Shrink Wrapped

"Nanobots." He withdrew a bottle from his coat pocket, an ordinary medicine bottle with writing and graduations on the side. He held it upright, gripped between his thumb and middle finger.

"Thirty years," he said.

"Excuse me?" Kellie eyed the skim of liquid coating the bottom of the bottle. It was greenish in color, and slightly fluorescent. It seemed to waver in intensity, like the aurora's she'd seen on television. She experienced a fundamental feeling of dread, like a swimmer might, identifying a dark shape gliding through the water. She gripped herself across the chest and asked: "What is that?"

Grove gave her a crooked little smile. "I call this Shrinx."

The grin did nothing to calm Kellie's nerves. "Shrinks? What is that?"

Grove spelled it out for her. "It's a concoction I brewed up from the most complex formulations you could imagine." He cocked his head and gazed at the bottle, or the remaining green liquid inside--almost reverentially, Kellie thought. Or lovingly.

"What does that do?" she asked tremulously.

Grove put the bottle away. "It shrinks things. At the quantum level. Actually, that's not true, because there is no quantum level, per se. In conjunction with the nanobots I injected you with earlier-"

"What? You injected me twice?"

"-Shrinx generates billions of electromagnetic fields that distort the surrounding fabric of space-time-"

"You injected me twice?" Kellie repeated, not comprehending the larger picture, or in this case, maybe the smaller.

"-creating a differential in the quantum foam, manipulating the quantum foam actually, so that you fall below the threshold of what I call-"

Kellie tried to shriek...and couldn't. The muscles in her throat had frozen solid and when she opened her mouth to scream, that didn't happen either. She was paralyzed, right down to her pinkies and little toes.

Grove leaned forward and cocked his head. "What's going on?" Kellie stared at him with unblinking, terrified eyes. Grove lowered his face and listened to her breathing. Luckily, she still was. Her heart was beating also, pounding against her ribcage.

"This is unexpected." He placed his fingertips against her throat and counted. Then he checked her respiration with a hand between her breasts. "Don't worry. I won't touch anything I shouldn't touch." True to his word, he touched her nowhere inappropriate. He stood back, arms folded, a finger to his lips, frowning.

"Must be the nanobots For some reason, they're blocking transmission of your neurotransmitters. Or counteracting your muscular contractions, which seems more reasonable given the indications. This could be a problem," he mused.

Kellie blinked, and his eyebrows rose.

"Could you do that before?"

Kellie shook her head.

"Do that again."

Kellie couldn't, which really scared the poopy out of her.

Grove looked pleasantly surprised. "I'll be damned. Selective paralysis. I wonder..." He tapped his lips again. "Shrinx is controlling its environment." He bent down and clumsily disengaged Kellie from her IV's, tossing the parts inattentively to the floor before scooping the helpless girl into his arms. Then he set her back down again.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," he muttered. Working carefully, he disengaged the plugs terminating the jumble of lead wires from under Kellie's gown from the plug connected to the monitor cord. He then did a quick check to make sure he'd missed nothing else, and then picked her up again and carried her across to a wheel chair Kellie had last seen collapsed and sitting between the end of the divan and the wall. She was still paralyzed.

"Where are you taking me?" she whispered, not quite paralyzed after all.

"To a safer place," Grove said quietly. He wheeled her to the door and peeked outside. The way was apparently clear because he wheeled her into the hall and hurried toward an intersecting corridor twenty feet distant. He seemed to have no more idea where they were going than Kellie, because he glanced hesitantly back and before making a turn to his right. Kellie reassured herself that even now a nurse was dashing toward her room to see why Kellie's vital signs had dropped to zero. Moments from now an alarm would wail, security would lock down the building and guards would begin scouring the building from top to bottom, starting with this floor. She would have laughed in her smugness had not she been paralyzed. Fucking moron, she thought.

At the next corridor Grove hung a left. Kellie was sliding limply forward in the wheel-chair--Grove hadn't thought to belt her in--and any moment she might tumble loose-limbed onto the floor. There was no telling what she might do to herself, paralyzed like this. Then Grove stopped at a door marked Maintenance Closet and she looked up, then found herself unable to further move her head. Her paralysis was maddeningly unpredictable.

Grove looked up and down the hall. "Best you'll probably find," he muttered, trying the door and finding it open. He backed her into the closet and maneuvered the wheelchair between a grungy yellow mop bucket and a gray steel shelf filled with supplies. The he returned to the door, peeked outside and gently pushed it closed. Kellie heard the latch snick into place.

