Chapter One: Arrival on Lillitopia

On a space station the size of a small moon, a group of freshman cadets were ready to go on their first training mission. A blonde cadet named Mace Megalos had a flash drive, and entered one of the shuttle cruisers, and plugged it into the navigation computer in the control console. One of the blonde female cadets saw what he was doing, and approached him.

"What are you doing, Mace?" she asked.

Mace quickly glanced over at Sapphire Serpico. She was the only cadet he had a crush on. Her short skirt revealed muscular legs that went straight down to her mid calf boots; her short sleeved uniform accentuated her lean yet athletic figure. Her long blonde hair contrasted well with her blue eyes.

"Hello?" Sapphire asked, waving her hand in front of Mace's face and snapping him back to reality.

"Hi, Sapphire! I'm sabotaging Penn Prospero's shuttle cruiser, so Penn and Felicity get stranded on Lillitopia!"

"The prison planet? That's brilliant!" said Sapphire. "They win at everything, this will teach them a lesson! I won't feel too bad for them, they'll be like giants there, because the Lillitopians are a centimeter tall. I wouldn't mind ruling over Lillitopia myself!"

"This computer virus will also disable their beacon, so they can't summon help!" said Mace.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Sapphire asked.

"My plan can't go wrong," said Mace. "We need to split up when we leave this shuttle cruiser, so no one gets suspicious."

When Mace was finished, both Mace and Sapphire exited the shuttle cruiser and went in separate directions. Mace took the flash drive and discarded it into an incinerator before joining the other cadets.

A short time later, General Steed stood at a podium, explaining the mission.

"As most of you know, the people of our Empire did not originate in this space time continuum. About thirteen billion years in the future, our ancestors emigrated to this reality, and traveled backwards in time. In the reality we originally came from, this would be considered the 21st century. Your mission is to journey to a more primitive parallel reality, and bring back proof of your journey. Find a robot and get assigned to your shuttle cruiser."

The cadets split up, and sought out their robots. A robot stopped Mace and Sapphire.

"You two have been assigned to shuttle cruiser M-238."

"Isn't that the same shuttle cruiser that Penn and Felicity are assigned to?" Mace asked.

"Affirmative," said the robot.

"I thought we were assigned to shuttle cruiser A-1218?" Mace asked.

"There has been a last minute re-assignment," the robot replied. "Shuttle cruiser A-1218 needs to have it's core reactor repaired, so we had to re-assign several cadets. Is there a problem?"

"No, not at all!" said Mace. "We're heading to shuttle cruiser M-238 right now!"

Sapphire grabbed Mace by the hand and headed back toward the shuttle cruiser Mace had sabotaged. She whispered into his ear: "What did you do with that flash drive?"

"I threw it away!" said Mace. "It's been incinerated!"

"So there's no way to restore the navigation computer on the shuttle cruiser so we don't all get stranded on Lillitopia?" Sapphire asked.

"Stop talking about it, or they'll figure out what we did!" said Mace. "We're just going to have to figure out what to do once we're on Lillitopia! We can't let the others know I sabotaged the mission!"

"Well, that's obvious!" said Sapphire.

Four other cadets were waiting by shuttle cruiser M-238. A Hispanic boy introduced himself as Penn Prospero, while a Hispanic girl introduced herself as Felicity Fontana. Two other cadets, a white boy named Lazaro Lupo, and a girl of African descent named Tegan Terranova.

"Should we flip a coin to decide who pilots this thing?" Penn asked, as he held a coin aloft in his right hand.

"I don't have a problem with you piloting," said Mace.

"Same here," said Sapphire.

"If they don't have a problem with it, neither do I," said Lazaro.

"Felicity and Tegan?" Penn asked. "Are both of you okay with it?"

"I don't mind," said Felicity.

"I'd like a shot at piloting the shuttle cruiser," said Tegan.

"Okay, let's flip for it!" said Penn. "Call it, heads or tails!" Penn threw the coin up into the air.

"Heads," said Tegan, and the coin landed on Penn's palm, heads up.

"You win!" said Penn. "Looks like we've got ourselves a female pilot!"

The six cadets entered the shuttle cruiser. Once inside, they took their seats, and Penn asked Tegan: "Do you have an idea of the reality you're going to take us to?"

"I've been researching the United States of America," said Tegan. "I think a society with a different form of government than an Empire would be interesting. Besides, it's a free society, so we can't be mistaken for slaves."

The countdown began on the speakers of each shuttle cruiser.

"I have the quantum signature of our target reality locked into the navigation computer," said Tegan.

When the countdown reached 1, Tegan activated the dimensional phase initiator, and they disappeared into the multi-verse. Within seconds, Tegan knew something was wrong.

"There's a problem," said Tegan.

"What's wrong?" Penn asked.

"We're being pulled into the wrong reality!" said Tegan. "There's some kind of computer virus that's taken over the navigation computer, and I can't rectify it!"

The shuttle cruiser emerged in the atmosphere of a planet much like Earth. Tegan tried to land the shuttle cruiser safely, but it crash landed, sustaining damage.

"We're stuck on Lillitopia!" said Tegan.

"The prison planet?" Penn asked.

"Yes!" Tegan answered. "All the people of this world are criminals who have been banished here and miniaturized down to one centimeter tall! We'll be like giants to them!"

"I had to pee just before we got here," said Sapphire, "and now I don't for some reason."

"There's an artificially induced biogenic field surrounding this planet that renders everyone here immortal," said Penn. "the inhabitants don't need to eat food, or drink water, or use the bathroom. Now that we're here, we stopped aging, so we don't need to do those things now, either!"

"Activate the beacon," said Felicity.

"The beacon is damaged, too!" said Penn.

Sapphire activated the door hatch, and it swung vertically open. The six cadets looked outside, at their new surroundings.

"So we're stuck here," said Felicity, "like some kind of cosmic castaways on a world of tiny people? We're like a race of giants, now?"

"More like a race of gods!" said Sapphire, as she stepped outside, crushing a small structure with a smirk on her face. Some of the Lillitopians fled from where Sapphire was stepping.

To Be Continued!