Launch 8

Because mankind has all but destroyed Earth’s ecosystem, we are forced to find homes on new worlds. Seven colony ships have already been launched to new planets. Six of them have been colonized, and ship seven is still on the way to its new home world.

We are the eighth colony ship to be launched from Earth toward another star system. In our case we’re being sent to SAO 85632, some 94 light years from Earth. We launch tomorrow, Thursday, February 29, 2424, through a man-made directed wormhole, generated just beyond lunar orbit. We will have 986 persons aboard, including 86 who were born shipboard since colonist boarding began two years ago.

These voyages are one-way. There’s no hope of returning to Earth, or any of the other colony worlds. Once launched, we’re on our own.
Thanks to the quantum communicators, we do have communication with Earth and the other colony worlds, so some problems can be solved through communicating with each other. But physical help of any kind is not possible.

What no one realizes is that this launch is not going to go as planned.