Surviving Centauri

Prologue

Nobody would believe me if I went back in time and told them about what the future holds.

Earth became a one-world democracy through trial and error, which led to the second great technological revolution. During this period, technology was growing in the direction of faster-than-light space travel. This led to ships that could bend time with how fast they were going.

With these new technologies, society went from colonizing the entire solar system to beyond. They started with Mars of course. Venus was next, and soon became known for its sky cities. This was followed by every planet in the solar system. Next, they set their sights on the closest solar system: Proxima Centauri.

Proxima Centauri is a small low-mass star 4.2 light years from our solar system. In the southern constellation of Centaurus and is the closest star to the sun. Proxima Centauri is a member of the Alpha Centauri star system. It is also known as Alpha Centauri C and is southwest of the Alpha Centauri AB pair of stars.

Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf-type star. It has been found that it is a flare star, meaning its luminosity changes randomly and drastically.

Proxima Centauri has two known exoplanets and one exoplanet candidate: Proxima Centauri B, Proxima Centauri D, and Proxima Centauri C. Proxima Centauri B is in the star's habitable zone and it has an eleven-day rotation around its parent star. It is tidally locked to Proxima Centauri. This means that it does not rotate like earth. So no day-night cycle on this planet.

Researchers spent years studying Proxima Centauri B to figure out how they could plant a colony on the planet. They sent rovers in droves to the planet and found that it was uninhabited. They also decided that the least dangerous part of the planet was the sunny side. The sunny side of the planet was relatively devoid of storms and wind in comparison to the rest of the planet.

In the year 2203, they sent the first founders of Centauri Colony 1. These one hundred brave men and women lived out of their ships while they constructed a ten-mile-in-diameter dome they referred to as Little Earth. Inside Little Earth, they constructed an earth-like atmosphere and added plants.

The atmosphere of Proxima Centauri B had too much carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen to support humans. The brave souls who decided to test this theory would often hyperventilate to death.

Little Earth had finished its construction by 2206. At this time Earth sent droves of ships full of colonists to Proxima Centauri B. They soon numbered close to one hundred thousand and were all cramped into the Little Earth dome.

In short, the people of Centauri Colony 1 thrived.