The face of Doug Johnson, an elderly man

You see an old man's face looking back at you although, on a good day you like to think of it as the face of experience. Today you hope will be a good day. You are certain it will at least be an interesting day. As you pack the small bag of personal belongings that are all you will be permitted to take with you on your trip you reflect on the long life you have lived. You've loved and lost and loved again. You served your country with pride and came back home to honour the memories of those that never returned. You worked hard and had your share of good luck and bad. Overall you think it has been a good life and if half of what the company recruiter says is true you will have a lot more living left to do.

The prospect of leaving everything you’ve ever known behind to start again on a whole new world is more than a little daunting. But it’s exciting too and if you are being honest there is nothing left here for you since your wife passed away. You have no living family and the two of you were never blessed with children. Even the few close friends you still had all urged you to go and make a new start for yourself.

So you don’t look back as you climb into the auto-cab that will take you to the launch station and then on to the stars.

The launch station is the cleanest place you have been in many years. Cool, scrubbed air blows through its halls as they put you through a battery of pre-flight tests. There are the usual blood tests and medical scans although why they are necessary when you are supposed to be getting a new body anyway is never adequately explained. You are also required to retake some of the psychological tests you’d already gone through at the recruiting centre. You worry that this means they have made a mistake even that they are going to reject you at the last minute.

“No need to worry Mr Johnson” a pretty young tech reassures you “It’s just routine. We like to verify the testing centre’s results before sending you off. After all, you and your new body are going to be together for a very long time. We’d hate for there to be any kind of mix up.”

Finally, they seem to be satisfied and a medic comes in with a gurney.

“We need to sedate you for the journey,” he says as you lay down on the gurney “We’ll take care of everything from this point. You just relax and when you wake up it’ll all be brand new.”