OOC: Frelav is understating it.
IC:
Juneflower was now somewhere over Mongolia. The UN logo on the door split in two as the cockpit door opened and the last co-captain walked in. When Juneflower was being built, the UN's space program formed mid-21st century was controlling it. Of course, after the Great Oil Crisis of 2103 and the withdrawl of the United States, the Kingdom of England and Wales, Israel, the Kingdom of Scotland, and the Middle East, the UN collapsed from underfunding. No one ever bothered to paint over the logo.
"We in position, Zalman?"
"Yep, just finished turning maneuvers. We're now facing Eridani, and our thrusters are pointed to Earth."
"Good." said the co-captain, as the rest remained silent. This one was to be operating the main thrusters, Zalman was to operate the turning rockets, and the rest minor details to keep the ship running.
"Engagin' thrusters...We're at 3%. Velocity is 899.377 kilometers per second."
Faster than any spacecraft to date. But this was 3 percent of its full power. Earth was disappearing into the background faster than one's eyes could believe. But no Gs in space meant no one felt anything, and since the spacecraft was still going too slow for the stars to appear to move, the only indication of movement was the soft blowing sound of the engines inside the spacecraft. As the Juneflower left Earth gravity, its thrusters were raised to 100% of its full power. Then, after about one day at that speed and with 98% of fuel remaining, the rockets were killed, and the ship was now going 10% the speed of light. The co-captains entered the hab modules, with the spacecraft now under control of the on-board computer.
January 3, 2110Instead of a crystal ball falling to mark the new year, a pock-marked piece of iron did.
That day, a small, golf-ball sized piece of interstellar debris slammed into the one of four massive windows on the Juneflower's Hab Module A. It left an enormous crack along the side of the window, causing explosive decompression in 5 cabins that the window bordered. Since all furniture was bolted down, it just caused a big mess in them from things falling, but it seemed like a bad omen. Yes, a minor one; the window was quickly fixed by handimen in space suits, but, it just seemed to foretell that maybe there would be more problems, that could shatter the community on board...or bring it closer together.
