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.