Disclaimer: The characters of The Secret of NIMH belong to Robert C O'Brien, author of the original 1971 novel, and Don Bluth, director of the 1982 film adaptation. Also, a few parts of the sci-fi universe used in this story are borrowed or inspired from Tim Burton's 2001 Planet of the Apes. I only own the human characters, which aren't based on any real-life people, alive or dead. Any similarity is purely coincidental and no profit is intended from this work.

Dedication: This work is dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth 'Biff' Hartman (1943-1987), whose amazing voice talent brought the character of Mrs Brisby (Frisby in the novel) to life on screen in the 1982 film adaptation by Don Bluth. Also, my adaptation of the character, who has no given first name in either the book or the film, is named after her.

By the year 2020, global economy had collapsed, along with much of society. In a dystopian world overrun by poverty, crime, warfare, overpopulation, pollution, and anarchy, the strong rose to take control. As it always happens, with Darwin's theory of evolution in action on the social scale, the few wealthy industrialists, militarists and politicians, with the resources and brains, built their own private domains amidst the shambles of contemporary society.

The corporation on the cutting edge was the National Industries for the Mobilisation of Humanity, commonly known as NIMH Corporations. Founded by wealthy industrialist and scientist Dr Thomas Valentine, NIMH rose from the ashes of the dying world, morphing into a world power, which slowly took control of the Earth. With influence in every major government and with all the wealth and power that went with it, Dr Valentine and his staff introduced a revolutionary industry to reshape the world.

With over four billion employees, NIMH had countless factories and subsidiaries worldwide, in every field of production, in addition to its virtually unlimited resources. And that didn't even come close to the profit it amassed, much of which went into investments for even more ambitious projects, adding to its seemingly never-ending credit. NIMH controlled food productions, engineering industries, science and research facilities, refineries, mines, power plants, and was the world's largest military contractor.

By the early 2030s, NIMH's Great Owl logo could be found on 90% of all market goods. Dr Valentine had become the new Kublai Khan of the modern world. Among the many projects to reshape the world in his image were his corporation's investments into space exploration and colonisation – the tycoon's ultimate goal: to mobilise the dominance of the human race beyond the boundaries of the known world.

By 2035, in a joint cooperation with all international space agencies, NIMH had established mankind's first colony on the Moon; by 2050, it had launched commercial mining operations on Mars, followed by other outposts scattered around the solar system; but that still wasn't enough. With the Earth dangerously overpopulated, polluted beyond recovery, and with natural resources dwindling, NIMH embarked on its ultimate project yet: the taking of the stars.

Although mankind had already established permanent colonies on both the Moon and Mars, those worlds were still dependant on Earth in one way or another, making them unsuitable for sustaining a functioning biosphere indefinitely, and thus unreliable for expending the human race. What NIMH – and mankind as a whole – needed was a new planet; one with the right mass, gravity, magnetosphere, atmosphere and elements, to be terraformed into a new Earth.

A place like this couldn't be found in the Earth's solar system. All attempts to terraform Venus and Mars had failed; as for the Jovian system, or any other worlds outside the habitable zone, they were either frozen in eternal darkness, or else baking in the face of the Sun, with no environment remotely capable of sustaining life. That left only one other place to look: beyond the outer reach.

Although the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri was over four light years away, and the Earth's leading brains only had hazy assumptions as to whether there was any habitable planet out there at all, NIMH would not be swayed from its goal. An international treaty was drawn up, uniting all of the world's space agencies together, to plan the greatest space mission in history, with NIMH providing the funding and resources.

And so it was in 2061, that the deep-space research starship NIMH-One began construction in Earth's orbit. Her mission would last an estimated ten to twelve years, during which time her crew would be subjected to some of the greatest physical and psychological challenges imaginable, which they would have to face entirely on their own.

Communication with Earth at light-years distances is impossible; therefore, the crew would have to rely exclusively on themselves and their machines to survive – and of course, make sure to impress their employers upon their return with the news of their discovery of a new habitable world.

The ship was designed to transport a crew of eight carefully selected individuals in suspended animation to Alpha Centauri, along with a payload of bioengineered, oxygen-producing algae and synthesizing bacteria, as well as a sample of the Earth's biosphere in the form of genetically-enhanced embryos and seedlings transported in cryostorage, as part of a major terraforming operation. This payload, once delivered, would, theoretically, initiate the 'rebirth' of terrestrial life on a new world, creating a fresh clone of humanity's dying home planet.

Propelled by prototype anti-matter ion engines, fuelled by a recently discovered nuclear compound called unobtanium, mined on Mars – the most powerful nuclear element on the periodic table –, the NIMH-One could travel at almost the speed of light, cutting the otherwise impossible journey of 40,000 years to a little over 54 months. In the intervening time, the NIMH-One would function as a sleeper ship, with both crew and payload in stasis, leaving the onboard automated supercomputers in control of avionics and life support. Upon their arrival to Alpha Centauri-A, the nearest of the three sister stars, the crew would be aroused from hibernation and begin their mission in earnest.

In preparation for their long and the perilous voyage, whilst their ship was being constructed, the select crew of the NIMH-One spent several years undergoing a painstaking line of training. Aside from the endless fitness and psychological evaluations and medical examinations, each member of the crew had to qualify as a lead expert in his field, competing against several other backups, who trained alongside him. Due to the tricky nature of the mission, in which they'd be no Mission Control to monitor their progress, the crew were also trained in backup duties, so one's post could be taken up on a moment's notice by another crewmember, in the event of an emergency. By 2069, the finest crew ever trained for a space mission and their ship were finally ready to embark on their long journey.

And so it was on the 20th July 2069 – the 100th anniversary of the first lunar landing - that the NIMH-One, with her crew safely placed in stasis, fired up her ion rocket boosters for the first time. Billions of spectators, watching the launch via video feed from the International Lunar Station, watched as the prototype starship left Earth's orbit at almost the speed of light, heading in a straight line towards Alpha Centauri.

Within weeks, the ship's transponder signal ceased, as the ship crossed into the outer reach, past the orbit of Pluto, vanishing into the void. The NIMH-One had left humanity's little corner of the universe completely, heading off into the unknown regions of deep space. This was to be the beginning of a long journey, which would take one man beyond the known boundaries of space and time, to a world beyond imagining. His name was Captain Josh Anderson, and this is his story…

Author's note: This is my first Secret of NIMH fanfic. As you've probably noticed, on my profile there is a preview for another NIMH story, which was meant to be more canon; however, at the last minute, I chose to go with something more original. Coming up next, introduction of Josh Anderson and the rest of the crew when they awake from stasis… Enjoy and please review!