Over the course of several years we had a handful of successful manned missions make it through the rift unharmed. My design had worked and I was starting to get a little antsy. For the first time in a long time the little boy inside of me began to speak up. I had been so used to the fact that I would never visit a new world, that I'd became accustomed to working on the ground creating the next stepping stone. I had forgotten what it was like to be filled with awe and wonder at the possibility of new world exploration in person.
I put in my application to be part of one of the landing teams on Terra Duorum. I provided a detailed explained of my personal interest in understanding the civilization that used to inhabit Terra Durom. My engineering knowledge would also allow me to begin working out a way to transport large numbers of people back and forth through the rift so that we could get more scientists on the ground of this new world, and maybe some day civilians. As you already know my application was rejected.
The closest they would allow me to get to Terra Duorum was on the new space station that they were building to orbit in sync with the rift. This was going to be the docking point where each craft would stop to prepare for launch through the rift.
They needed me there to complete inspections on each of the ships, and make any last minute modifications before the crew navigated the rift.
Some would find this quite exciting, just being in space and so close to such an anomaly, but like I said my inner boy was screaming now. I wanted more, and it was so close I could practically touch it.
