Hope

With the Earth near death, colonizing other worlds soon became the only viable option for the continuation of humanity. Each mission to a different planet offered only a small chance of success. Xavier was a member of a group of about a thousand to travel to Q-783, a planet several light years away. En route, an alien virus infected and killed most of the female crew. Xavier was one of the men chosen to undergo alteration of his DNA. They would transform him into a woman, he’d spend most of his life pregnant in order to ensure a sizable population with significant genetic diversity. Shortly after giving birth to his third child aboard the ship, they touched down on Q-783. Xavier disembarked the ship. He was hopeful for humanity’s future. The land seemed mostly barren, but he was hopeful the automated terra-forming droid they had sent out decades earlier had done its job and that plants had sprouted somewhere. It wouldn’t be easy, but at least they had hope.