Life sure is amazing! If you had to bet your daughter’s life on someone running a communications system in a can suspended in the middle of nowhere at 3° K, you wouldn’t bet on yourself. Are you competent? Of course! Are you cold-blooded? Quite, but five years in jail and a certain habit of drinking like a fish have made you rusty. But maybe, between a prison cell and a can flying through the void, there is not all that difference. You have the chance to do something good again.
The Arcadia is a project of the Ark Foundation, which manages the knowledge and assets of the heirs of Jonah Ark, the inventor of cryogenics at the heart of the Ark project and interplanetary travel. Jonah Ark knew what it meant to be the best, and he knew how sometimes talent doesn't come with discipline.
What would humankind be, all so lost in the cosmic void and silence, without the ability to communicate? You are the one in charge of keeping the channel open. You are the one allowing people to talk to each other, you are the one broadcasting in space the distant voices coming from Earth. And it is most certainly you who’s in charge of coordinating communications between spaceships in case of emergency. Sure, one could say yours is an easy job, but one must also acknowledge it is a vital job.
