[dogscoff]

And ofcourse the next and even more interesting possiblity would be the hacked transporter machines that didn't destroy the original, instead duplicating a person (I can see many evil uses of this possibility)

Read "Schlock mercenary" for an exploration of this exact(ish) situation. S_J links to it, or you can go to my site and find the bookmarks/ Online comics page. It's a great read.