Sven woke up as soon as he heard the first beep from the alarm clock. He quickly extended his arm and shut it off. The clock showed 06:00. It was really unnecessarily early, but he wanted plenty of time on this last day on Earth.
Next to him, Helena began to move under her blanket on and he immediately whispered in her ear, "Go back to sleep, I'll wake you up when breakfast's ready."
She muttered something inaudible, turned to her side and pulled the blanket over her head. Sven got up and quickly, put on the clothes that were hanging on the chair next to the bed and then went out into the kitchen. The coffee machine had already started according to the timer and he picked up a mug from one of the cupboards and waited for it to finish. After a few minutes the coffee was ready, and he filled up the mug.
At last, they were at the finish line. Years of waiting was over. For over two years, they had lived like "prisoners" here at the education center. First, they had been tested and evaluated in what felt like an eternity, and then, once they had been accepted into the colonizer program, they had been subjected to equally tedious preparations for the mission.
He took a sip of his coffee and smiled. He would soon be part of the greatest and most magnificent project in the history of mankind. Although mankind had made tremendous technological innovations over the past fifty years, such as the huge space wheel revolving around the Earth, the lunar base and the amazing space elevator, it was not near the technical achievements and economic sacrifices required to establish a full-scale colonization of Mars. Even though it was a bit silly, he could not help but feel proud that his family had become one of the chosen ones.
Sven went out into the living room and waved his hand in front of the window and the black glass slowly disappeared and revealed the world behind it. The sun had just gone up and the low light created long shadows from the few trees in front of the house. He let his gaze follow the road that led out of the housing modules area and then meandered out to the Savannah. The winding road led to the space elevator and later that day they would all be on their way up to space with it.
However, this was no regular Sunday trip for a couple of hours. Instead, it would take them five days to get up to the space station where the spaceship waited. But there would probably not be any problem passing time. The elevator was bigger than it looked at first sight and once they were inside, they could move quite freely around. There were sleeping areas for everyone, a large dining room, a number of smaller rooms, where you could look at the amazing view, and a communal living room. It was the perfect opportunity to hang out the other families and get to know them better.
They had of course already spent countless hours together, but it is not quite the same thing to hang out at the training center under constant supervision of the evaluation staff. Now they had the possibility to socialize freely and really get to know the people they would share the new world with.
Five spaceships, with about one hundred and fifty people in each, would leave Earth every two weeks. Luckily, we got to go with the first spaceship, Sven thought. It would have been unbearable to have to wait several months before we could…
His thoughts were interrupted by a weak voice behind him.
"Daddy!"
Anna came out from the bedroom and looked at him with sleepy eyes.
"Is it time to leave now?"
He knew that she very well knew that they wouldn’t leave until later that day, but he played along in her fake memory loss.
"But pumpkin, it’s more than half a day until we leave. They pick us up at around two and the departure isn’t until four o'clock.”
He went to the couch and sat down and clapped his hand in the pillow beside him.
"Come Anna, sit here with me!"
Anna smiled happily as she jumped up on the couch next to him. She loved the early mornings, just before the rest of the world woke up, as much as he did. Anna was a curious young girl and she often asked questions about everything between heaven and earth. And even if he tried to answer her to the best of his ability, it wasn’t always easy to answer her questions. Her young mind still worked in an unfiltered way, that he, as an adult, no longer was used to. At the same time, he saw it as a challenge, and as a way of not getting stuck in narrow thought patterns.
Anna was thinking hard about something now, as she almost imperceptibly moved her lips in her attempts to formulate what she wanted to say.
"What’s on your mind honey? " he said and stroke her arm gently.
"Well, I wonder," she began a bit cautiously, "will Erik and I share the same room on the spaceship?"
"But Anna, you already know that our family only get a small room at our disposal. Sure, it will be a bit crowded, but we can handle that, don’t you think?"
Anna didn’t seem convinced and Sven tried again.
"Do you remember when we were camping in the mountains last year? As I recall, we had no problem whatsoever living together in a tent that was much smaller than the room we will have on the spaceship."
"But Dad, it was only for three days!"
"Yes, but it’s not that we will spend all our time together in our room. There are, after all, a living room, a dining room and an exercise room as well, so we will not walk all over each other. And it’s not forever either. Don’t you think that you can endure our presence for just seven months?"
"Yes maybe," Anna mumbled and continued with a low voice. "But how will it be when we come to Mars?"
"On Mars we will get our own apartment and you and Erik will get your own separate rooms. They will be small of course, but you will have your own place where you can hide from your brother if you want to."
Anna looked a bit happier when she thought about this and Sven smiled. We are going to another planet and all she’s thinking about is how to avoid her brother as much as possible. It is almost ridiculous when you think about it. But on the other hand, it’s how the human mind work. Whatever happens, it’s always the small problems in everyday life that occupies our minds.
He put his hand on her shoulder and said in a tantalizing tone, "Well, have you packed everything you need for the journey? Have you made sure you haven’t forgotten anything?"
"But Dad, it feels like I have been packing for weeks now, how can I have forgotten anything?"
"You never know, you might have forgotten your dear tablet, for example?" he said and smiled.
Anna shook her head.
"How could I forget my tablet? I need it to be able to vlog about everything that happens to me during the trip. All my followers would be very disappointed if I had forgotten it," she said proudly.
At first, he and Helena had been a bit hesitant when Anna started nagging about wanting to vlog on the trip. But most of the other children in her age had been granted permission by their parents to do so, so they had agreed to it in the end.
"Okay, pumpkin, I just wanted to remind you. It’s not that we can go back later and fetch something that we forgot."
She frowned at him and he smiled back. He then glanced at the clock and said:
"Anna, we have a lot to do today. I’ll fix some breakfast and, in the meantime, maybe you could see if you can get your brother out of bed? I’ll call for you when breakfast is ready."
Anna sighed and reluctantly rose from the couch while she muttered, "Okay dad."
He followed her with his eyes as she walked towards the bedroom and then he picked up the little snow globe standing on the table in front of him. He shook it and watched for a few seconds how the tiny snowflakes singled around in the miniature landscape. Then he quickly put it down and walked with light steps towards the kitchen.