white light in their wake.
At the heart of the capital, the royal palace rose taller than anything around it, its spires catching the dawn first, and inside, in a private chamber overlooking the waking city, Lucy stood in her armor while her parents watched her finish the last of the buckles.
