The surrounding space is black as ebony when our travels begin. The abyss of the cosmos awaits our call, to travel beyond our native world. Adventure beckons as we board our ship, to leave all behind and head beyond into the great expanse to create a new epic.

Dear Victoria,

It is always pleasant to start a journey with a Homeric poem, so here is an attempt to capture in words how I am feeling at this moment. We are finally aboard the Infinity after a long arduous delay of eight days and the relief of being underway to our destination is releasing. The quarters assigned to me are not much bigger than on the transfer station, but they are better designed for long term occupancy. The research library included with my travel package is very thorough and I will be able to stay occupied during the six week travel to the outer rim. I still retain access to the university database while in the vicinity of Earth, but I will lose that connection a few weeks out. This short time span should allow me to wrap up the last few things for Oxford before I am out of range. After that, I can concentrate on general research in anticipation of my arrival on the Phycodurus. We will also be utilizing the jump location near Pluto for our Gambel process as your ship did, but with the current coordinates of Mars, we will not be privileged with a view of that planet as you did during your journey out of the solar system.

The ship is very luxurious and I feel privileged after the sparseness of the transfer station. There are many communal areas to explore and in the three days since we boarded I have explored many of the options. The talk among the passengers in these areas has centered mainly on the immigration fiasco over the first few days, but now the discussions have evolved into the much more relevant topic of New London. It is interesting to hear all the different reasons people are leaving the Earth and heading for this new undertaking. There are as expected many research fellows such as myself, hoping to find new insight into the Anomaly, but there are also families and individuals searching for a new life. Maybe they are hoping for a fresh beginning under the influence of the creature occupying the space in the Alpha Centauri system or just a new prospective on life. A few artists have been utilizing the community areas also and I have tried to engage then in conversation when encountering them. This is probably an attempt on my part to find a substitute for your missing influence, but I am also curious what goals they are striving for once they engage with the creature. This has not been a very successful endeavor, since most of these individuals are very closed to any type of interrogation about their purpose. I have received only a few snippets about working with New London’s native color variances or light studies, but nothing more specific than that. I guess we all hold our dreams and aspirations close to our chest, fearing a possible encroachment on our ideas. I know I also have side stepped a few enquiries about my own plans once I reach our destination. I only mentioned my first stop off at the Phycadurus, since it will be no secret that I am leaving the Infinity once we reach that point in the journey. Strangely two passengers that were involved in this discussion seemed to know this point already and jumped at the chance to interrogate me further. The research duo seemed to be traveling to the station themselves, but only for a short stay before traveling on to New London when their business was accomplished. What that business was and what the purpose of their trip was they did not disclose. They both brought up knowing I would accompany them on the transfer shuttle between the Infinity and the space station, before I mentioned my itinerary. Very strange, but it was never a secret I would be destined for that location once our deep space portion of the trip was accomplished. I only wonder when and where they overheard this piece of information. I did not supply them further information even though they evidently wanted more.

So I am at last beginning my journey after a year delay. Let us hope the process moving forward goes as planned. I only need to get past the possible complications from the stasis procedure. I assume my decision to have a full regeneration of my missing limb, instead of a prosthetic, will turn out to be a good choice.

Write again to you soon.

Love

Annalis