- Engagement

Gus woke to an extraordinary view.

While they had been travelling at the high speeds granted to them by the space catapult, much of what they passed flew by far too quickly for it to be registered by his mind. Instead, everything just seemed to be a blur whenever he looked out of any of the windows on the ship.

But when he looked out of the window this time, his eyes were met with a clear image of the space outside, one that had gradually grown into view and the likes of which he had not seen since he had first looked out of the view on the ship's bridge back above Earth.

The planet itself was beautiful. In many ways, it resembled Earth. Not the Earth that Gus knew, however, with its thick, manmade clouds and jungles of brick and machinery. Instead, it resembled the green and blue Earth that many knew that humanity had sacrificed to push out into the stars.