[b]EIV [i]Starfire[/i], "Ten Forward" Bar[/b]
Fergus floated in the zero-g environment of deck ten, part of the central hull. One hand held onto a shining handrail, the other twirled his hair. The Earth hung in the sky outside the window, it was the same sight he had seen the day the [i]Armstrong[/i] was launched. People said that the sight of your homeworld never got old, he certainly agreed. The blue and green of Earth entranced him, not just with the beauty of it all, but with what it symbolized. When he left for Alpha Centauri, the Earth was a sickly brown. Now it looked just like it did in his childhood dreams.

City lights dotted the globe, shining with the power of a hundred orbiting solar farms. The tiny blips of the factory ships circled the world, each one connected to a local space elevator. With his eyes still open, he imagined what the world looked like before it all. The image was vivid, as if he was there. It was peaceful, yet dull at the same time. He smiled, glad he was able to live in a time when humanity had finally begun reaching out into the cosmos. When he was a child he dreamed of visiting another star system, but knew it was impossible. Now he's doing it twice.

He found it hard to believe, especially the fact that his destination was Gliese 581g. Right when he thought he was insane, the news came out and everyone was talking about how the world he loved really did exist. It was like a dream, as if he would wake up in a rotting wooden bed inside his parent's lavish house any moment.

[i]Hah![/i] He thought [i]They last thing they both heard was that the existence of Gliese 581g had been confirmed by their son who had gone to Alpha Centauri a few years ago! The last thought to go through their minds was the idea that I, their "insane and worthless" son was right about it all![/i]

Thoughts flashed through his head as he wondered if he really could be right, if it wasn't just some freak of nature that began it all. Images of blue-green worlds dotted with city lights flashed through his head, the eternal image of his one and only true friend the only thing that remained the same. For once in his life, he felt like his dream was possible. Not the kind of possible he knew, the kind where everything works out fine, but the impossible kind of possible. The kind where, despite how unrealistic and stupid the goal sounds, it can be accomplished. The kind of possible like his particle accelerator, the kind of possible like the Alpha Centauri expedition. 

"Attention anyone still onboard this grand vessel!" He said into an intercom panel on the wall "This will be said twice, but as you decided to stay onboard, you get to hear it first. The human species began as multiple tribes of hunter-gatherers with no social structure, then agriculture was created, and we become close-knit, stationary groups with excess food. That food let people focus on thinking instead of hunting, and thus the first sparks of science began. So many thousand years have passed since that time, and what happened in between then and now pales in comparison to what we will do. Our mission is to establish a colony on the planet of Gliese 581g, or Zarmina as it was called by the man who first saw it through a telescope back in the 21st century. It was passed off as a simple anomaly, but to be honest, I never lost hope in the first Goldilocks world. However, our mission is far more than just planting a flag. Our mission is also to explore, and to find new life. Europa held so many wonderful animals and plants, but I think this expedition will find something completely different. I expect to find a creature that answers when we speak. It may seem impossible, but so did the Alpha Centauri expedition, as well as the Jupiter Expedition, the Mars landing, the Moon landing, even flight itself was considered impossible once. If there is one thing I know, it is that impossible simply means it hasn't been done. I expect every one of you to support this mission with all you have, and in turn, I will support all of you. If you have something to say to me, then do just that. A good captain is not one that is strong and can stand by their choices, but one that listens to their crew. Unless we all work together, this expedition will fail, and failure is not in the human vocabulary!"