Jubal_Harshaw
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2021
- Messages
- 36
I think the story is from the '70s or '80s, and I cannot remember whether it was a short story, a novella or a full novel.
The premise was a technology similar to a Star Trek transporter. It scanned an organism and was able to transmit a COPY of the organism elsewhere in the galaxy, while the original remained on Earth. When reconstituted at the destination, the organism could be modified to fit the local environment (e.g. for higher gravity or different atmosphere). Basically, you would be transmitting the sentience of the organism, for a body to be built around it.
As a source of funds, Earth's government would run criminals through this machine and sell the "copies" to non-human races as forced labor in environments where they were not likely to survive very long. Basically, slave labor with a guaranteed death sentence. The kicker was that, once scanned, a given organism could be reconstituted an infinite number of times in an infinite number of places. So, Earth was basically selling its convicts into unlimited slavery for all eternity.
Somehow, a little kid on Earth got run through the machine with a group of convicts, so you had this child's essence stuck in this unlimited Hell with these convicts.
Does this ring any bells?
The premise was a technology similar to a Star Trek transporter. It scanned an organism and was able to transmit a COPY of the organism elsewhere in the galaxy, while the original remained on Earth. When reconstituted at the destination, the organism could be modified to fit the local environment (e.g. for higher gravity or different atmosphere). Basically, you would be transmitting the sentience of the organism, for a body to be built around it.
As a source of funds, Earth's government would run criminals through this machine and sell the "copies" to non-human races as forced labor in environments where they were not likely to survive very long. Basically, slave labor with a guaranteed death sentence. The kicker was that, once scanned, a given organism could be reconstituted an infinite number of times in an infinite number of places. So, Earth was basically selling its convicts into unlimited slavery for all eternity.
Somehow, a little kid on Earth got run through the machine with a group of convicts, so you had this child's essence stuck in this unlimited Hell with these convicts.
Does this ring any bells?
