STARR SPACE HEADQUARTERS - MISSION CONTROL - DAY 25 - 6:00 AM
Commander Elena Volkov stood in the mission control center surrounded by displays showing two Titan-class cargo ships sitting on launch pads separated by five kilometers, each one loaded with half of the complete lunar base infrastructure, and she felt her heart racing despite decades of spaceflight experience because this wasn't just another launch—this was humanity's first crewed faster-than-light journey, the moment when people would travel between worlds in hours rather than months.
"Final pre-flight checks," she announced to the control room filled with engineers and flight controllers who'd been working around the clock for weeks preparing this mission, "Titan-Alpha and Titan-Beta, report status."
