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text explaining the conditions.
    Alexa eyes bounced with blurred vision from the viewer to the glass of whiskey that she still held firmly in her grip. She stared at it for a long time before downing the rest of it in one big gulp. When she was done, she dropped the glass to the floor. It bounced once, then rolled away until it hit a wall.
    In that moment, she realized James was right. She couldn’t live like this anymore. She tapped the link – and with that one stroke of consent, the viewer read her bio-stamp and submitted her request for assignment to Colony One.
    The network crunched the numbers – weighing stats like age, medical and family history, income level, employment status, and with dizzying speed, it was decided. Alexa Dilyn would be leaving Earth forever.
     
    ɸ ɸ ɸ
     
    “What about you?” Someone nudged Alexa’s shoulder. “You haven’t said how you came to be here.” Retrieved from the depths of her memory, Alexa shook her head and smiled faintly at Ndale, who had asked the question. He elaborated, “A lot of us had nothing to lose or something to prove. Which one are you?”
    “Just wanted a change of scenery, I guess.” She said with a shrug. She knew exactly what she was running away from, but could barely admit it to herself, let alone a group of people she had just met. Nor did she want to explain that her choice to join Colony One was a drunken decision, made one night in a fit of desperation that she couldn’t undo even if she wanted to.
    She thought of James and felt a lump in her throat. She had been so careless and selfish – she didn’t think he would ever be able to forgive her. She knew he thought he would have more time to try and fix her – to put her back together. If she had thought it possible to do back on Earth, she might have stayed.
    “Way to take it to the extreme.”
    “This is about as extreme as you get.” Alexa pointed out in a dull voice. She blinked and refocused on the others, “When you think about it, it is a marvel that so many people volunteered for this trip.”
    “What do you mean?” Luca asked.
    “We’re in uncharted space – or we will be. The list of unknowns would be enough to keep any sane person from stepping foot on this ship. And yet, here we are. All twelve-thousand of us.” Alexa recalled the first sober moment after she had volunteered herself for the mission. She had immediate doubts and fears – but what was done was done.
    “Some might argue that it’s a testament to the inherent optimism in the human condition.” Luca countered with a lopsided smile.
    “Nah, I’m with the medic here – we all must be out of our minds!” Ndale said with a laugh, causing a chain reaction of laughter from many of the others.

 
     
     
     
    05
     
     
    Present Day, Kennedy Space Center, Hyperion Task Force Launch Day
     
     
    While the air wasn’t as clear as it was on the day Colony One launched, it was still much clearer than the average inhabited area – which, with a population of 20 billion, was pretty much everywhere.
    Margret Avery was not helping the situation as she puffed on a thin cigar. She was going to miss smoking, and knew full and well that she should have tried to wean herself off the habit long before locking herself in a confined space for a month or more. She lived her life in direct contrast to what she ‘should do’ most of the time, however, so being unable to give up the guilty pleasure was no surprise to her or anyone who knew her.
    She narrowed her eyes at the ship in the distance, watching the far away outlines of people as they approached it. She recognized the build of each one, waiting purposefully until she was sure the entire crew was on board.
     
    Charles Foster stepped onto the bridge of the Hyperion with a swelled chest. The compartment was quiet and peaceful. His eyes scanned the consoles from left to right – a slow, determined motion. He had arrived an hour and a half early so he could get a better