The morning of May 3, 2075 started out like any other. Rebecca Childress sat at the dining table coloring while her mom watched the morning news. It was these moments, Rebecca recounted many years later, that she loved the most. This day, however, would stick out in her mind as well as the mind of every human on the planet. Excerpt from Rebecca Childress’ diary: “Mommy made omelettes [sic] again today. I was coloring when I saw Daddy on the holo. I screamed for Mom. Danny started screaming and running around the table. Ugh, so annoying. There he was, standing next to the President! They were talking about space and stuff, which was cool, but he looked so important standing there. We hadn’t seen him for so long. He had a beard now. Mommy doesn’t like it but I think it looks funny.
Whenever Daddy was about to leave, I asked him why he had to work all the time and he always told me the same thing:
He was trying to give me the stars.”
Dr. Scott Childress and his team had completed the first self-sustaining quantum drive engine, capable of achieving 1/100th the speed of light. For the first time, humanity could explore the solar system with unprecedented speed.