text: Space travel seemed so simple after we settled on mars. We thought we had it all figured out after setting a space station in orbit around Jupiter, and started mining asteroids. It all seemed to click. It became common for intersystem travel to become a seemingly daily thing. By no means was it fast; It still took almost a month to get to mars, and close to 4 to reach the Jupiter stations, but we were just happy to have been able to make these technological advances in our lifetime. To be able to explore our system just like our ancestors explored the earth. It may have took us the same amount of time to cross the expanse between planets as it did for European settlers to cross the Atlantic, but that's and amazing feat nonetheless. Not only have we made such a leap technology, but as a society, we are more advanced than ever before. Countries had come together in the name of Earth to conquer the expanse as one group; as Humankind. We may still have our differences on earth, but outside of the atmosphere of Earth, we weren't distracted by race, religion, political views, upbringing, or anything of that nature, because there is none of that in space. Nobody can draw a line in the sand on Mars and claim one side, because no matter how advanced we get, no matter how hospitable we make space, it's a constant battle against the odds. Making divisions in human settlers only leads to the failure of the group, as we experienced the first time we settled mars. It is through our ingenuity and hardiness that we had made it this far as a species. Coming together as a group and thinking our way into the future that we had made it this far. It is through our desire to explore that we had made our decision to attempt to travel outside our home system. Through years of observation, we found our ticket to discovery. We had uncovered a Wormhole of sorts sitting just beyond our solar system, right in front of the Oort Cloud, and just behind Pluto. That was our ticket. We had sent a probe through it before, about 16 months back, 2 months after its discovery, and within a month after it crossed the threshold of the spacial rift, we had received radio transmissions from the probe coming from a nearby system with hospitable planets. We were overjoyed. The chance to settle outside the system, to make a new colony on a planet that we didn't even have a name for. It was a breakthrough. After another successful probe test to ensure that the target planet was hospitable for a colony, we set the wheels in motion to get an expeditionary team of 50 people to begin the setup of what would soon be the greatest jump in human history. After some testing and another probe or two, the spaceship "Small Step" had set off with its pre settlement crew. They had reached the edge of the wormhole, and begun playing the most famous recording in the history of space travel, and the origin of their namesake. They passed through the threshold of the fold on space and it was as if they had been erased from the universe. They just popped out of existence. A month later, the other end of their message was received, and indeed it was a giant leap for mankind. Upon hearing the news from the Small Step, we had learned many things about the planet. Its atmosphere was much like our own, the now dubbed colony planet "Horizon" had a small ring and 4 moons, the system had 13 planets, and most of them were rocky. All of this information had us on the edge of our seats waiting to get a new settlement ship running. And that we did. Over a year after the initial discovery of the Trans-System Wormhole, we were ready to send a ship of 10,000 volunteers into the rift and begin our new lives on Horizon. The Settlement Ship "Giant Leap" made its way through the threshold of the wormhole, just as many spacecraft before it had, and the mission was underway. But something was different this time. Nobody could have predicted it. Nobody even knew it was possible. The wormhole had closed before we could reach the other side. I'm documenting this in case... well... a miracle I guess... We've been in here for 4 Earth months. The Navigator killed herself last week in her bunk room. Used a pocket knife to cut open her forearms. The rest of the bridge crew were understandably effected, but nobody blamed her. We all think about it now. We have no reason not to. I guess its a hope for the rift to open again. Maybe some of us think this is some dream, and we can't seem to wake up... I don't know... The Capitan isn't sure if he wants to wake up the passengers and let them know what's happened, or just shit down life support to the passengers and let them die happy. We are all leaning towards the second option. Humanity wasn't prepared for this. We weren't prepared at all... We weren't ready to face the possibility of a disaster. Nobody was ready... I know I wasn't ready. I especially wasn't ready to look out the bridge windows at my new reality. The pitch black, starless, infinite void of my new reality...