Prologue
"Can you imagine a world of perfection in beauty? What would it look like? Who would live there and could you afford it?" read the article in Doctor Paul Lohan's copy of Heat magazine. The thirty-five year old molecular physicist was sat in his armchair in the dingy lounge of his high rise flat in the centre of London. It was the year 3000CE and it had been fifty years since mankind had perfected long range space travel.
Paul Lohan had always dreamt of rushing to Heathrow space port and blasting off to a world far, far away. The trouble was that it was a pastime only available to the rich and the famous. He was virtually penniless and scrounging a living as a checkout maintenance technician at the local Tesco hypermarket. Every day he would return and crash out in his battered old armchair and read a copy of the previous day's copy of Heat magazine and, if he was lucky, a copy of the Daily Telegraph. For some reason mankind had rejected a complete reliance on digital communication media for their news fix.
"Tomorrow", he thought, "my life will be different. I will no longer be a single, depressed, low paid technician. I will get on a space flight and create a world all of my own. A world full of people I want to be associated with. My own private kingdom in the stars"
He looked at his watch. It was 23:00 - time for bed. With a heavy sigh, Paul walked over to his bed and turned the lights off. He had to work again tomorrow.
It was thirty-two years later when Paul Lohan, now sixty seven years old, began to make his dream come true. He had been lucky – he had made an important discovery that made him into a multi-billionaire. Now with his new found fame and influence, Paul advertised for people to join him on his new world in the stars. It was to be a small colony, populated by beautiful, intelligent people. A month before his ship would blast off; he was making a shortlist of people who he would take with him. His dream was just about to become a reality.