The satellite images are getting clearer by the day. In less than 3 months, the comet will collide with Earth. Astronomers around the world have been constantly running the numbers and suspect the comet will crash somewhere in North America. The impact of the comet is not the worst part, as it is not large enough to destroy the entire planet. The massive shockwave it will send through the Earth's layers, however, could cause severe damage.

A small group of scientists in North America have solved the problem the crisis has brought about though. Instead of trying to evacuate everyone, they have developed a machine that can reconstruct human bodies from DNA samples. They plan to catalog everyone's DNA, let them risk it during the comet strike, then reconstruct anyone who does not survive. This will be no easy task though. The population of North America is extremely high and nearly the whole continent is heavily populated. This means that not many will survive, leaving the number needing to be reconstructed very huge. Because they have such little time, the citizens feel this it the only option and relectantly agree.

Several months later as the comet collides, millions of people manage to survive. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of others are not nearly as fortunate. The task of rebuilding of the race is now in the hands of the scientists. After cranking out around 900,000 reconstructed people something terrible happens. The ground begins to shake and everything on the shelves of the labratory falls to the floor. Soon the world settles down and the scientists realize it was just another of the aftershocks. This is the first time, however, that they had been using the machine when an aftershock occured.

As they inspect it for damage, they notice a small crack in one of the circuits, but the machine tests fine after they restart it because the automatic safety shutoff was triggered by the quake. Once it begins working they think it is fully operational except that it now seems to operate much faster. They decide this is probably not a bad thing since they need to get the task of reconstructing hundreds of millions of people done as soon as possible. They continue pushing forward and a few thousand more people are reconstructed before the day's shift is done. Hard work has left them bitter and tired. Feeling the need to press on as soon as possible, they decide to all take a quick nap to refresh themselves before being work on another set of people.

While they rest, another aftershock occurs and they awake quickly and instantly run out to the lab in search of any damaged materials. What they find is much, much worse...

Thanks for all the feedback.

IGTHORN:
About them taking a nap, I kind of feel like I should work that in a little differently. What I was trying to do was make some sort of way for them to be away from the machine for a little while so that when the aftershock happened they would have to get back to it and extreme exhaustion seemed to work

The satellite images are getting clearer by the day. In less than 3 months, the asteroid will collide with Earth. Astronomers around the world have been constantly running the numbers and suspect the comet will crash somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean, potentially causing the loss of millions of lives in North America and throughtout Europe. The impact of the asteroid is not the worst part, as it is not large enough to destroy the entire planet. The massive shockwave it will send through the Earth's layers, however, could cause severe damage.

A small group of scientists, led by Xavier Cortez, in North America have solved the problem the crisis has brought about though. Instead of trying to evacuate everyone, they have developed a machine that can reconstruct human bodies from DNA samples as well as memories in order to completely recreate them. They plan to catalog everyone's DNA and memories, let them risk it during the comet strike, then reconstruct anyone who does not survive. This will be no easy task though. The projected location of the impact suggests many will not survive, leaving the number needing to be reconstructed very in the billions. Because they have such little time, the citizens feel this it the only option and relectantly agree.

Several months later as the asteriods collides, millions of people manage to survive. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of others are not nearly as fortunate. The task of rebuilding the race is now in the hands of Cortez and his scientists. After cranking out around 900,000 reconstructed people something terrible happens. The ground begins to shake and everything on the shelves of the labratory falls to the floor. Soon the world settles down and the scientists realize it was just another of the aftershocks. This is the first time, however, that they had been using the machine when an aftershock occured.

As they inspect it for damage, they notice a small crack in one of the circuits and the Memory Calibrator fell onto the floor, but the machine tests fine after they restart it because the automatic safety shutoff was triggered by the quake. Once it begins working it seems fully operational except it now seems to operate much faster. They decide this is probably not a bad thing since they need to get the task of reconstructing hundreds of millions of people done as soon as possible. They continue pushing forward and a few thousand more people are reconstructed before the day's shift is done. Hard work has left them bitter and tired. Their mood is made even worse when the alarm sounds and they must evacuate. Assuming it is just a test of the system because they felt no aftershock, they follow protocal and move into the designated area and wait out the 10 minutes required before they can once again continue working.

They take this time to rest and grab some coffee before returning to their work. Their break is sharply interupted by a loud crash in the lab. Everyone races to the lab only to find the machine's cracked circuits prevented it from shutting down during the alarm. They also find the Memory Calibrator lying in pieces on the floor. They quickly learn this is the least of their problems...