Children are abandoned on a planet, but why? [closed]

Question

My story is set in the relatively far future of 3812 AD. Humanity has united under one country and spread out across the stars. While there are protests of government corruption and separatists movements there aren't any major national problems- at least, none that the people hear of.

Suddenly, for what appears to be no reason whatsoever, approximately 100 children between the ages of 4 and 12 are snatched from their homes by the government and plopped into a spaceship. Some time later the ship lands on a deserted alien planet, and shortly after all communication is cut off.

I have most aspects of my story already planned out, but there is one thing I couldn't get a good reason for- why kidnap all those children and put them on a alien planet? What tactical or otherwise advantage would that give them? If anybody has suggestions that would be very nice.

Answer 1

More details on the story would really help, but...

So a lot of people have suggested that they are children of the separatists, but I don't see it. If you want to kidnap the children for leverage you keep them somewhere safe. If you are just doing it as a "ha ha" type of punishment, then just kill them or dispose of them in space.

Things that I can see working:

Bureaucracy

The whole thing was accidental. Someone in this large government misfiled some paperwork. The government officials aren't even sure if they did kidnap any children or if its just the separatist trying to create a media scandal. Some officials are trying their hardest to get the children back, but no one knows where they were sent because the documentation was misplaced. Or maybe its malicious bureaucracy. The government did it, but noone involved really knows why, even the decision makers. (If you watch the movie CUBE, this is hypothesized as why the Cube exists. The government built a death trap and then asked, "Why did we build this? I guess we should put people in it."

Failed Program

There was some valid purpose to sending these children, but there were supposed to be adults. A cryo-failure resulted in everyone over 75 kg, all of the adults, dying. Or perhaps a power failure to lifesupport made the crew make a tough call. They sacrificed themselves so there would be enough juice for the children to survive.

Social Experiment

Other people have said this, but it seems like a decent answer.

Entertainment

This season on, "will your child survive?" Extreme reality TV, the next hunger games, ect.

Special Talent

Maybe this is a hell planet (haven't told us a lot) and the point is that the strongest of them will survive and be strong survivors. Who ever lives is going to then be trained as a soldier.

Or perhaps all of these children have latent psych powers. They must be put into extreme or stressful situations to awaken them. However being around normal humans will dampen their ability to discover their powers.

Quarentine

These children have something wrong them. Something REALLY wrong with them that cannot be quarantined in a normal way and the government doesn't really want people to know about. Some strain on nanomachines and they are worried about a gray goo scenario. There was some debate about just nuking them from orbit, but some people felt this would be morally wrong.

Or perhaps they have a psychic virus. There is no known way to contain it, only to isolate it. The government plans to observe them to learn more.

Tribute

Unbeknownst to the rest of humanity, the government has secretly been contacted by a powerful extraterrestrial empire. These aliens have demanded a tribute. The government, knowing that it will not survive a war is forced to comply.

Colonization

Its not just these 100 children. The government has developed means to rapidly transport people but knows it is facing some existential crisis. They are transporting as many people as quickly as they can to habitable worlds outside their borders (or even in other dimensions / times). It is pure chance that these 100 children ended up by themselves on this planet.

Time Travel

The government has discovered time travel and also that there is a self fulfilling paradox. This planet is actually prehistoric Earth, and those children are the first humans.

Answer 2

A horrible, terrible clerical error. These children were all orphans, from abusive families, and from horrible slums. They were collected as part of a government relief aid program to be taken to a rehabilitative academy. Unfortunatley "live passengers" was mislabled "livestock" on the automated ship computer. They were dropped off on an uninhabited planet by mistake as part of a livestock seeding program to prepare for future colonization.

Answer 3

A Social Experiment.

Maybe they left all those kids in that planet as a social experiment. Maybe to see what sort of primitive culture they’d build up, or if they’d die brutality on that planet. It might also be a televised event, depending on how lax your laws are.

Answer 4

These are the children of the separatists. The Government has taken them as hostages to ensure their good behavior. Because the government is corrupt, they just dumped the kids somewhere and keep telling their parents that they are in an undisclosed location for safe keeping.

Answer 5

It depends on the nature of who the children are, the way I see it their are three options:

1. The children are experimental- Okay think of this the children are put on deserted alien planet to test the ability of a young humans to adapt to an ecosystem with a different biochemistry, or like Rogan said a social experiment.

2. They are the children of the protesters and/or separatists- Imagine this, some protesters throw some riots, eh no big deal, but then they bomb a hospitable or some schools and show no signs of stopping, take some of the kids of big shots, shoot them onto an alien planet and keep them their to try and stop the bombings

3. They are the children of the government officials(vise versa of 2)- So I know you said that the government did this but it could look like the government if the separatists and/or protesters kidnap them in government uniform and with the government ships. Then they place the children on an alien planet and make their demands.

Answer 6

Business as usual. It's not hard to imagine what the corporate structure of the human race could be like in 1800 years. Perhaps a few very wealthy, very busy people arranged for this relocation for the protection or better life of their children against the wills of their families who would otherwise never agree to detach themselves from their children for any reason. So, through a form of elitism, there is a company that will offer them something truly different.

Take them, relocate them, and prevent them from being tainted by the wiles of the universe as we came to know it.

It's not a kidnapping except in the legal sense. It's an opportunity for the children to experience a life without the bureaucracy, politics, religions, hatred, violence, and greed of the rest of the worlds. A place where they can build their own reality, in tune with nature, and in a small enough group where social classes and ambiguity don't cloud the judgement of the greater good.

For those who have spent their lives building and maintaining empires, but secretly wish they grew up in a cabin in the woods. Since acquisition has never satisfied, their exhaustion has withered their bodies and convinced them that the pursuit of wealth is in reality the absence of wealth. They feel they have found a way to give their kids a chance to truly live.