"The is your safer place?" she croaked.

He grunted and bent down to inspect her throat. "Are you having difficulty breathing?" She shook her head. "Talking?" She nodded. He scratched his head, and shrugged. "Beats the hell out of me. Lets hope it wears off soon."

Kellie found that not at all reassuring. Unconsciously she reached up and rubbed her nose, then couldn't put her arm down again. She fumed as Grove reacted with a smirk. From his coat pocket, he removed a 2" block of dull gray metal and placed it carefully on the steel shelf between two bottles of bleach. From his other pocket he fished a pair of headphones which he placed absentmindedly around his neck while messing with what Kellie initially identified as an old fashioned cassette player. Then Shrinx let go of her arm and she dropped it into her lap. But when she tried to rub her right shoulder, sore from being immobilized, Shrinx said no again. She continued to silently fume.

Grove said: "This a communicator. It'll allow us to talk while you shrink, and let me track your progress.

Kellie had rejected this shrinking nonsense as Grove's insanity. But this paralysis business and its unpredictability gave her pause. Was it possible that Grove really had...?

She snorted, laughing at the stupid idea. Grove gazed down at her.

"You're an asshole, Professor. You know that? They're gonna lock you up in a loony bin forever."

Grove laughed. "I doubt that. I've been fairly careful about avoiding security cameras, and as you can see..." He held up his hands, which Kellie for the first time noticed were encased in examination gloves. "No fingerprints. And I've never been DNA fingerprinted, so there's little danger of lost hair or skin cells tripping me up. Regardless...the benefits outweigh the risks. In a month's time..." He shrugged. "I won't be around to prosecute anyway."

Kellie shook her head. "You are nuts."

Laughing, Grove inserted the headphones jack into the top of the cassette player. "Have you ever wondered exactly what the world is?"

Kellie shook her head, not in answer, but in disgust.

"For 30 years I've researched that question. Hammered away at it through three marriages and two heart attacks."

Too bad one of those heart attacks didn't kill you, Kellie thought angrily.

"At one time, I looked to the stars for the answer. Built my own telescope, studied the star charts, poured over the calculations. I spent years staying up nights. Then I got into physics. And then into quantum physics. And guess what? Not one person, not even myself, had a clue. All these years of particle theory, unified field, weak and strong atomic interactions--it's all bunk." He laughed, and Kellie laughed with him. Then she gasped as pain, hot and as searing as fire shot through her limbs. Grove observed her closely. She exhaled, trembling.

"You OK?"

"Fuck you, Professor! I am not OK."

Grove nodded. He cocked his head to the right, and then to the left. "It's started. I imagine that spasm of pain was the...I don't know exactly what to call it--threshold crossing?" He shrugged again. "Anyway, things will progress quickly from here." Removing the headphones, he fit them around Kellie's neck and sat the cassette player in her lap. From the handle behind her right shoulder he removed a blue backpack and dropped that onto her lap also.

"Ten years ago, I had a breakthrough of sorts. I proved conclusively that our planet, and all the other planets revolving around the sun, are in fact an electron system orbiting a nucleus. A theory postulated back in the 30's when the structure of the atom was first understood, but discarded as not only impossible, but laughable--science fiction at its worse. Worse that science fiction: fantasy." He laughed, bemused. "Ironic, isn't it? An entirely and totally discredited theory not even an eighth grade student would dare voice."

Kelly glowered at him. He continued.

"Billions of star systems. Separated by light years but taken as a group, forming our little galaxy. A galaxy among countless others. Spread throughout the universe with tremendous stretches of empty space between them. Intergalactic space. Molecular space. Not of some exotic element, either." He shook his head, evidently in wonder. "Do you know anything of the atomic table? How many planets circle the sun?"

"Eight?" Kellie guessed.

Grove nodded, grinning wryly. "The same number of electrons as...?" He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Gold?" Kellie guessed again.

Grove laughed and shook his head. "Teenagers. No, Kellie, the element with eight electrons in the shell is one of the simplest of atoms, a gas, and vital for your survival." He tapped the side of her nose lightly. "Oxygen."

Kellie blinked at him. Grove had completely flipped his lid.

"Carry it a step further," he said. "Perhaps this electron of ours, whirling around its oxygen nucleus, is nothing more than a construction in itself, quadrillions of tiny solar systems comprising the atoms of someone's fork, the spoke of a wheel on some little girl's bike, the patiently waiting pre-critical mass of plutonium in somebody's bomb. "

"Oh, for God's sake, Professor," Kellie cried. "Stop it!"

