Vanguard Of The Mutants

1: Pirene Station

So far, they had only seen the other side through said wormhole. Project Vellamun's chief astronomer, Doctor Lysak, always compared it to trying to get a complete picture of an entire city by looking through a tiny window half a world away. The Tyson space telescope could easily see and measure the two stars on account of them producing their own light, but it had great difficulties with the planets. They knew almost nothing about them. Many were not even confirmed to exist. Even so, they made an amazing discovery in orbit around Nod-A.

"Once on the other side, they will set up a human colony," Maximillian continued.

Nod-A, the larger of the two stars, was very similar to the sun, but only had 85.4% as much mass. It seemed to have at least two gas giants orbiting, represented on the diagram as orange dots. But much closer to the star seemed to have been a rocky planet, about Earth's size, orbiting at almost exactly the same distance as humanity's cradle on the outer edge of Nod-A's habitable zone. It was represented by a green dot, because the Tyson space telescope found traces of Ozone in its atmosphere, a good indicator of plant life.

Furthermore, there might have been another planet orbiting in the inner edge of Nod-A's habitable zone. It was not yet confirmed to exist and thus represented by a green question mark. The prospect of not just finding the first habitable planet outside the solar system, but also a second one in the same star system should have been the greatest news in human history. But the discovery was kept a secret by the North Atlantic Union and now the World Republic for political reasons.

"Exactly, Doctor," Mister Hatsokovy nodded, "No mention of searching the other side for alien technology to build some kind of wonder weapon."

"This plan was doomed to fail anyways. Super weapons are a waste of time," Doctor Moreau agreed before telling the man in black why he had really worked on this project, "And once my children have set up their colony, their children may come back with a greater starship to send their regards and take their distant siblings to the new world."

"Unlikely," the man with the sunglasses shrugged condescendingly, "But it would be a very convenient solution to the mutant question."

"It'll be your loss."

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Eventually, the moon came into sight. The shuttle flew past thousands of craters, over the small lights of a few bases. All those lights faded from sight as they finally arrived at their destination. The space station Pirene, shaped like a giant wheel in a geostationary orbit above the dark side of the moon. The starship Vellamun lay docked at the hub of this wheel.

A giant rocket supporting a big forward module with a golden dome on the ventral and dorsal side each. Docked to the left and right sides of this module were two small space planes, one silver and the other dark blue with a bright white nose. Large parts of this forward module had been designed so they could be fashioned into a planetary base. Right behind this forward module, often compared to IKEA furniture or Lego bricks despite being designed by a Norwegian, lay a rotating ring habitat for the crew.

Behind the habitat lay a circular, rotating storage module, acting as a counterweight. Behind those sat huge wing-like solar arrays, reminiscent of the old ISS. The hind section, taking up much of the ship's length, was wrapped completely in massive hydrogen fuel tanks. A single, powerful fusion engine with a wreath of large heat radiator panels sat at the very back. Telescopes and other sensors had been mounted wherever possible.

Most of the ship was painted bright white with occasional blue and golden parts. A majestic sight, well over 400 meters in length. Tug drones prepared the Vellamun for launch by mounting huge booster rockets to its aft section.