Proxima

June 17, 2125

To Darlene, my beloved and cherished wife,

It is with the greatest sadness that I must depart from you for such a long time. Believe me when I say that my leaving was not an easy choice to make. However, looking at our life now compared to the promises made of Proxima Centauri b, you can’t help but agree that it was for the better. I have set off to make a better life for you, our children and myself. But even with the speeds that we can now make, the trip will take 5 years.

Thanks to the first crew to leave, my journey will not be that bad. Leaving in 1985, it took them 130 years to reach what will soon be our new home. They reached the planet 10 years ago and were able to set up important infrastructure to make life easy for us. They had to sleep in cryogenic chambers the entire trip and were not able to communicate with their loved ones.

But sweetheart, I promise that I will write to you each and every day that I can. I wish that I could speak to you, to hear your voice, to see your face, but they need the bandwidth to stay open for critical communication between the ship and earth as well as with Proxima Centauri b. Sending letters is the best way.

I love you with all of my heart.

Greg

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June 18, 2125

To Darlene, my beloved and cherished wife,

It brought me great joy to see you come to watch the launch. I wasn’t sure if you saw me looking at you from the window. Then you looked at me and waved. Seeing Lil’ Greg wave put a smile on my face that is still there today.

I wish that I could have brought you with me. But only 125 rooms were available. And each one was designed for a single person. That’s 125 people that had to leave their families. 125 people that are leaving to make a better life for their loved ones. That’s what I’m doing for you.

Once the stellar gate is set up, I’ll be able to have the entire family teleported there. Until then…

I’ll see you in 5 years.

I love you with all of my heart.

Greg

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June 19th, 2125

To Darlene, my beloved and cherished wife,

In a day or 2 we will have cleared the solar system. Crossing the heliopause is kind of scary. We’ve encountered solar winds without any problems. I was told that Interstellar Winds is another story. We will be confined to our quarters while crossing over into interstellar space. I don’t know how long it will be, but I might not be able to write to you during that time. Once fully interstellar, we’ll be able to kick up the speed. It won’t be too long before we reach warp. Whatever the case, I don’t want you to be sad. 5 years will fly by quickly. So, with that in mind, I’ll see you soon. By the way, make sure you kiss Dora for me when she’s born. I can’t believe that she will be a young lady when I meet her. Tell her all about me.

I’ll see you in 5 years.

I love you with all of my heart.

Greg

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June 26, 2125

To Darlene, my beloved and cherished wife,

I miss you so very much. I’m sorry that it has taken so long for me to continue writing to you. Crossing the interstellar threshold did some damage to the ship’s communication array. For a whole week, communication was limited to official ship operations. Even calling from room to room was limited. If I wanted to talk to another traveler, I had to go find him and talk in person. That wasn’t too bad. Sometimes it’s better to talk in person. The real problem is that I couldn’t communicate with the woman I love.

Well, we are on track now. Our speed is doubling every single hour. Just think, we are the first humans to leave our solar system awake. Although you are not here in person, you are still part of this historic adventure. When I reach Proxima b, our new home, I will set everything up for you and the children to join me. I’m just sad that it will take so long.

I love you with all of my heart.

Greg

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July 3, 2125

To Darlene, my beloved and cherished wife,

There was an incident right after my last letter. I should say that there were a few incidents. The first was hitting the interstellar void. I can imagine the first people to leave earth’s gravity. What it must have felt like. The extreme change in pressure. The feeling of weightlessness. The feeling of awe and wonder. And let’s not forget about the overwhelming fear that must have hit them.

It takes a certain amount of force to break earth’s gravity. Most people don’t understand that it takes a certain amount of force to break the Sun’s gravity. When we did; The extreme change in pressure. The feeling of weightlessness. The feeling of awe and wonder. And let’s not forget about the overwhelming fear that hit us.

Then we got hit by interstellar winds. The ships shields were strong enough to keep us safe. But it was like taking a cruise on the tail end of a hurricane. Everybody onboard was “sea” sick. The storm is over now, and we are on our way again.

I’ll see you in 5 years.

I love you with all of my heart.

Greg

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July 10, 2125

To Darlene, my beloved and cherished wife,

Some of the passengers got together to play a few games yesterday. It was rather fun. Do you remember that game we used to play? It was called Do Not Tell or something like that. The game that we were playing kind of reminded me of that. One day we’ll talk more about it. I’m sure you will be able to get it. You are the smart one.

With Deepest Love,

Greg

HIDDEN MESSAGE

If you are reading this, that means that you understood the message hidden in my last letter. I don’t know what will happen if this message is discovered. I’ve written in a code that only you will understand. The encryption is strong, but nothing is completely unbreakable. Something, or someone, is trying to stop this ship from reaching Proxima b. We received a message that was not in any known human language. On top of that, we appear to be being followed. It’s about a quarter of a light year back, but it’s getting closer. Wait. Someone’s watching. I got to go.

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August 10, 2125

To Darlene, my beloved and cherished wife,

Finding time to write to you has been hard. They are aware that I sent an extra message, but they don’t know what it was. I’ve been restricted to one letter a month while they examine what I’ve written. I have nothing to report to you now. Please kiss the children for me. Let them know that I am working hard to make a better life for all of us. Lil’ Greg and Dora need to know how much I love them. I can’t wait to meet her.

I’ll see all of you in 5 years. A few months less.

I love you with all of my heart.

Greg

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September 25, 2125

To Darlene, my beloved and cherished wife,

Please accept my profoundly deep apology for the long lapse of time between writing to you. Communication has been completely cut off for the entire crew. For a while, we even lost contact with Proxima b. We are now back on track, and Everything seems to be going fine. Every day we are getting that much closer to our goal. April is working hard to keep communications open. Roger has kept us on course during the outage. Everybody is working hard to make this mission a success.

Under the circumstances, Nancy Didn’t Ask The right questions. Everyone knows that we Really need Advice. The first step to failure is To Cheat Knowledge. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, what am I talking about. You are the smart one.

I love you with all of my heart.

Greg

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October 15, 2125

Dear Mrs. Ingham,

This letter is to inform you that we have lost contact with the crew of Voyager 4. We are searching their last known location along with their last known speed to triangulate their current location. While we do not believe that there is anything to worry about, we are obligated to contact you with this information since it’s been 10 days since we had contact. We will keep you informed with any new information we receive.

Your Friends at,

InterGalactic Counsel (IGC)

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November 21, 2125

Dear Mrs. Ingham,

We regret to inform you that the debris from Voyager 4 has been located. It is not expected that anyone could survive. There is no record of escape pods being released. With the evidence that we do have, although incomplete, data exists that lets us see conditions as plains ended. We will give you this information as soon as we compile it.

With great condolence,

InterGalactic Counsel (IGC)

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April 17, 2126

Dear Mrs. Ingham,

Please look outside your door right now.

I’ll see you in a few seconds.

I love you with all of my heart.

Greg