Grove rubbed the side of his nose with a pudgy finger. "Yes. Well, anyway, I decided that any exploration on the macroscopic level was useless. I could never discover the make-up of the molecule our oxygen atom comprises. Quantum mechanics has to do with the very small, so if I could develop a quantum solution, I might prove my hypothesis in another way. A month ago, I developed Shrinx. The nanobots I stole, and between the two of them, I intend to explore the subatomic universe."

Kellie shook her head. "You are totally fucking nuts. Get me out of this chair."

Grove was unperturbed. Watching her feeble struggles to recapture the use of her limbs, he said: "There are several reasons I shouldn't go first. For one, once you make the transition, there's no coming back. And there could be unexpected side effects. If so, I'll need to deal with them before following in your footsteps. I also need to know what to expect. You'll be my scout, so to speak."

Kellie glared at him furiously.

Grove patted her shoulder. He'd already noted a small but discernable reduction in her size. He guessed she'd diminished in volume by about 5%.

"We'll keep in contact via the communicator around your neck. I'll explain its use in just a moment. Your rate of shrinkage should remain consistent throughout, but may be altered somewhat by your blood pressure or heart-rate. I'm not sure how much; there's only so much computer simulations can do. Shrinx will handle the details, don't worry."

Kellie experienced a moment of light-headedness; Grove's voice came from a very great distance away and her vision became tunnelized and distorted like a fun-house mirror. Then it cleared and she was okay again.

"I feel rather ashamed of myself doing this to a teenage girl. But thousands of teenage girls go missing every year and I determined that you-or someone of your ilk-would be my best bet at success. I guess Ilk is the wrong word, sorry. I've never been politically astute or in tune with teenage phraseology." He looked a little embarrassed. "Anyway, what's done is done." He cocked his head measuringly. "I can definitely see the change. Shrinx is working on you. Do you feel the effect?"

Kellie was verging on panic. She could feel something going on. Where before, her toes had touched the floor, they were no longer making contact. The wheelchair seemed to have grown outward around her. It was probably just panic.

"Let's do this." He eased her forward in the chair, lifted the backpack and one at a time slipped her limp arms through the straps. It was lumpy against her back, uncomfortable. "Supplies," he explained. He then withdrew a second pair of headphones and another cassette player for his lab coat pocket and placed the headphones over his ears.

"Testing one, two, three?" He smiled sheepishly and placed the headphones over Kellie's ears. "Can you here me now?"

Kellie heard him loud and clear, wincing. "Why me?" she asked hoarsely.

"Why not you?" He fiddled with the controls on his cassette player and asked: "This better?"

"Why me?" she asked again.

Grove shrugged. "You're in my class. I studied you extensively. I flipped a coin between you and three other girls, and you won."

"Bastard," Kellie muttered. Her feet were slowly rising as the shrinkage reduced the length of her calves. She was pretty sure the top edge of the wheelchair's vinyl back had crept higher up her spine, almost to her shoulders now. A shiver of fear shook her head to toe. She was actually shrinking.

"There's a built in microphone," Grove said. "You don't have to worry about adjusting anything. Just talk normally." He removed the cassette player from Kellie's lap and secured it to her right arm via Velcro straps. "I replaced the batteries with an isotope power pack, so lifetime is no longer a concern. It should last a minimum of five years. Just don't mess with it, Kellie."

Kellie was confused. "It'll shrink with me?"

Grove adjusted the volume on his headset. "Shrinx surrounds you with a dynamic quantum field. Anything within that field shrinks at the same rate as you: your clothes, the communicator, the backpack and everything in it. Anything you pick up and put in your pockets will also shrink with you."

He was taller now than he'd been just a minute ago, Kellie realized. The top edge of the vinyl back was now touching the back of her head, and her calves stuck almost straight out, her knees retreating from the edge of the seat. She was probably less than 4' tall.

"This is aluminum." Grove held the block of metal before her eyes. "It has the closest atomic weight to oxygen, so when you've reduced to the proper size, I'll set you atop it and eventually you'll shrink to the point where penetration into molecular space will occur. You'll be infinitely small by then, though still gargantuan compared to the galaxies around you. Utterly immense. Try to remain in the voids between galaxies until you reduce to a size that won't disrupt them unnecessarily. Let common sense guide your movements. Keep in mind though," he said, tucking his chin gravely, "Those are galaxies, just like ours, millions of stars with solar systems just like ours, many with habitable planets. Disrupting them unnecessarily would be disastrous for their civilizations. Do you understand that?"

