On the bridge of the colony ship Enlightenment, all hell was breaking loose. The room was shaking and the lights had dipped into red, indicating the dire emergency as alarms blared. The ship was breaking up!
Communications officer Conrad had been forced to break contact with Earth as Captain Weismuller announced the complete evacuation of all three million colonists. The suspension pods were being shut down and people prepared for an unprecedented mass teleport to the nearby planet.
"Power's fluctuating wildly!" screamed chief engineer Jones as his console turned into a nightmare firework display of blinking lights.
"Hold it steady!" ordered Weismuller, "We need a steady source for this beam out. It's going to drain the cells dead so we'll have to just hit it and hope to the core that this works!"
Alice ran by, and Conrad grabbed her arm as she passed, her four multi jointed legs skittering to a halt. In many respects, the upper torso and faces of the Alieth appeared to be human, but otherwise they were notably different, built somewhat like an insectoid centaur.
"Conrad, we're going to make it aren't we?" she asked, trying to control her fear. The teleporters were designed for quick transport of small teams, and this kind of attempt was unheard of. The rapid breakup left no choice.
"It'll work out. I know it will," tried Conrad, trying to hide his own apprehension.
"This is Captain Weissmuller," announced the captain over the ship wide address system, "The Enlightenment has been involved in a collision with an unknown cosmic object and is breaking up. Remain calm! In a little under a minute we will attempt to simaltainiously matter transport all crew and passengers to a nearby life sustaining world, called Earth. Stand by."
"I ove you," said Alice, and before the harried coms officer could reply the ship began to fade out of existance. This was it!
As the entire population of The Enlightenment beamed out, the power failed completely. Lacking the energy to reconstitute all subjects, emergency procalls kicked in. The genetic template of each transportee was to be preserved at all costs, so the ships computer compensated by distributing the energy it had left between each person and piece of equipment. Each one would be the same as they had been before, but scaled down. Furthermore, the strain on the system resulted in the three million teleportees being scattered across the area they were targetted at in smaller groups...
Now...
A group of survivors materialises, shrunken and disorientated...
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