2122 A.D. T.S.S. Centauri Aleph launched for Alpha Centauri (Estimated arrival 2389 A.D.)

2149 A.D. All contact is mysteriously lost with the T.S.S. Centauri Aleph

Everyone assumes it has been 'destroyed' because they no longer send out signals, or reply to hails (the ship can still be seen on long-range radar, but it is assumed to be derelict). It is written off as a disaster, because it's too far away to visit except with an inertia-less drive, and so far only the military has those (and doesn't want to share).

In reality, what happened was that a group of scientists on board began doing genetic experiments on humans (not uncommon, many people do it, as evidenced by the CAP operation and the NeoMartian race). Their experiments created a number of genetically-enhanced humans as well as a number of genetically enhanced animals. A civil war broke out on the ship, which ended in a fight to the death between a mega-telepath and a nano-borg metamorph. Many parts of the inner ship surface were blasted (the ship itself is almost ten kilometers long, bullet-shaped, and 'grown' from cellular nanbots), and most of the crew died. The battle ended when the metamorph, to escape the final mind-erasing teleblast from the mega-telepath, began to merge with the ship. As a result the mega-telepath directed the blast at the ship itself, destroying the main computer system and sterilizing the inner nine decimeters of the ship's "living" hull. The blast also burned the brains of evey sentient being in the ship, leaving the few dozen survivors with no memory and the I.Q.'s of children.

Twenty-two years later the survivors, or the Parents as they are now called, have managed to survive and reproduce, but they no longer have any memory of who or where they are. They don't know that the 'world' is really a ship headed for a nearby star. Indeed, they don't know what a 'star' is, as there are no windows. There is the Light, directly overhead, that runs through the middle of the "Aleph" (as they call the 'world'), there is the Sheilding Sea (which originally was at the very aft, or back of the ship, but 'sloshed' during the last battle and now is further forward), and there is the Habitat, the ruins of buildings where the Parents and the Children live. The least-injured of the Parents is almost fully-functional, mentally, but doesn't remember much of anything from before the 'Fall' (as they call the final battle). The oldest of the Children is now twenty-two, and many of the Children now also have children. Technology, electronics, history, and clothing is unknown to them. They hunt with spears and bows in the Woods (the remains of the hydroponic gardens inside the "Aleph") and sometimes fish in the Sea. They garden a bit, and they try to survive. When a child is born they give it one name. When a Child turns 16, a second, more meaningful name is chosen. If two Children decide to marry, the two will choose a third name that they share. Not all marry, however.

A few malcontents have left the main group, but most of the one hundred or so people on the ship live in the Habitat as a sort of extended family. Many spend their time caring for the Parents in a sort of nursing home, while the rest hunt, fish, and garden. There is the Kitchen, where a few full-time cooks work. There are also the Shops, where a few more technologically minded people fiddle with tools and make the weapons. Some of the children have begun to develop telepathy, and a few have some interesting physical mutations. They just assume the telepathy is magic. Every so often the ground shakes (meteor strikes on the hull, but they don't know that). When that happens 'magical' things follow, usually restricted to specific locations (the ship's nanotech is healing itself at the impact site, but they don't know that). Voices come from rocks, lights and pictures can be seen, water flows, and wonderful and strange things happen.

The few people who live apart sometimes are kind and sometimes are not. There are wild animals, and some are prey, and some are predators. The land on the far side of the Sea is wild and undiscovered (so far). There are a few books left, like the Bible and some novels, but few can read, and most just try to live their lives.

Like all parts of the Shared World project, this 'history' is available for anyone to use in writing their own stories, with no restrictions on publishing or selling the resultant works.

Jim Owens