About Accidental Centaurs

Alex and Samantha were scientists, attempting to develop a matter transportation system. However, one day a highly energetic component of their prototype exploded, opening a gate between Earth and a strange, otherworldly dimension, which Alex came to call [i]otherSpace[/i], where the rules that we take for granted do not apply.For starters, they found themselves transformed from human beings into creatures that resembled the centaurs of classical Greek mythology. There were other changes, too, which they’ll find out along the way.Their arrival attracted the attention of the W!rxn, a race of powerful etherial beings, who saw Alex and Sam as the fulfillment of an eon-old prophecy. To aid them in their travels in search of information that will help them fulfill their destiny, the W!rxn gave Sam a ring that contained a djinn, inexplicably named Lenny. Lenny was to act a guide and guardian for the centaurs’ quest.In order to survive in this strange new world, they’re going to have to overcome a host of obstacles–not least of which is their own animosity toward each other.

Dr. Alexsandr Mikhailovich Tischenko is an American-born particle physicist, whose expertise on the fundamental relationships between matter and energy made him a vital member of the KDEW Associates Teleportation Development Team. That is, until a accident caused by a software bug led to him being whisked away to an alternate dimension and finding himself transformed into a being that resembled a classical centaur.

Tischenko, who prefers to be called “Alex”, was born in Berkeley, California to Mikhail and Svetlana Tischenko. The Tischenkos had defected to the United States from the Soviet Union shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and, as scientists, found work at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories. Alex is the oldest of three sons, who, in fine American tradition, can’t speak a word of their parents’ native tongue (unless he’s drunk).

Alex showed an early aptitude for math and science, and attended UC Berkeley, where he got his undergraduate degree. He then went to the other side of the bay for his graduate work, receiving a master’s and doctorate from Stanford. He began teaching at Stanford shortly afterward.

However, education was not to be his field. After publishing an influential paper in 1992, Alex was invited to spend time at CERN in Switzerland. He stayed there for five years, doing research that would, he hoped, help find the Higgs boson. While Alex was unable to find this elusive particle, his work in the field is still considered to be vital to the ongoing research into high-energy massive particles. During his time at CERN, he was watching over a colleague’s shoulder, telling the co-worker that his idea for a global hypertext computer network had possibilities.

In 1998, Alex ended a sabbatical from CERN and took a job with Kurtzman, Davis, Elder & Wood Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He laid out the technical and physics challenges that had to be overcome in order to develop a working matter teleportation system. When the KDEW project was approved, he was put in charge of the Physics Department, which brought him into close collaboration with the head of the Information Processing Department, one Dr. Samantha Peterson. Sparks flew immediately, and not in the good way.

Alex is the more calm and rational half of the Accidental Centaurs. He tends to approach the challenges of daily life in otherSpace with an analytical emphasis that, due to the arbitrary nature of the world around him, doesn’t always work. He has accepted the changes that have occurred to him as being just another step toward getting home, which will always be his ultimate goal.

Dr, Samantha Peterson was, at one time, regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts in real-time mission-critical data processing systems. It was this expertise that brought her to the Massachusetts labs of KDEW Associates, a high-tech research-and-development firm that was in the process of developing a working matter teleportation system.As an undergrad at MIT, she worked on a project to revamp NASA’s telemetry network in the wake of the Challengeraccident, and she consulted with the space agency on numerous unmanned missions. She was also a major contributor to the systems aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, and had been selected as a mission specialist for a Hubble repair mission. Unfortunately, her voyage aboard the Space Shuttle was grounded by a bout of appendicitis.While at KDEW Associates, she began to work closely with particle physicist Alex Tischenko. The two started off as rivals for funding for their respective departments, and this blossomed into a full-fledged, old-fashioned mutual loathing.Sam can be a bit hot-headed and impulsive, a tendency that has only increased since her arrival into otherSpace. In fact, it was this impulsiveness that lead to the accident that opened the wormhole between Earth and otherSpace. A mix-up involving the control computer’s software leads to the catastrophic overloading of the capacitors that operate the dematerialization chambers targeting lasers. It is this event that causes the hyperdimensional rift that causes Sam’s metamorphosis into a centaur.

There is not much that is known about Lenny, the djinn assigned by the W!rxn to guide and aid the Accidental Centaurs in their journey through otherSpace. This is much is known:
  1. He is purple.
  2. He has a love of Earth pop culture.
  3. He is extremely sarcastic.
  4. Did we mention he’s purple?

Lenny is a denizen of GenieWorld, a parallel dimension that is the home of the djinn, a race of powerful beings that can be called forth to do the bidding of those who called them. Lenny is bound to the will of the W!rxn, for reasons that are not quite clear, and has been given the task of ensuring that Alex and Sam complete their quest — whatever it may be.

As a djinn, Lenny does not actually exist on the material plane of otherSpace. What Alex and Sam see is actually a projection of his consciousness from the astral plane onto the material. Because of this, Lenny has a non-corporeal existence in otherSpace, but can simulate solidity by the use of his powers.

His powers derive from the interaction between the astral and material planes, giving Lenny the ability to directly manipulate the outcome of events and probability on the quantum scale. Because of this, he has an exhaustive knowledge of otherSpace’s fundamental physics, which he calls “inherent knowledge”. All djinn acquire it upon entry through a portal from GenieWorld. Lenny’s portal is a ring that he gave to Sam.

Lenny’s entire background is shrouded in mystery. He seems to be very familiar with Earth and its culture. He is very sarcastic, and fond of calling his charges nicknames like “Trigger”, “oatmuncher” and “gluebag”. He is, however, extremely loyal, and has pledged to always protect the two former Earthlings, no matter the cost.