015: Homework Assinment

  The Great Fleet: Voyage to TRAPPIST-1

Chapter-15 Homework Assinment

TRAPPIST-1 Fleet Education Log
Discovery – Cycle 2117 + 19 years
Assignment: “My Home in the Stars”
By Sofia Patel, Age 11 (Base-12)

Dear Teacher Okonkwo and everyone back on Earth who might read this,

My name is Sofia Patel and I was born right here on the Torchship Discovery during the Long Burn. I have never touched real dirt or felt real rain on my face. Everything I know about Earth I have only seen in pictures, old videos, and books.

Living on a Torchship is like the biggest summer camp ever, except the camp is all we have ever known. There are only fifteen kids total, so it feels like one giant family. We sleep in bunk rooms with soft netting that keeps us safe when the gravity flickers during course corrections. My bunk is on the top and I have glow-stars on the ceiling that pretend to be the night sky.

Every morning we eat in the big dining hall. The walls are covered with green hydroponic vines and tomatoes that smell sweet. Breakfast is usually oat porridge with strawberries we grew ourselves. Virginia Dare Ruiz (she’s the oldest kid, born in the very first year of the Burn) sits with us and tells us stories about butterflies. I have only seen pictures of butterflies, but she makes them sound like magic.

School is small, more like homeschooling with all the aunts and uncles helping. We learn Esperanto, Base-12 math, ship systems, and Earth history. Uncle Patel (my papa) lets us practice steering the ship in the simulator. In the afternoon we play in the big dome. The OPTIMUS crew paint little drone-butterflies bright colors so we can chase them. Sometimes we do zero-g tag during flip drills — that’s my favorite.

I have never been to a real summer camp with grass and trees, but the grown-ups say our ship is like one. They show us videos of kids running on green lawns and swimming in lakes. I try to imagine it, but it’s hard. Here, our “outside” is the observation blister where we can watch the stars streak by like silver rain. At night we press our hands on the warm bulkhead and feel the torch’s steady heartbeat. Mama says that heartbeat is carrying us to the ruby worlds.

Last cycle was my birthday and the whole crew came. Orion (he’s an OPTIMUS but he feels like family) made me a glowing model of TRAPPIST-1e with little Carpet patches. I keep it under my pillow and try to imagine what the real ground will feel like under my bare feet.

I don’t feel sad. This ship is my whole world and my summer camp and my home. One day soon we will land and I will finally run on real dirt under a ruby sun. Until then I am happy here with my fifteen friends, all my aunts and uncles, and the quiet heartbeat of the torch.

Thank you for reading my letter.
If you write back, please tell me what real grass feels like between your toes. Does it tickle?

With starlight,
Sofia Patel
Torchship Discovery, somewhere between Sol and TRAPPIST-1


 

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The Great Fleet: Voyage to TRAPPIST-1
V 3.0

NOTE: this is a unfinished Draft of a in progress work.  © Curtis Neil, May 2026

ARTISTS COPYRIGHT, Curtis Neil May 2026 

Curtis Anthony Neil/Grok 4.0/ LibreOffice. MAY 03rd. 2026 AD. MAY 08th.2026

Bakersfield, California, USA, North America, Planet Earth (Terra), the third planet from the Sun (Sol), Solar System, Orion Arm, Milky Way Galaxy


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