"There we go. That's the last one set. No one will ever notice." Greg stepped back and admired his work. A single, strange potted plant sat in front of him. It was in the middle of a huge, empty room. Greg lifted a small communicator to his lips and, whilst holding a button, said, "Elephant 100 is in place. Beam me up, Scotty!"
The man turned into a purple cube, which divided into smaller and smaller pieces until it vanished. As soon as the purple stuff was gone, the potted plant, which incidentally looked nothing like an elephant, was jostled about as a minuscule probe scanned the room for infra red radiation and echo sounded the area. Once it was happy with the area around it, it sank back down into the pot.
"Right, that's all of them done. I'm going to bed." Greg had just bounced into existence in glorious technicolour from nowhere. He was now walking across the large room, heading towards a door. James was frowning behind the control console.
"What are you on about? That was the last of one of the many LANs. There are thousands more to go," said James. He smiled at the expression on Greg's face. Torture was not in his nature, but he made an exception for Greg. Simply because it was so funny. He began to laugh as Greg slowly walked towards him, arms outstretched and ready to throttle him. "Don't worry, you don't have to plant them. The transporter can do that for you."
He pressed a button on the console and there was a loud snap. Summoned from the bowels of the boat, many potted plants, bollards, post boxes and trees appeared in the centre of the room, accompanied by a very quiet shrew.
Greg bent down to the furry mammal. "Hey, what's wrong with the rat?" he asked as he rapped the creature hard on the head. A very un-shrew-like clang was heard every time he hit it.
"It's metal," James replied. "That one's going out to the uninhabited area in the north. It won't even be eaten. The other animals will easily be able to tell that it isn't real. The instant they find their teeth lying on the floor, shattered, instead of in their mouth, anyway. Now, come behind the console, I have something very important to show you."
Greg walked up the few steps that reached the raised console. As he did so, James was fervidly manipulating the controls. There was a crack and Rachel appeared, pouring a pot of tea onto the floor. It took a few seconds for her eyes to focus and to realise that the scalding liquid was beginning to burn her toes. She turned right around to face James and promptly fell backwards. She still hasn't been able to cope with being transported. Maybe she's naturally clumsy, thought James.
As she got up, Rachel told James, "If you ever transport me like that again, I will make sure personally that your head will be transported to somewhere the sun doesn't shine. And this better be important."
"I love you too. Now, let's get this party started. Take a seat and enjoy." Fuming, Rachel sat on the sofa and Greg joined her. James tapped a few more buttons and threw himself onto the sofa. As he did so, the lights dimmed and the many objects in the room began to tremble by themselves. The very instant that Greg and Rachel began to wonder whether anything was going to happen, the objects flew into the air and formed a spiral. At the top of the spiral, the objects went down into the middle of the spiral. The objects had spaced themselves enough so that the observers could see everything that was happening. As they watched, they saw that six multicoloured holes in time and space had appeared. The objects began to move, following the path of the massive spiral. When they neared the holes, the objects changed colour and shot through the correspondingly coloured hole.
The three observers held their breath as the loud silence (see the Discworld novels) washed over them. The objects noiselessly slid into the different times and places that were the holes.
Back in Morthia, people were astounded by the many appearing objects. They seemed to be appearing from the sky. The unexplainable events caused not chaos, but curiosity. The objects didn't seem to be harmful. But no one dared touch them.
The MorBC news program was having an incredible day. Newspapers were printing headlines like 'GIFTS FROM ALIENS. WE HOPE THEY KEPT THE RECEIPT.' As the most respected news program in the country, it was up to them to sate the hunger of the masses. But let's face it. Flying trees? How were they going to deal with flying trees rationally?
Greg, James and Rachel were still watching as intently as when the display started when the final object, the titanium shrew, disappeared through the yellow hole. Then, the six holes merged to form one blue, water-like circle, shimmering with light.
James heard an intake of breath from Rachel and she softly exclaimed something about it being a gate to the stars. What is this? Clash of the Sci-Fis? He jumped up and moved to the console. "Right, now we need to download as soon as possible, before the government steps in to handle the situation." His fingers played over the console, only pausing to wind up some sort of wheel. After a couple of minutes, he stood back and admired his work. Then, he produced a small mallet that the others were sure that he had not had before, and whacked the console once. A small light blinked on and James sat down, apparently satisfied.
All over Morthia, the new objects were finally showing the public that they weren't any normal items. Things around them disintegrated and were absorbed. Before chaos was unleashed, the whole country was absorbed by the objects. The land was left silent. Then the objects raised from the ground, heading toward their holes in time and space, leaving behind a land with nothing but the wind and the earth left.
The objects came out of the blue portal one by one and promptly disappeared with a loud crack. The only change that the observers could see was that the materials had aged incredibly. This was because moving an entire country was incredibly difficult, so James had programmed the objects with information about the new land and sent them into space for several millennia to calculate where everything had to go. Now, as they lowered themselves onto the new land that was to be Morthia, they neared the end of their task.
Once the small light had stopped blinking, James sprung up to the console and, grinning to his two friends, cried "Let there be life!" and pressed a button.
All over the new Morthia, the objects hummed as they released their payload of the entire nation. Everything had been placed precisely. And throughout the land, after several thousand years entombed in titanium and plastic, the people of Morthia experienced life again. And their first act was to panic.
