Chapter Six: The Twin Paradox

Twin Paradox Book One

In this episode we begin Part 2: Pioneers and Explorers. Here we get to meet some of the main characters in the story. The setting is a corporate dormitory in the year 2086 and four young stoners - all of them scientists working for an aerospace firm in southeastern Canada - are watching the news program World Week. It's a Sunday night and they're taking a break from their projects; something they do each Sunday, along with getting high smoking THC resin from a glass bong.
First there's Kelvin, the once-ambitious Virginian who's taken a slight detour with his life as of late. Next, there's Gunther, the soft-spoken German whose father is a government official. Then there's B.J., the promiscuous wild child from Colorado who's never had a boyfriend but always has a date. And there's Robin, the flamboyant transgender from east Atlanta. What they hear at the opening of the broadcast sparks a lively discussion once the show goes to commercial. A space mission to an alien planet 13 light years from Earth? Kelvin sees it as the opportunity of a lifetime. The others think he's crazy.