Curiosity

 

                Meanwhile, back on Earth, plans were being made, albeit rather slowly, to leave. In the absence of any first hand knowledge of extra-solar star systems it was thought that Mars might be a good starting point but a scientist of the time, Dr David B. is quoted as saying "Yes, but is there life on Mars already?". Unfortunately the answer was yes. This was established by the Curiosity rover which had been sent to investigate. The rover barely made it back to Earth and hot in pursuit was a creature belonging to an extra-terrestrial group called "The Masters from Mars" who, according to Dr David B. were platform-booted sparkling spiders sprinkling stardust in their wake. But that was never confirmed as the creature following Curiosity stopped off at the Moon for a snack and developed a taste for scotch whisky having stumbled upon an abandoned cellar filled with bottles of 30 year old Islay single malt.

 

Kepler 22b

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                 A new destination had to be found for the gigantic armada of ships now under construction. (At least that was what was generally believed. In fact only three ships existed and one of those was never really finished). The exodus was hasty and chaotic and to say the least, hazardous as the chosen destination was a mythical planet, Kepler 22b whose name and general direction was found scribbled on a scrap of paper hidden under a cardboard box in the gents toilet in the ruins of St Pancras station in what was thought to have been once the capital city of Europe (though that seems unlikely). In fact, a song of the same name, Kepler 22b had quite a bit of success on the radio at the time though it is now thought that the song was propaganda created by the advertising agency in charge of communications for the evacuation in order to avoid panic. All the money which was supposed to be used for the construction of the "gigantic" armada (of three) had already been spent by the evacuation advertising campaign and by the renovation of "The Silver Spoon" and its opening night gala featuring special guest star DJ PIPER and his magic whistle.