Five days later, Josh stood in front of the huge virtual window, looking down at the Earth. Two of the crew members from the International Space Station had departed an hour before with the capsule that had brought them here. The two cosmonauts would dock with the outlying structure that had been used as a base during construction of the Gliese 581. They would release the last of the tethers. The remaining base would be joined to the International Space Station. At the moment they were waiting for final approval from Mission Control to begin a voyage unlike anything man has ever done before.
“It is good to know that the artificial gravity works,” Julia commented as she gripped the handhelds near the doorway and lowered her feet to the floor before stepping inside the main control and livi
