The five of us were seated in a lounge area at headquarters. Will who'd ridden there with us at 6am that morning was now nowhere to be found.

We'd left with nothing but our smartphones since they had assured us that everything would be provided.

I stared outside the window at the grounds below. It was still early in the morning but many people were already hard at work.

From there I could see the stargazer shuttle that would be taking us to Mars being attended to. I still couldn't believe that I was about to leave the planet. And I hadn't even left the state yet.

In the distance, I saw another Pathfinder. Ours was already in orbit over Mars so I wondered who this one belonged to.

"Who do you that one is for?" I asked no one in particular.

"There aren't going to be any missions until our beacon is activated so probably no one" Heather answered.

"Some rich assholes" Robert interjected.

He'd calmed down with the 'Eat the rich' act over the past few months but occasionally, some glimpses of Glorydays would shine through.

"No, not possible" John disagreed "The experts are next. You know, the ones that will help us build a colony on Gaia?"

"I still can't get over the fact that we are going to another galaxy" I said still in utter disbelief. "I mean going to orbit would have been crazy enough for me but this..."

"Yeah well most likely we step into that wormhole and our insides turn to jelly" Robert interrupted.

"Have you perhaps tried not to be such a downer?" John asked him.

"I don't think so" Heather added her own two cents "Someone put that wormhole there. It's too big a coincidence to think that it just appeared out of nowhere."

"It is a miracle from God" Cillian stated. Over the months, Cillian would occasionally talk to us but not very often. He just liked to be left alone. But we all knew for a fact that if it ever came to it, he would protect every last one of us.

"Whoever it was, they wouldn't go through all that trouble just to kill us" Heather finalized.

Heather did have a point. Something out there was rooting for us.

"Or the lab coats misjudged their calculations and our ship will break into a million pieces" Robert countered. He really didn't let up.

I stared at him in horror. Of course he was right as well. A single thing could go wrong and we'd all be dead and NASA could just bring in the next set of recruits.

"Look, you made her scared" John said mockingly.

Another one of his running jokes. Ever since one of the workers had said "Follow me ma'am" to me, he just wouldn't let it rest and always referred to me using female pronouns.

Even worse is that lately, it had been spilling over to the rest of the crew mates.

I rolled my eyes at him.

Thankfully I was saved by Caitlyn's entrance into the room. She was followed by Will who looked exhausted.

"Okay team, attention please" She said. "The moment we've all been waiting for has finally come. You trained for this. You are ready"

She seemed proud.

"7 months ago, you were nothing more than a rag-tag group of criminals. Today you're the most important people on the planet. It's time for us to make history."

I looked around the room. Smiles all around. This was really happening.

"Launch is scheduled for 52 minutes from now. I need you all to get changed quickly and meet me down in the shuttle bay"

"Are you coming with us... to Mars?" I asked.

"Oh God no, that is a 4 month long trip each way. There's way too much to be done. I'll be here coordinating with your handlers at Mars station to ensure everything goes smoothly."

She turned to leave, "hurry and get dressed, your clothes are in the changing room. You know the way"

=^..^=

The clothes they had prepared were navy blue jumpsuits with the NASA and UN logos imprinted on the chest area. This was paired with white sneakers and was identical for the entire team.

The problem was my suit was tighter than I'd have liked and the fit was all wrong. It seemed to encase my body especially in the waist, butt and thigh areas not at all like the suits the other guys got.

As I checked myself in the mirror, I thought about asking for a different one but there was only 35 minutes left till launch so I decided to let it go.

"Honestly, your legs look great" I heard Heather say. I hadn't seen her standing behind me "So does your ass if I'm being honest".

"Hurry and finish getting dressed, we need to go" I told her in an attempt to change the subject. Heather who had only put her legs through the jumpsuit but had the rest of it hanging off her back agreed and walked off.

=^..^=

I got similar comments from John and Cillian as we walked through the halls headed for the shuttle bay. I did my best to ignore them and even eventually fell to the back of the pack because I couldn't help feel like they were staring.

We opened the door at the end of the hallway and revealed a large hangar. I stared wide eyed at the numerous ships of different shapes and sitzes that dotted the bay and the runway that sat just after it.

My attention was drawn to Caitlyn standing next to two black SUVs while having a conversation with NASA's Administrator and a few others. I'd even seen his portrait hanging at numerous locations in the facility next to a portrait of the president.

"There they are!" He exclaimed. "The people of the hour"

He smiled and closed the gap between us and gave each of us a firm handshake.

"I have a good feeling about this team" he said making sure the other people he'd been talking to could hear. Some nodded their agreement.

"There's no time. We will speak again when you get to the port."

