David Sanderson a 40 year old man was about to move with his family off earth to New Mars a recently colonized planet. He was traveling with his wife Laura (36) and his two daughters Emily (6) and Jane (13). The Sandersons had sold their house and packed their belongings and were set to start their new lives on New Mars. David had wanted to save money so that they could afford a bigger house on New Mars so he had purchased the cheapest tickets for the trip thinking it wouldn’t really matter.
After getting all of their things packed into the storage hold of the spaceship they headed to the stasis deck where they would be for the next 15 years of travel. They were than directed to their pods and instructed on how to use them. The Stasis Pods that they had payed for were some of the oldest on the ship and were set to be replaced after this trip. David helped his daughters set their pods up by having the pod take a small blood sample and inputting some demographics like age and gender. Jane’s pod set up fine and she was soon in a deep slumber that she wouldn’t wake up from for the next 15 years, but Emily’s pod had problems when David tried to add in her demographics. When David tried to select female the pod remained blank. After trying for a while and the form remaining blank David decided it should be fine given the pod already had Emily’s blood to know that she was female and so Emily to was soon in a deep slumber. Laura had already set up her pod and wished David a good night before she to was put to sleep. David was now setting up his pod and had already provided his blood when he was entering his age he couldn’t get the pod to show more than one unit. He tried to put in 40 but it was only showing 4. David assumed that the glitch must be with in the pod’s display and not the actual computer. He filled out the rest of the demographics and then got into his pod. With a faint humming the pod closed around him and he fell asleep.
15 years later
David felt warmth on his face and creeping of light across his eyelids. Most of his mind was trying to reject the call to activity and return to the peaceful dormant state, but it could not ignore the incoming stimulus. Reluctantly David opened his eyes but immediately closed them feeling blinded. His eyes had been in darkness for so long that the dim glow of the pod felt like looking at the sun. After almost a minute to adjust David’s eyes felt like they could properly open. When he finally did he was greeted by a blurry world that he could barely make out. He then heard a quiet announcement come from all around him.
“Good morning we have just arrived at New Mars and are now orbiting the planet. We would like to thank you for traveling with us for the last 15 years. Your pods will be opening soon and you will be able to take a landing craft down to the planet, but be warned that your eyes will need a few hours to readjust and your muscles will feel sore but you should be able to walk to a rest station while your eyes are still readjusting”
David listened to the announcement and remembered where he was but was still feeling really groggy and his mind was sluggish to think. When the pod opened lights on the floor directed him to the room he was supposed to wait in with his family before they went to the planet. When David got out of his pod his clothes felt extremely baggy on him like he was wearing some many times too big for him but his mind wasn’t up to worrying about that and he just held onto his clothes and shuffled along the guiding lights. He made it to a small room with a few couches and he sat down resting his head in his hands. Soon after David arrived Laura arrived or at least David thought it was Laura but she looked much bigger than he remembered her being. Emily and Jane came next and both of them also looked bigger than he remembered. David’s eyes were still adjusting so he wasn’t sure if it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Almost a hour later when both his eyes and him mind were clearer did he realize the truth. Laura and his daughters hadn’t gotten bigger he had gotten smaller. When he looked into the mirror the room provided rather than seeing a 40 year old man he saw a 4 year old boy. David had been 5 foot 8 but now he was barely over 3 feet tall. David was starting to freak out about the change when his daughters started hugging him saying that he looked so cute as a little boy. Even Laura couldn’t help but find the new David adorable.
It wouldn’t be until many hours later that they made it to the planet and on their way to their new home. During those hours David had sought and received compensation for the faulty pod that had been used. While David was still stuck in a 4 year old’s body he had received a settlement payment to not sue the company and vouchers for medical treatment to try and reverse the changes.
Will David be able to reverse the changes done to him or does fate have something else in mind