Thirty-five years she had been working on this project. For thirty-five years she had dedicated herself, body and soul to the advancement of her people. Her entire life suffered due to her growing obsession with her work; she had no friends to speak of, and she had become estranged from her family. On more than one occasion she had collapsed due to exhaustion, not to mention the near breakdown that she had suffered during the lunar uprisings. She feared that the entire project would go up in smoke as many of the parts for her engine were being constructed at various facilities on the moons.

But today Arabini was to be rewarded for her efforts; her work would finally bear fruit. And maybe her entire species wouldn’t disappear into an overpopulation induced self-destruction.

It started nearly fifty years ago when she first proposed the concept that would eventually become Project Horizon. But today was truly the beginning. She sat in the control room listening to the chatter between them and the two exploration vessels. The countdown was running smoothly, everything was A-Okay.

For the first time anyone around her could remember, she smiled.