It's the 22nd century and things aren't going so well for humanity. We were hungry for power, greedy for money and running out of resources to harvest. Clean vehicles? More trees, less pollution? Yes, we did that for a while. But that was when Governments still had power and money. There were subsidies for research in those fields, and things seemed to go well. But behind the scenes big Corporations were taking control. And they only cared for themselves. Private armies were saving the world, at least that's what the corporate controlled media told us. People were still needed as a labor force, wages were still ok and money was being spent, at least in most places. Luxury was everywhere; things were actually quite good for those people that were living under the corporate banners of the world. But when at first resources were growing scarce no one was told. Slowly but surely things just got more expensive. At the time we didn't think overly much of what was beyond Earth. In 2063 we went to Mars, it was to be glorious. The space agencies of the world spent almost all their budgets in the project. A base was to be build there and mineral mines would be dug. Everything was planned and calculated. A big going away party was had and two huge ships were launched, filled with people and equipment. But when they got there it soon showed that Mars was a bust. There simply wasn't anything there. Mars was dead. 95% of the space agencies were either bankrupt or cancelled. Oddly enough there wasn't any money to find out what went wrong either. Money was made from the venture by certain corporations. But from then it was simply frowned upon to even speak of doing anything in space. Earth was still full of resources and possibilities wasn't it?

But that was then, this is now. We are running out of fuels and other resources. 30 billion people living on earth and they need to survive. Food isn't a problem, research solved that problem decades ago, too bad that took away most of the jobs that were creating the food though. Life was going worse fast.

Luckily there were corporations with enough money still. The only ones that are probably going to have any money soon anyway. But they had our backs they said; well at least they had their own backs. Fifteen years ago they started to invest in what is called 'the voyage' project. Fifteen years according to the corporate media of course, that's when it was openly admitted that resources might start to be a problem in the future. No one outside the upper levels of corporate business had any idea for how long they already knew. Surprisingly enough their research was so good they already had a working prototype of what they called 'far travel' within three years of those fifteen. The world was going to be saved. If they could come up with a prototype in three years, they would surely be able to come up with multiple 'far travel' ships in no time after that. Well, no time was to be twelve more years and multiple was the smallest amount of multiple possible. Two huge space vessels were built in Earth orbit. Place for tens of thousands of people at least. And when these were done and their crews sent on their way into space new ones were surely going to be built.

It's the year 2131. The year of hope. The year of the lottery and the great voyage. The strongest, the smartest, the wisest people were chosen to embark on the two huge ships in the sky. These would not fill the ships though; the remainder and the largest part of the ships would be filled with common, but useful and resourceful people. Millions were chosen by careful calculations and statistics, though no communications were given as to who these were. Everyone stood a chance to be part of the greatest adventure of mankind. A worldwide lottery would decide who among these millions were coming along. But no worries for the others, they would have a bigger chance to get a place on the ships to come.

You, my friends, are among those to fulfill the first part of mankind’s destiny among the stars. Be you one of the warriors of this age, the philosophers of great name, the scientists of renown, a charismatic leader, an accompanying engineer, a lottery winner or someone that bought his way in; it does not matter, you are Earth's future. Some of you were even allowed to submit requests for companions to come along.

Today is to be a joyful day for the world. Celebrations all over. And to spare precious power and space everyone was brought into cryogenic sleep on Earth itself and shot into space accompanied with the most beautiful of fireworks. Everything was ready, all cryogenic chambers were divided over the two ships and the world was watching how the two ships were slowly making their way towards the sun. There they would recharge the last of their batteries while commencing the slingshot procedure around the sun. One last time they would be visible from earth before they entered 'far travel' speeds. All went according to plan. The great voyage had begun and soon the human race was going to be saved from destruction.