Rebirth Page 11

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  The Constellation had accelerated away quite slowly from Earth orbit due to the ship`s great mass, its immensely powerful engines gathering up their strength for the time when they would finally launch the ship towards deep space, but this would only happen when the ship had finally left the Sol star system. As the hours went by it was soon moving through the orbit of the planet Mars, then through to the orbit of the asteroid belt, soon the gas giant Jupiter loomed up in the viewports of the Constellation. The colonists had clustered about these to get a close up view of its cloud-decked atmosphere with its many gigantic storms and multi-coloured atmosphere; many could not tear themselves away from this free astronomical show. Then to the amazement of the colonists, the constellation slowed down and went into orbit around the Jovian moon, Ganymede. Why had it stopped? Many theories buzzed amongst the colonists who had managed to stay awake into the early hours of the 13th January. They were answered in part when a shuttle lifted off from the space port down on the moon`s surface, soon the shuttle was moving alongside the giant starship and it finally docked to allow two men to board the ship.