Why some say the moon? Why choose this
as our goal? And they may well ask why
climb the highest mountain? Why 35 years ago fly
the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the
moon in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy, but because they are hard. A bright sun beats down on an endless
landscape of flat rocky land and sand. GLIESE 773C No signs of life. The sounds of shifting
sand is heard. A man in a white space suit
is walking through the sand. He falls to his knees. He takes off his helmet. Black screen with word
Goldilocks A large empty room with a
single hibernation pod. Screen says
2 hours earlier. The sound of air
releasing is heard and the top of the
pod slides open. Ash lies inside. He slowly blinks
into consciousness. He sits up and
tries to stand up, but falls to the floor. Stands up, goes over the chess board and picks up piece and
places it on the board. Ray Ashford, Traveler 3,
mission log. Kepler 438B was a bust,
just like the previous three. The oxygen on the planet was
at elevated partial pressure. So after a few short
moments we would be suffering from a hyperoxia
and with that Kepler 438B my friend, you join the
rest of the floating bastards out here wasting
our time and money. Oh, but on a positive note, uh, I almost landed this
thing without throwing up, so uh, progress. And Gliese, I'm oh
for four right now, so don't fuck up. Hey, Robbie would
you call my wife? Robbie? Robbie? Reggie Saunders, Traveller 9,
mission log report. No luck on Kapteyn B, the atmosphere is too
heavily concentrated with carbon monoxide
measuring at about 60 ppm. We've been at this too long. We should have found
something by now. What if this is it? This is all that's
left for us out here. Big.... empty... nothing Elora Ashford,
Traveller 2, mission log report. Two down, three to go. A new home is out
there somewhere, and we're going to find it. Setting course
for Kepler 440D, estimated time of arrival,
seven months. Always the optimist. Recording in progress. Hey hun, it's me. So now we're probably only a
few thousand light years away from each other, how weird is that
to think about? I saw your report, I see
you are zero for two. If it makes you feel any
better I'm zero for four. So I guess you could
say you're doing twice as well as I am. Your readings all look
really good though, and these next three
missions are going to fly by for you, I know it. I've got just a few
more minutes to Gliese, so I should probably get moving. I miss you, I'll
talk to you soon. Message to Trvl 02 Sending... Robbie? Okay, what about? Robbie? Mother fucker. Doors open. Good morning, Ash. Hey Robbie,
where did you go? I thought you jumped
ship for a second. I'm sorry, Ash, I don't
understand what you mean, when you say jumped ship. Forget it. My database if unable
to forget anything Ash. For instance, as I recall, your queen was out of play
the last time I checked. Why weren't you
responding earlier? There appears to have
been a circuit failure in the command console. Oh, I see it, how bad? The circuit appears
to have been fixed when you rebooted my OS. That works for me. Hey, can you make sure that
you send Elora my message? I will, Ash. You also have one message
pending and I am working on updating the status
reports as we speak. That circuit failure
mess with your head? I just checked the
status reports, they are all up to date. The circuit failure
appears to have prevented Traveller 3 from receiving
incoming COMM updates. The circuit failure first
occurred eight months ago. Are you telling me
that these things are eight months out of date? That is correct Ash. How soon before I can
get these updated? The system is updating now. It should only be
a few minutes Ash. Ash, the status reports
should be coming in over the next minute, and I have one new message
for you from Traveller 2. If you will please
return to the bridge we will be preparing
landing procedures. I will be there in a minute. Ray looks outside. Ray enters the bridge. Hey slicker. You're probably headed
to Gliese right now. I can't believe it. I'm so proud of you and
how far we've both come. Believe it or not I'm
actually sending you this message from Kepler 440D. I'm sure you can see
from the images it's absolutely beautiful. The most magnificent
I've seen so far. It almost feels like
being home again. Five minutes until
landing on Gliese, Ash. Please prepare
landing procedures. Sure thing Robbie. I got it. Unfortunately,
it's not quite home. It turns out Kepler is closer to it's star than reports
originally suggested making the average
daily temperature just over 500
degrees Fahrenheit. An atmosphere with the
chemical components that nearly mirrors our own, and yet I can't
even step outside. I'm sure by now, you're
probably wondering why I'm still here, Last week, we lost contact
with Saunders. And as of yesterday,
it appears we have lost contact with Saunders,
Krin, Jacobs and Wolden. That's impossible. Robbie, refresh
Dr.Wolden's page. Page refreshed, Ash. Do it again. Ash, as a result of
the system reboot, the reports are still
updating on their own over the next few minutes. Ash, it's important that
you listen very closely to this next part. Upon reanimation, my
Robbie unit was offline. It won't help Ash. Altering the mainframe
could result in highly unpredictable
command responses, particularly during
time of landing. Goddammit! Proceed to the central
command console and prepare for
atmospheric entrance. I detected a possible design
flaw in the EM Drive that could lead to
circuit failure. Should the circuit
failure occur, your Robbie unit
will be off line. Ash, we are rapidly approaching
atmospheric entrance, I must strongly advise
that you refrain from continuing this transmission and return to the
command console. The first, the Traveler
would be unable to receive incoming notifications which is why I've lost
contact with the others. Ash, I cannot condone
the readjusting of the mainframe's hierarchy. Robbie, she needs my help. If you are not going
to update the ship, than I'm going to do it myself. The second, is
thruster reignition. No. I can't, I can't take off. Robbie, update
Elora Ashford's page Page refreshed, Ash. Do it again. You understand Ash. that continuing to neglect
protocol by adjusting Traveler 3's mainframe hierarchy
may affect your control of the ship. Please, please just
refresh the page. Ash I said do it again It's kind of ironic isn't it. The planet that we found, that is closest
to our own earth is the one that
I am going to die on. I estimate five to six
days until Kepler's atmosphere burns through
Traveler's 2's hull. Do you remember that little
park we used to walk to, that was close to
the old apartment? We always had so much fun
when we would go there. What about that Chinese place? The owner was always
so nice to us, giving us extra cookies, putting his finger to
his lips and making us promise that we'd never tell. Ash this wasn't for nothing. Finish this,
for both of us. Robbie, how long ago
was that message sent? Traveler 2 transmitted
that message 26 days ago. Black screen Ash is walking in the
sand in his space suit. Takes off helmet. To anyone that may
receive this message, this is Ray Ashford, Traveler 3 of the
Goldilocks Missions. Attached to this message
are the coordinates for Gleise 773C,
our new home. Here you will find
temperatures that are neither too hot nor
too cold and an atmosphere that is just right
to support life. For many of you I expect this
journey will take many months, for some of you years. I will be waiting.
