131st Entry

March 22^nd, 2037

2130

Dear Space Diary

“All pods loaded and ready for launch!”

…Can we do this?

“We can. They’re ready, it’s set. It’s now or never.”

Well, given the choices… now!

CLICK

Good evening, Marys. The pods are now ready to launch. Doors are armed, and we’re about to set you on your way. Mary thinks the light drive is going to kick into gear any minute now, so I’ll keep this short.

The pods you’re in are very similar to the ship I myself used to land on Splat, with a few luxury extras. Like legroom. And seating for more than one person.

It won’t be a terribly long flight, but you do have food through tube dispensers. There is an option for bathroom use, but trust me, you might just prefer to hold on.

Entertainment wise, the computers in front of your seats have a selection of books, and one movie. Unfortunately, it’s not a very good movie.

Also, there’s the solitaire. I recommend the solitaire.

Also, you appear to have airbags. That’s nice, because that brings me to my next point. This ship is great at taking off. Really good. The best.

What’s it no so good at, is landings. It tends to just head for the ground and let gravity do the rest. You do have rockets, and you’re more than welcome to try using them, but given, a) they’re quite complicated, and b) we haven’t had time to teach you, that’d either make things better or much, much worse. The choice is yours, but I will say from painful, painful experience that your pods are strong. Very strong. They can take an absolute beating and will get you on the ground safely.

As long as safely includes bruised, battered, a massive headache, and possible several hundred metres underground.

But you’ll be travelling much slower than I was so you’ll be fine.

Probably.

Hopefully.

…So! Any questions?

“Just one.”

Yes, Mary?

“Whatever happened to keeping this short?”

…Any other questions? No? Ok, launch.

CLICK

Goodbye, Marys. Enjoy your new life. Oh, and one last thing.

“Sigh.”

Shut up, Mary. This is important.

We don’t know how NASA are going to react. We are stealing their project from them. That’s you guys, in case you’ve not joined the dots. Now I’m quite happy to do this, we’ve no love for NASA’s benefactors and you’ve got your own choices to make. But they probably won’t be happy. We’ll deal with that when we return to Earth, but I can’t promise they won’t come after you. We are, after all, in the ship built and designed specifically to do that.

So, be careful. If you see a ship turn up, hide. Get the lightdogs to build a hiding place. Somewhere underground, possibly. Up to you. But don’t trust anyone. The only people coming will be NASA, or the people who hired NASA. And I’m pretty sure you won’t want to meet either of them.

Be safe.

Goodbye.