Kellie would have spit on him were she able. A thought occurred to her through her fury, making her panic again. "How will I breath? If I'm out there in-"

Grove waved his hand dismissively. "Think I'd forget something as elementary as that? Come on."

Kellie ground her teeth together. She was unable to vocalize a reply, which only frustrated her more. Grove watched her shudder and begin to shake uncontrollably. He smiled wryly as the shaking quickly came under control...and then vanished.

"Shrinx," he informed her. "It'll help you get through this."

Kellie was almost as disturbed at being manipulated as she was about being victimized. What else was Shrinx capable of, she wondered?

"In case you're interested, I'll be bringing these along when I make my trip." He tapped his own pair of earphones. "We can keep in contact the entire length of our journeys that way."

What a wonderful thing to look forward to, Kellie thought bitterly.

Grove read her expression. "I imagine you'll be glad for the sound of another voice down there," he said softly. "It'll probably get pretty lonely."

Kellie struggled not to think about that, being alone in a foreign universe.

Her heels approached the edge of the seat and her head was below the top of the seatback now. Grove appeared 12' tall. She had the perspective of her six-year-old self, she thought. "I'm scared," she said tremulously.

"Of course, you are." Grove patted her head comfortingly. The wheelchair, the room, the steel shelf, the narrow worktable, the one high-backed chair, Grove; all continued to enlarge as Kellie shrank. Now her feet were 4" beyond the edge of the seat and her head mid-way down the back. Sounds were amplified. Grove loomed over her. He looked suddenly cheerless.

"I guess this is goodbye then. I'll follow in a month or so, but there's no chance we'll ever see each other again. It'll be the same cube of metal-" He tapped the aluminum with his fingertip. "But the chances of selecting the same galaxy, much less the same solar system or the same planet are astronomical. Worse than astronomical," he said, grinning ruefully. "Also-" And this seemed almost an afterthought. "Your rate of shrinkage once you make planet-fall will limit your timeframe on-planet to a few hours. No more than four or five, I would imagine. Use your time well and remember, try to limit any collateral damage."

Fuck you, she thought bitterly.

Grove stood back to observe, and within a matter of minutes Kellie was the size of a child's fashion doll. Grove scooped her up, thought better of it, placed her carefully back down on the seat and retrieved the aluminum cube, setting it before her on the chair seat. In a whisper he said: "Until you enter the cube, I think it best we no longer speak. I'm afraid the sound waves will be too much for your tiny eardrums."

Kellie shook her head frantically. When she spoke, her voice was a mouse squeak: "My feet! I'm barefoot! Won't my feet get torn up by the cube?"

Grove snorted. "You have so little faith in me. There's a complete change of clothes in the backpack, boots included. I wouldn't let you run around barefoot." He smiled grimly. "Good luck to you, Kellie." He scooped her up again and sat her on the cube, awkwardly balanced.

"Food?" Kellie inquired. "Water?"

"In the backpack. Freeze dried rations. Unfortunately, I could only give you three days ration of water. After that, you're on your own. But Shrinx will help with that, also. You'll be in no immediate danger of dehydration or starvation." His expression turned pensive. "Shrinx generates a field that maintains your oxygen supply at all times. You should be okay in intergalactic space, but my advice is stay away from stars once you get smaller. You don't want to get pulled in by their gravitational field. That would be very bad. And Black Holes could theoretically puncture the field and draw away your atmosphere. Just keep that in mind."

Fucking great, Kellie thought caustically. I didn't have enough to worry about. And then she stood up and stretched. The paralysis was finally gone and her joints ached and her muscles felt cramped, alarmingly weak, noodley even. She reached up and offered Grove the middle finger of her right hand. Grove snickered and used finger gestures urging her to carry on. Shrugging off the backpack, Kellie turned her back on the mountainous Grove and located the zipper. Inside were two pairs of blue jeans, a pair of button-down white shirts-she made sure they were girl's-a lightweight jacket, the aforementioned boots and two pair of white socks. Three sets of underwear and bras were included, all white, and she slipped panties on under the gown, put on the bra, doing so in a torturously complicated manner to maintain her dignity, and then struggled into the blue jeans. They were new and stiff and uncomfortable, but at least they were the leading brand and not some dime-store rip off.