Prologue: BD (Before Diogenes)

A shortish novella.
Two parts woven together:

Life's a barrel of laughs... geddit?
No, you probably wouldn't.
Uncle Clive and Aunt Jane didn't get it either.
Tully got it, but didn't appreciate it...

...living in a barrel was no joking matter.

This is the unfortunate tale of a bunch of kids zooming across the galaxy and, in parallel, the story of how they got there.