Disclaimer: The characters in this story were created by the ancient Greeks. Their personalities have been modified over the years and affected by fiction and nonfiction writers; I will further modify their personalities to affect the story.

They had been geniuses once, in their own time, scientists in their own right. Now they were trapped in what they saw as a primitive society, such as caged humans surrounded by mere zoo species. They did not know their misfortune at first, they only marveled at the miracle act they had finally accomplished. They were travelers of a sort, not knowing the harm and chaos they might yet unleash on a society as moldable as the mind of a child.

The project in which they were currently involved was one of mystery, one surrounded by a fog and invisible to the public. If another saw their experiment, that person was given a choice: to be inducted into the group or to be killed. Not one yet had chosen the latter option, but some had taken that path by failing the induction test, a simple IQ test for which a certain ranking was required to be achieved. Their numbers grew slowly as the project progressed, the number grew finally to twelve.

The project could not be finished until the twelve put their lives on the line and stepped into it themselves. Yes, they had tested others but the only results they had received was that the subjects seemed to be on the correct plane, in the right time. None yet had returned, as was expected. The twelve could not be sure if the subjects had not returned because they had found a place so wonderful it might be called Eden or if the subjects had been punished, killed, or devoured by the natives they had found. The twelve preferred even the choice that the equipment did not work over that last option, for soon they would step into the portal.

They prepared for the fateful night when they would finally find if their work had been worth all the effort. Each of the twelve worshipped on that final night at their respective places, appealing to the supernatural power of the specific religion to which he or she belonged, in a final attempt to ensure the safety of the final leg of the experiment.

The next morning, not knowing what would be the result, each of the twelve donned their protective gear, basically weapons, shields against radiation, and various other forms of protection in case anything should go wrong, and stepped into the portal. What they found, what they saw, what they did, this is all the story that will follow.