He meant the space port of course. The journey to the wormhole was more like a relay race. We'd get to the port and then they would pass us like a baton to the next ship that would take us to Mars. The same would happen at the red giant where we would switch into the Pathfinder for the final leg.

"Get going. God speed" he said finally.

Caitlyn took over and shuffled us into the SUVs that would drive us down the runway to the carrier that was to begin phase one of our ascent.

=^..^=

When the car had parked in front of the massive aircraft, I marveled at the bounds of human engineering. The massive structure looked like a typical helicarrier with a few key differences. While it still had the flat runway on top, it had a streamlined design at the front that gave it aerodynamic properties and massive engines at the back.

The vessel we'd be boarding - Stargazer - however sat on the runway of the carrier. Caitlyn had to remind me to keep moving as I had stopped to gawk at it.

She led us into the base of the craft and using a seemingly endless elevator, we got to the top and proceeded to the smaller lone vessel that sat on its runway.

The inside was beautiful. The wide panoramic windows that made up most of the interior let us see perfectly what was going on outside the craft. I imagined that would come in very handy when we got into space.

"So this is it" Caitlyn said. We all turned out attention to her.

"This is the last time we'll see each other on Earth. I pray we will get the chance to meet on Gaia"

I believed she really meant that.

"We'll talk when you get to the port" Caitlyn added finally and turned to leave.

"Thank you for everything" I blurted out. I really did mean it. My life was over and she had given it back to me.

She smiled warmly at me and nodded.

=^..^=

Just before takeoff, our pilots introduced themselves and assured us it would be a smooth ride. They handed us earplugs and told us it could get noisy even with the insulation.

A few more minutes and countdown came up over the intercom signaling us that it was time for takeoff.

"10,9,8..." my heart skipped a beat in my chest.

"7,6,5,4..." God it was so loud. Even with the earplugs, I could still hear the roar of the engines

"3,2,1." The engines roared louder and soon the buildings in the horizon started to move. It had begun. My life was about to become even more unrecognizable.

Faster and faster we went, the pressure pushed me back into my seat. I strained to keep a rational thought as I feared my eardrums would burst.

Soon though we were airborne and I was finally able to put two rational thoughts together and be aware of my surroundings.

I realized I'd been gripping Will's hand who sat next to me tightly. Embarrassed I let go but he gave me a reassuring smile.

I let my mind wander outside the plane where I saw the Earth below retreating much faster than I expected.

This ascension proceeded for a few minutes until the carrier seemed to slow down almost to a crawl, the world outside was dark and I could see the Earth curve in the horizon. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.

Again over the intercom I heard our own pilots say: "Launch sequence beginning in T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6..."

The Stargazer's engines had launched to life.

I felt a sharp lurch on the craft which caused me to jump.

"It's okay, they just released the mechanism locking us in place" Will told me. I relaxed

"3, 2, 1."

Once again an incredible amount of pressure pushed my back in my chair as we accelerated at lightning speeds. The craft shook violently as it got faster and faster.

I heard loud thumps outside of the craft and realised I was holding on to Will's arm. I hadn't expected this experience to be so scary. We'd done High-G training which I'd done reasonably well at but there was something about being in the actual moment and not a simulation that terrified me.

"We're just passing the trash layer. It'll be okay." He assured me. I knew that. They'd taught us all this. My mind simply wasn't in the right place.

When our shuttle had slowed to cruising speed, I knew atleast that it was over. The world outside was indescribable. Simply breathtaking.

"It's really something isn't it?" Will said after seeing the expression on my face.

I looked around the cabin and every last one of us was staring, eyes laser focused at the world outside. The earth from here was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It glowed like a blue jewel in the pitch black night.

I was never going to set foot on it ever again.

=^..^=

I don't remember how long it had been since the space port that had started as a small speck in the dark became the biggest structure in our field of view.

Soon though we were landing and guided through to clearance. We let Will do all the talking and the rest of us just stared in giddy delight at everything that was going on.

It kinda looked like a shopping mall. Except with massive glass panes that showed the vastness of space outside.

We were guided through several checkpoints and cleared at every one of them until we came to a level with hundreds of people.

Most of them looked like they were either there working or there for some business or another. I heard that at some point in our past, there had been tourist trips there but that had long since stopped.

Unfortunately, we wouldn't be there long as our trip to Mars was scheduled in 12 hours. Will showed us to our rooms and advised us to get some actual rest if we needed it.

While the rest of the team went to explore the port, I was feeling very rundown by the trip here so I decided to get some sleep instead.

=^..^=

We were about to get our first taste of stasis. Earlier we'd had a conference call with Caitlyn, the administrator and other heads of NASA and the UN. They assured us that the world stood with us and we were carrying humanity's hopes and dreams with us.

Caitlyn briefed us about our procedures at Mars Station told us finally that we'd speak again in 4 months.

