"It is finally complete, Amizi," stated the professor. "Good," whispered Amizi. "The moment we have been waiting for. Are you sure everything is in order? One tiny mistake could ruin everything." "Y-yes, sir" stammered the professor. "It has been tested several times and in perfect condition." "Well done, then, Meijer," said Amizi. Meijer beamed from the rare praise. "Summon the travelers," Amizi ordered. "Yes, sir," said Meijer, and hurried out of the dimly-lit room. Several seconds later, he returned with a group of trembling children, all about 12. "Well, children, you know what I am about to say. You," Amizi said, pausing to look at each one, "You have been chosen. The majority of Earthlings believe that YOU" he said, looking at Casper, the smallest one. "Would do best as the first humans on Venus. Don't let them down. Am I clear?" "Yes," the children whispered. "Calm yourselves," Amizi said. "There is no need to be afraid. Everything has been set out for you. There is only a 30% chance of something going wrong." If this was meant to calm them, it wasn't doing a very good job of it. "It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay..." Amanda whispered under her breath. "Now, then, children. All you need to do is step into this portal. Your molecules will be separated, flung into space at the speed of light, and you will be rebuilt, as it were, on Venus." Amizi said. That did it. "I WON'T be flung into space!! NO!! I won't do it!" Martin bawled. He attempted to run and make an escape. "Meijer, block the child," Amizi ordered. Meijer stepped in front of Martin. His large body prevented Martin from escaping. The other children watched, silent. "Step into the portal," Meijer advised. "This will be settled in a moment." The children, Amanda first, stepped in. There was a whooshing noise, a flash of light, and she had disappeared. When Martin finally calmed down, he too entered the portal and disappeared to Venus.

1 Year Later

Amanda stepped outside the oxygen-filled dome, breathing through a tube. She looked up at the red sky. It was very different from the sky on earth, but she had gotten used to it. Now, it seemed normal. Except the sky was not all red today. It had a faint greenish tinge. It gave Amanda goosebumps, because it reminded her so much of the sky on earth, and how it looked right before a tornado. But here on Venus there were no tornadoes. So what could it mean? Suddenly there was a green flash of light, and a figure started to appear. Amanda imagined that this was how she looked when her molecules were being built. When the figure came into focus, Amanda could see that it was some sort of octopus-like thing, except it was a dull orange. It started to approach her, moving it's legs like how a spider crawls. It moved very quickly, and Amanda felt a flash of fear:" What if it wants to attack me?" It reached her and held out two tentacles. It appeared to be a sort of handshake. "It's friendly, so far," she thought. She touched her hand to it's. "Glrisn shafed yarrrg?"It pronounced the last word like a gargle. "I-I don't speak-" she uttered haltingly. "Oh, of course. Sorry. It's just such a habit. Almost everyone knows Kerelkin." "You-you speak-" "Yes, I do. Our race has been studying you Earthlings for quite some time. It's amazing what you don't notice. We sent out messages back to Geraria using YOUR satellites, too!" "Uh-yeah.. who..ARE you?" "Oh, yes, I suppose this comes as a shock to you, being from earth. It's just, everyone I know has been to another solar system, at least! So I am from the planet Geraria, which orbits one of the stars in the milky way. I came here using molecule displacement, and I imagine you did the same?" "Uh, yeah, sort of," said Amanda, still in shock. Then a thought hit her. This was a real alien! And it spoke! English! Amizi MUST know about this, she decided. "I must tell the others!" she yelled, and ran off, back into the oxygen dome.


"No," said Casper. "Amizi- you know how he is. Telling him about Hartedf is just wrong. He'll destroy her!" "We have to," Amanda said. "That's WHY we were sent here in the first place! TO notify Amizi if we discover anything! We must do it- for the sake of science!" "But this is a person- well, an alien, but still! They have feelings! It's not right!"

Meanwhile, Hartedf waited anxiously outside the dome.