Drago’s Journey

The earth was dying. The rapid climate change, pollution, senseless industrial accidents and useless wars had combined to destroy half the world’s oceans and large sections of the land mass. It had finally reached a point where even the most skeptical had accepted the fact that life on earth would only survive for a few more generations. Consequently, the governments and scientists of the earth had joined to form the New Interplanetary Space Agency. (NIPSA) NIPSA had developed a way to travel almost at the speed of light. In 2030 they had launched the first interstellar flight from the space station. The first ship was unmanned but had made it to the planet SBR375. While smaller than the earth, it met all the requirements for a habitable planet. In 2049 they had launched the first manned ship to the same destination. It too had been successful. However, the problem that affected both the Astronauts and scientists who made the flight was age. While they had perfected the cryogenics of keeping people alive and that they aged slower than people on earth, they were still older. Thereby, limiting their time on the planet for scientific research and development of the habitat. NIPSA had finally come up with the idea to use children. This of course was met with much protest; both legitimate and bizarre. However, the earth was dying. The space program and travel to other planets had become the “new emergency”; with the outcome being that they had finally decided to use orphans. Since the natural and man made disasters had killed so many people, there was an abundance of orphans all over the world. Psychologists, physiologist, a multitude of other scientists, children’s welfare groups and governmental agencies had gone into overdrive to fine and select theses orphans for a hundred different reasons. Finally the first group of fifteen had been selected. The oldest was sixteen and the youngest eleven. They had been put through endless weeks of Psychological, IQ and physical testing before being allowed to advance to the space station for more training while awaiting the long flight to SBR375. Now the training was done, the ship was ready and they were taking off into space for a new beginning.