We'd boarded Solaris VI not long after and were now being prepped for sleep.

Stasis was a relatively new technology, only about 5 years old but it was a staple of all our long haul mission.

The Mars missions which started at 7 months but were not down to 4 months were the first to implement stasis. We could bypass the long boring parts of the missions by putting the astronauts to sleep. It also helped to save weight on things like food.

The missions to Saturn's moons which clocked at 2 and a half years were next to adopt it.

Our mission to the wormhole would take a little less than 2 years at closest approach so it was a given.

As explained, we would be in Stasis for the duration until the last month of approach where we would do final checks and make sure everything was in order. That would be our final chance to abort.

If we, I mean if Will our captain decided to proceed then we will enter the special stasis capsules that have been designed to protect us against the gravitational and tidal forces as well as Hawking Radiation.

"Your turn" the doctor told me. The others were already peacefully asleep except Will and I. Our pilots would be the last to be put under but they'd be awoken for the final month of Mars approach.

I took a deep breath and to no one in particular, I said "here goes".

=^..^=

I coughed violently as Solaris' doctor brought me back to life. That's what it felt like. I was so disoriented I couldn't tell left from right. Even my eyes burned from the light exposure.

"Easy love. Just take it easy".

When she was sure I was okay, she unhooked me from the machine that had been keeping me alive.

"You may feel dizzy or the need the vomit. There's nothing to vomit so don't try to or you'll cough up your lungs" She warned.

"Are we here?" I groaned. My voice croaked and my throat hurt.

She handed me what looked like a juice box "Yes honey, drink this and when you're strong enough you can head up to the observation deck"

She moved on from me to attend to the others who were already up and sipping their juice boxes.

"Remember, no solid food for the next six hours" She voiced back at us.

=^..^=

I stumbled about as I followed the signs that pointed the directions to the observation deck.

It took me longer to recover from 'Stasis sickness' but now I felt strong enough to join the rest of the team.

The ships halls were narrow and cold. I guess I had to get used to it. This kind of environment would be my home until we made it to Gaia. Of course if Gaia turned out to be in habitable, it'd be my home forever.

I heard their voices before I saw them. Heather and John were bickering about something I couldn't make out. I turned the final corner and saw them but they might as well have been invisible next to the gigantic red sphere that spanned the whole view of the observation deck.

I couldn't get enough of this. No matter how much I saw, it never stopped being absolutely breathtaking.

"There's our sleeping beauty" John announced.

"Oh Dany, isn't this incredible? " Heather exclaimed ecstatically as she walked up to me. She'd heard Alexa call me that a few times and the name had stuck.

"It really is" I agreed with wonder filled eyes turning my gaze to the red beauty once again.

Even Cillian and Robert both seemed mesmerized.

"Oh yeah, Will wanted to see you". John told me.

"Me? why?"

"Who knows? He's up there" John gestured to the floor above us. "You can use that elevator"

"Thanks. I'll be right back" I said before taking my leave.

=^..^=

When the elevator door opened after a short climb I was greeted by a room that offered 360° panoramic views of space outside the ship.

"Dany, I'm glad you're awake" He said. He meant well.

"Thanks" I replied "This is so crazy" I said turning around and getting a good look at the endless night outside.

"I wanted to find out if you're okay" He sounded worried.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" I deflected.

"Well the journey so far has hit you pretty hard. More than the rest of us. I just want to know how you are."

"I'm fine" I assured him "No biggie" I let out a nervous laugh.

He studied me but didn't say any more on the matter.

"I want to show you something, look there..." he pointed ".. see that dot"

I strained my eyes, I couldn't see anything. It was just black. I shook my head.

With not so much as a warning, he walked behind me, took my right hand, leaned in to reach my eye level and pointed with my finger "Right there, see that dot?"

I heart was beating even faster than it had when we left earth. He was so close to me I could feel his breath on my neck.

After squirming I managed to nod.

"That's Earth. It's probably the very last time we'll ever be able to see it with the naked eye".

I was sure what he was saying was interesting but I couldn't focus on anything other than how close we were and his hand that still remained on mine, pointing.

Eventually, he'd turn me around, "see that?"

"Mars?" I answered quickly.

"No right there, in it's orbit" He came even closer as he precisely moved my finger to where he wanted me to look.

'What was happening?' I wondered while I desperately tried not to panic.

"The pathfinder" I said softly.

"Yes" he let go of my hand after which it fell back to my side. "in two days, we will begin the journey to our new home".

=^..^=

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I really do hope you all are enjoying the tale so far. I hope it doesn't feel too much.

I'm trying to get through all this as quickly as possible so I can get to the actual story which doesn't begin until they make it to the wormhole.

Anyway, I'd love to hear you thoughts. Cheers.