Professor Nick Collins

Oh, yes, Professor of Life Sciences and Planetary Biology, that's me. Go ahead and call me Nick, you're not one of my students, are you? This is all very new to me, what we're about to do. Seems like just yesterday Stephen and I were cataloguing fossil specimens on Ioni. Now we're meeting in secret on this strange little moon, making plans to evacuate under the nose of President Eljandro and her troops.

Oh, did you hear? She's gone and declared herself "Supreme Ruler", which in turn made Admiral Grant challenge her in public. I don't think the first shot has been fired yet, but everyone's calling it civil war.

It's odd, really. There's never been a war in my lifetime. Not one of this magnitude, anyway. Stephen worries that we're taking the coward's way out by leaving like this, but he does agree with me that -- as scientists -- we're really better off staying out of it. We can't help mankind by picking up weapons and, most likely, being killed. But we can by helping to explore and colonize a new world, far removed from this madness, and make that world available to anyone who desires peace and a return to normal life.

Which is what we're doing, by the way. Stephen, my assistant, and Conner -- he's one of my students, but you'll meet everyone later on. I've only just met Captain Marcase and his people, and I'm not quite sure what to make of them yet. Oh, don't get me wrong, they're a fine group of human beings. I think it's just that, I was expecting something a little different. Maybe someone older, I dunno.

Maybe it's because none of us really knows what to expect. No one's really done this before, not the way we're doing it, anyway. Usually when you colonize a new planet, someone's found it first. Then a group of brave souls volunteers to be first, and slowly, over time, a community is formed.

That's typically when Stephen and I come along. We research and investigate new plant and animal life on worlds that have been lived on for at least a year. But now -- well, right now we don't even have a world to explore, unless Conner's late Father's maps are correct. That'll be up to Captain Marcase to decide, but I'm afraid we don't have all that much time left.

We may just find ourselves living onboard a very crowded ship, sneaking around space looking for a home while trying to avoid this crazy war.

Let's hope for the best, shall we?