Red Alert On The Matterhorn

In 2135 scientists detected that something was going catastrophically wrong with the sun. A runaway reaction was going to cause it to go nova within 15 years. All life in the solar system would be wiped out. The nations of Earth finally set aside their petty differences and scrambled to build ships that would be capable of carrying a portion of humanity to safety and allowing the human race to survive the destruction of their home system. Seven Arks were built--Aoraki, Denali, Elbrus, Everest, Kilimanjaro, Matterhorn, and Salcantay--ships that would carry most of their passengers in cold sleep hibernation while the crew volunteered to spend the long decades of the voyage awake, knowing that their lives would be almost over by the time any destination could be reached. As many kinds of Earth flora and fauna were included on each ship, in various habitat modules, in cold sleep, and as ova and sperm samples cryogenically stored. The ships were so large that construction had to take place in orbit, with orbital refineries built to process nickel-iron asteroids into raw materials for the ships. At first, the fact that each ship would be carrying a million passengers in cold sleep gave everyone hope, but eventually, as news of corruption in the lottery system for spaces on the Arks started to leak out, people began to realize that seven Arks at 1 million passengers per Ark meant that less than a tenth of 1% of the population of the planet would be saved. Tensions rose, riots became common, as did suicides, and there were a number of attempts to hijack shuttles up to the Arks by groups who wanted to force their way on board. There were worries that the strife was going to interfere with the Arks being completed and launched in time, but security proved adequate, and eventually all seven Arks were staffed, stocked, and sent on their way. The Matterhorn launched late in 2150, with a million assorted Europeans from all walks of life in cold sleep. They barely made it out.