Expedition 489

Colonel Bryce Sowler, 41, but only 22 due to the mechanical replacement of his heart and brain by Plumfield Enterprises, owned by the same company, Hawthorne PLC, that was funding the mission. Bryce was in charge of a team of 10-various skills and qualifications made them fit for the mission-they were to check on the progress of a group of people dumped on a habitable planet a few million miles from Earth. The hybrid plutonium-neptunium engines on the 489 would make the journey possible. The planet was named 'Dawson's Folly' after the British explorer, Lloyd Dawson who discovered it. He had died whilst trying to negotiate a series of hot springs in a volcanic region, misjudging the ground and falling straight in.

'Mullins, can I have a diagnostic on the engines?'  Spoke Bryce into the intercom.

A slight pause, then a crackling.

'Functioning fine.'

A pause.

'Don't get all technical with me Mullins.'

The Colonel, with a smile. 

In fact, Mullins was a liar, a robot installed to ensure Dawson's Folly would be neglected forever-the rulers of Earth were worried their purer ways would serve as a better example to the populace of Earth, who would break free from the shackles of control by large corporations.

 The engines had been building up to a meltdown since they departed. Presently, the exterior of the ship split, sending reactor fuel and oxygen into the atmosphere. The crew followed-cheeks swelling, blood seeping from eyes.