"An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you."
-Inception
"The Columbia disaster! Remember the Columbia disaster!" insisted Fear.
"Fear, that happened before Riley was born," said Disgust. "What are you getting so worked up about? I haven't seen you this nervous since the first pregnancy." Fear twitched, trying to think of an answer.
"It's not tested," said Fear.
"Um, yes, it is," said Disgust.
"There are five thousand people going with us," said Joy. "We're going to be fine; there won't be an accident."
"And if there is, I'll have something to say about it," said Anger.
"Not for very long," said Fear.
"There are too many people who are too invested in this project," said Joy. "It's just not going to happen. Fear, you can keep us out of trouble. But you really are being irrational right now." Fear gulped and kicked at nothing in particular.
"Are we ever coming home?" said Sadness.
"Maybe," said Joy. "Who knows? But if we don't – who cares? It's a whole new world out there. This is our home, where we're going."
"If you say so," said Disgust.
Anger didn't say anything, which meant that everything was apparently proceeding as planned. Outside and below Riley, hundreds of rockets surged all at once, and there was a rush of movement and sound beyond anything she had ever before experienced.
"A new core memory!" said Joy, as a yellow one, her favorite kind, rolled down the tracks. "I knew it, I knew this would be one! Space Island!" She went to pick it up, and as she did, she felt a surge of... herself, and she didn't even entirely know why. "I wonder if we can start a hockey team when we get there. It must be pretty different in low gravity."
Riley Anderson, her husband, and their three children were among the first civilian colonists on the moon.
