Age  - the final frontier.
Written by Coodie

A story about Regression in space - where no baby has gone before :-)

Chris woke up to the ringing of the electronic alarm clock next to his bed.
He rubbed his eyes to clear away any last remanants of sleep. He heard
the noises coming from the other parts of the house that indicated 
that his Parents and sister were up. Craig got out of bed, and washed
his face with cold water. As the last bit of sleepiness left him, he
remembered why he had set the alarm clock so early. Today was the day,
that his family would be leaving earth for Delta Centuri, a space colony
and border outpost that served the passing space frigates that delivered
cargo to the several planets withing the small solar system that the
man inhabited. His father had recieved his transfer orders exactly a week
ago, and the family had been in quarintine since then, as to eliminate the
chances of carrying any diseases through space. Chris had spent his 
entire 15 years of life on planet Earth. Although the stay on Delta Centuri
would only be for a year, he felt sad at leaving the blue planet. Chris's
best friend Steven would be coming with the family for a two month holiday
to the colony, before joining his parents on Mars. Everything was packed
and ready to go. After eating a lite breakfast Chris and his family left 
in a specialised vacuum unit for the space station. 

In order to reach their destinations, within a reasonable time, the space-
ships that were employed could not travel in the conventional method. In
order to cover the vast distances, the ships bent the time continuam, 
making a loop in space, therefore effectivally making the distance a 
hundredth of what it would have been. This science had taken years to 
develop and was extremely dangerous, but neccessery. Scientist had 
discovered that when the ships had travelled accross the time continum,
that had arrived at the destinations intact, but the everyone outside the
space ship had aged terribly. This was eventually remedied with a very
simple solution. The ships travelled backwards. This meant that the process
was reversed. However, now instead of those not travelling being affected,
the people in the ship that traversed the time continum, were drawn back
throw time, and were effectivley regressed to a previous age. The regression
was relative to the number of light years travelled. Normally, during
close travels, only a few years were lost from the crew. However scientists
had come up with special shielding deviced that protected the occupants
of the space ship, so that no time was lost, and the inhabbitants slept
the whole journey.

This was explained to Chris's family very carefully before they boarded
the flight. Chris however was listening to his walkman, as was Steven.
Before boarding the shuttle, with the exception of Chris and Steven, the
whole family emptied their bladders. They were herded into the space
craft and led to their sleep chambers. The main computer and auto pilot
were programmed and the shuttle took off into the wide black nothingness
of space. Everyone fell into a deep sleep.

Chris woke up with a nagging feeling in his bladder. He needed to pee
badly. He remembered where he was. He was on board the Titus II, a space
shuttle craft on his way to Delta Centuri, and was lying in some sort
of glass pod. He saw a button above his head labbled open, which he
gingerly pushed. The glass pod opened with a hissing sound and Chris stepped
out. As he did so he felt a sort of sucking feeling and a slight wave of
nausea hit him. He let it pass, and went over to Stevens pod. He rapped
lightly on the pod and Steven opened his eyes. Steven pushed the small
red button and the pod opened as well. As Steven got out, Chris collapsed
to the floor. Steven took two steps and did the same, slipping into
unconcisnous.

The ship docked with a slight bump and the gates opened to delta centuri.
The glass pods opened and the occupents woke up. Chris's mother stood up
and stretched. She was alerted to the sound of crying. She followed the
sound to the source and jumped at what she discovered. On the ground, there
were two little boys lying. One was about seven years old and the other was
about four. The younger boy was crying. Chris's older sister, Carey walked
up to her mother. "Where'd they come from mom, and why are Chris's clothes
lying there ?" At that precise moment, the truth dawned on Mrs Walker. 
She picked up the 4 year old and held him at arms length. He was completly
naked. "Chris, is that you ?" The little boy stopped crying and nodded his
head. 'Then that must be Steven', thought Mrs Walker. She gave Chris to
his sister and explained what had happened. Chris and Steven had left
their capsules and become younger. Although Chris had been reduced to nothing
short of a toddler, Steven was still old enough to communicate properly
and Mrs Walker questioned him. He couldn't remember anything and she
eventually gave up trying. Cary held Chris to her chest. It felt strange
that here 'baby' brother was now really her baby brother. She patted him
on the back to comfort him. She felt something wet running down her stomach.
She held Chris away from her as he finished emptying his tiny bladder.
"Mom ! Chris just peed on me", exclaimed Cary. She wiped herseld off using
Chris's previosley fitting clothes and wrapped Chris up in them. Steven was
also to small for his clothes, but Carey gave him one of her T-Shirts which
covered almost everything. Mrs Walker told Cary to look after the boys
while she went and told Mr Walker what had happened. 

After the confusion had ceased, the Walkers and Steven, made their way
to the colony. The owner of the compound where they were staying was
waiting to meet them. Mrs Walker explained to them, that the flat they
had resereved was no longer suitable and that they would need one with 
a Nursery and the related equipment. They were told not to worry as there
was one open the moment.