GM UPDATE POST
While Dr. Martin was gathering medical supplies, the three remaining people were gathering around the exit door. Alexander took notice of Nozomi's attempt at opening the door and of her conclusion (the door's own comm system was trying to say something). He had seen similar systems in his past and knew some of the codes by heart. He took his turn trying to open the door, but the same thing happened upon pressing the blue button. A series of bleeps and the blinking light. This time however, he paid attention to the code. At this moment, Gregory came towards them and announced his intention to open the blinds, sending the first message back to Earth. He pushed the big orange button...
A Russian accented voice came up on crisp loudspeakers as the mechanical blinds started to retract very slowly. As this was happening, there seemed to be a power draw and even the artificial gravity reactor seemed to lose a bit of power momentarily, resulting in a strange feeling of suddenly weighing a lot less. A ray of orange light started to seep inside the room at the top high edge of the window… The movement of the blinds was slow and the Russian voice was well into this long speech before they could finally see outside.
“UHLDE pioneers, this is the voice of Anton Sidorov, president of the Eurasian Union. As I am reading this, the year is 2171, tomorrow you are leaving on a heroic mission with no return. I have met you many times in the past decade and I grieve your loss in the name of humanity. The irony being that, in all likelihood, I am myself dead at the moment you are hearing this, and have been for many years. I suspect I may think of you on my death bed”
The mechanical blinds were pulling down more and more…
“Also in all likelihood, you are the first men and women of this Earth to see a livable exoplanet with your own eyes. Gliese 581g, discovered almost two centuries ago, now visited by us. Hopefully, Dr. Vogt [note: the scientist who found this planet in Hawaii in 2010] was right all along, and this place is our future. Now, so many decades into the future… our calculations have brought you straight into the orbit of his dream… behold…”
The blinds finally reached eye level; all eyes went from staring at the receding blinds to being glued to the blinding (ouch) scenery through the window… As eyes took time to adjust...
An asteroid belt. Or a belt of debris surrounding the orange star that must be the Gliese red dwarf. According to the plan, Odyssey should now have been in the orbit of Gliese 581g, close enough that its huge globe (three times the size of Earth) would occupy most of the view. However, in the background, quite far away, a Gliese 581(c?) planet was barely visible, and the red dwarf star Gliese 581 shone in a strange way, or at least, its deeper, more soothing shine was much different from Sol’s shine.
“Men, women, welcome to your new home, please, send us good news, and extend our salutations to whoever you may find”
At this point an automated female onboard computer voice took over:
“Welcome-to-Gliese system” (strange static and hesitation). “Welcome, in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw--… Welcome in the year tw—“
And the voice skipped and refused to stop.
At this very moment, Alexander remembered the meaning of the sound-code the door was emitting…
Mechanics and rolls