Overcrowded Spaceship

When the colony ship Telemachus arrived at Nala-27 it was clear that the predictions of the electronic Brain were wrong. The readings of the chemical traces left no doubts. The planet couldn’t sustain carbon life.

The Brain of Telemachus would have to find another viable planet for its passengers. The next candidate was Nala-99. It would take 5 generations to arrive.

The ship had already traveled for 8 generations at 99.9% the speed of light. The population had grown from 890 to a total of 31,435 residents. This was the perfect number for planet colonization but too large for space travel aboard Telemachus.

Ship robots had been programmed to control the population from growing beyond the limits what the onboard resources could sustain. To ensure a successful arrival at Nala-99, the Brain determined that the right number of passengers was 89 humans.

Telemachus set course for Nala-99 and the purge started immediately.