Chapter Six: The Twin Paradox

In this episode we begin Part 2:  Pioneers and Explorers.  Here we get to meet some of the main characters in the story.   The setting is a corporate dormitory in the year 2086 and four young stoners - all of them scientists working for an aerospace firm in southeastern Canada -  are watching the news program World Week.  It's a Sunday night and they're taking a break from their projects; something they do each Sunday, along with getting high smoking THC resin from a glass bong.

First there's  Kelvin, the once-ambitious Virginian who's taken a slight detour with his life as of late.   Next, there's Gunther, the soft-spoken German whose father is a government official.  Then there's  B.J., the promiscuous wild child from Colorado who's never had a boyfriend but always has a date.   And there's Robin, the flamboyant transgender from east Atlanta.   What they hear at the opening of the broadcast sparks a lively discussion once the show goes to commercial.  A space mission to an alien planet 13 light years from Earth?  Kelvin sees it as the opportunity of a lifetime.  The others think he's crazy.