By the year 2025, technology had grown so advanced that routine interplanetary travel had been achieved. By 2050, colonies had been set up on Mars, the asteroid belt and several of the moons of Jupiter. However, once this dream had been achieved, mankind began to dream even bigger dreams: travel to other star systems. At first, it would only be exploration. While technology was advanced, it would still take decades, even centuries, to get to other star systems and galaxies. So the first generation ships, or space arks, were developed.
Genetic engineering had also greatly advanced. In addition to building artificial structures and altering hostile environments to suit humans, humans could be genetically altered to live in these environments without them. Altered humans were not only living off world, but in hostile environments on earth, alongside their 'normal' counterparts.
Using resources mined from the asteroids, a number of these generation ships were built. Each one had to be large enough to house a self-sustaining population that would make it to the destination. With great fanfare, they were launched, each charting a different course, on August 12, 2075. Each of these ships would have a different destination, a different history. The ships were also equipped to establish smaller colonies along the way, as waystations to earth or to set up communities in case of emergency.
I am the product of one such mission and this is my story.
