Yeah I see where you're going with that, and it would make an interesting story, just not the one I'm hoping to tell. I don't want them to beat them there by much, so have the slow ship get there (Epsilon Eridani, not Gliese 581, otherwise the slow ship will take too long, the other characters will have died off by the time they got there!), open up the hatch thinking they're the first on an extrasolar planet only to find a welcoming committee!
But Gliese 581 at least does deserve a more...poetic name. Epsilon Eridani I think is quite nice, if a bit long.
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