“Tomorrow the Globe will set out to search the heavens in every direction. Each one of you holds the whole history, art, science, and skill of Earth. Use this knowledge to help others. Learn from others, and add to Earth’s knowledge, if you can. If you do not use your knowledge and add to it, there will be no future for our race.
“And if we are the only intelligent life in the universe, then you are responsible not only for our race, but for all intelligent life that may develop.
“Go out into the universe, then. Go and be wise, kind, and truthful. Go in peace. Our prayers go with you.”
After the meeting I looked again through the telescope at the planet to which our Globe is being sent. It is a planet, which is neither too young nor too old. It shines like a blue pearl because so much of it is covered with water. I am glad we are going to the blue planet; the other Globes are being sent to worlds that do not look so inviting.
I am full of hope. I no longer have any fear. I shall go into the Globe tomorrow, and the gas will put me to sleep. When I will wake again, it will be in our shining new world. If I do not wake, something will have gone wrong, but I shall never know.
It is all very simple really – if we trust in God.
This evening I went down to look at the Globes for the last time before we board them. They are amazing! Our scientists have achieved the impossible. They are the largest things ever built. They are so heavy that they look more likely to sink into the surface of Earth than to fly off into the space. It is hard to believe that we have built thirty of these metal mountains. But there they stand, ready for tomorrow.
Some of them will be lost. Oh, God, if ours survives, I hope that we can meet the challenges and satisfy the trust place in us.
These may be the last words I shall ever write. If I do write again, it will be in a new world under a strange sky.
I have just woken up. Has it happened, or have we failed to start? I cannot tell. Was it an hour ago that we entered the Globe? Or was it a day, or a year, or a century? It cannot have been an hour ago. I am sure of that, because my body is tired and aching.