A New Message

Paris, 2056, Parallel Dimension b-2.

After the events of Friday last week.

A-2241, I am the primary exploring astronaut for the upcoming expedition. I didn't quite get what Joan meant when he talked about having contact. But today it became quite clear. An unknown entity is contacting us. We don't know where the signals are coming from, but using highly sensitive gear and advanced pattern recognition, we were able to distinguish noise from actual imagery. We saw a blurry picture of a barren landscape. Not much to be made out, apart from some craters here and there, and subtle hills in the distance. Rocks lay here and there, as if fallen from the sky and never touched. It took us a while to realise that some of these rocks were actually supposed to be buildings. Small, square, lit by presumably a star.

We could all agree that what we saw here was not from this Earth. But it could mean something for us, as a species. Life in Space, it has been in discussion for quite some time. The exploration of the unknown, of potentially safe future habitats, has always intrigued me. And now I am to follow this message. I might be one of the few people to leave the Earth and never come back. This mission could be the most important one or one of many failed ones. But something tells me, people are not risking our lives for nothing.

This place, it might exist. It might be far, it might be close, or it's all made up. Maybe Joan went completely crazy and interpreted this as a call, as a vision, to build something of this sort somewhere on a foreign planet, as if predestined. It might already exist, built by another civilisation. It might be their home, it might be our future. It might mean peace, it might mean war, on a scale we have never dared imagine. Whatever this is, humanity must stand together for this one. Our departure is in 13 days. God knows who chose that number. I won't give much to it. But the message is clear:

We will leave on March 29th.