It is not clear why money was necessary but anyway a worldwide emergency crowd funding was set up in order to finance the fleet. Unfortunately the objective was not reached and the donors were reimbursed. This was quickly followed by the lynching of the advertising executive who had come up with the slogan "Happy Homes for Happy People". In the end however, the massively under planned voyage was launched and the ships, which had not even been named, sped off into the darkness narrowly escaping the Martian spider who, having run out of whisky, was heading recklessly towards Scotland. But the armada was quickly dispersed, with the first ship turning left and the second turning right. The third never took off as there was no money left for the diesel.

 

The Captain Says

 

Many centuries later...

 

                     Little by little, over generations, the passengers forgot the past and the hope of one day finding a habitable planet faded away. Only one man continued to believe and that man was the captain of the first ship. He knew, he said, that other stars systems existed, he knew that they were not alone. The others, of course, knew that he was quite deranged, quite insane but they played along just to keep him happy.

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Ship with a View

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               But then one day (or was it night? These are difficult concepts in outer space), contact was at last made with other intelligent entities although it must be pointed out that these entities were in fact sentient A.I.s know as Minds who ran independent, generally empty and bizarrely named spaceships linked to a civilization known as the Culture. As was the custom, these ships, also known as G.C.V.s and G.C.U.s, introduced themselves politely to the newcomer, the likes of which they had never before encountered and they were a little put out when no reply was forthcoming.