The Girl Who Came Shrink Wrapped - Redux
Chapter 3

Copyright© 2012 by Marcia R. Hooper

Kellie was ravenous. Returning to a lotus position-it was so weird, no up or down or left and right; she might have been upside down for all she knew-Kellie removed the backpack and set it in her lap. Very carefully, observing the rules of weightlessness, she rummaged through the interior's contents. One item in particular caught her eye and she pulled out a small blue and white box. Well, she thought wryly, you hit that nail on the head. Kellie wondered how the professor knew. She wasn't about to ask.

"Professor? Still with me?"

"Still here, Kellie."

"These things all have military labels." She was inspecting the foil-packed, freeze-dried meals. There were 9 of them in all, presumably 3 days worth. She also had six bottles of spring water, her favorite kind. He'd known that also. The meals ranged in calories from 1140 to 1380. Since she only ate twice a day (had to maintain her cute little figure, right?), this would last her most of 4 days. The water she could probably stretch to 3 days, if she wasn't wasteful.

Grove said: "Military surplus. I bought them yesterday afternoon, along with the bottles of water. The expiration dates were fine."

"Spaghetti and meatballs?" she inquired. "Roast beef and potatoes?" She held a packet in either hand. Two more packets floated just off to her left, one containing powdered eggs and pancakes, the other meat loaf and string beans. She retrieved and stuffed them into the backpack. "These don't need water to work, do they?"

"Everything's included. All you do is push the button on the pack; the contents reconstitute themselves. Maybe they leave a bit to be desired in the taste department, but they're edible, and supply all the nutrients you need. My only request is that you wait to make landfall. I'd hate to consider what bread crumbs the size of a super galaxy-cluster could mean for that universe. Any signs of life yet?"

Kellie looked around. "Nothing," she said dispiritedly. She did see his point though. Carefully, she repacked the contents into the pack and zipped it up. She worried she might already have contaminated space with random bits of dust and lint, stuff off her clothing and boots. Of course, that was always a consideration. She re-shouldered the backpack, uncrossed her legs and waited.

"I'm starting to see lights, Professor." As before at this size, she could most easily spot the nebulae peripherally.

"Things will mostly progress exactly as they did before," the professor advised. "I have no doubt the purity of the aluminum was superior to my own, but I see no issue there. How are you holding up, Kellie."

"I'm tired," she admitted. "I haven't slept in, how long?"

"Would you believe a scant eight hours?"

Kellie blinked in surprise.

"And that's from the point where I injected you in bed. It's only a little after 10 A.M. here."

Kellie could not accept that. It felt like a week to her, 48 hours at the minimum. But she had no reason to disbelieve the professor, so she shrugged and commented: "You might want to slow down your own shrinking process then. Six hours per universe is pretty ridiculous. But then again..." She remembered her desire, walking northward along the coast, to get the hell shrunk down and out of sight. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing after all.

Grove replied: "It's not an option. Shrinx's effect is a direct result of quantum manipulation. It's not something that's tweakable. It's been one of my major disappointments. But ... and here's a big but, Kellie: The last thing you'd want would be your reduction rate slowed in molecular or intergalactic space. I could explain it to you in layman's terms, but that would take hours, maybe even days. Suffice it to say that you'd be ancient dust held together by the gravitational attraction of your own molecules, by the time you reached super-galaxy-cluster size. Quantum effects are non-linear, and non-intuitive. Scientists still argue and counter-argue everything currently known, or even guessed at. The important thing is that you shrink much faster coming in, than you do going out. One influences the other."

"Oh," was all Kellie could think to say. "Have I told you how much I love you recently?"

Grove chuckled. Kellie mentally gave him the finger. Then she realized her peripheral vision was picking up a lot more light than just a minute ago. She began to resolve individual clusters, and super-clusters of galaxies. She informed Grove.

"There is so much empty space at your scale that you can remain in intergalactic space between groupings of super-cluster, Kellie. Let Shrinx move you toward an individual galaxy only once you've reduced to a scale small enough not to disturb things on the super-scale. I know it was unavoidable, but you caused unimaginable disruption in your first universe. I can't begin to imagine the loss of life and destruction of ecosystems you caused. We have to become smarter. We have to learn from our mistakes."

Kellie shook her head. As though she meant to cause such widespread destruction. But what Grove said was true and she had already made a decision to nullify the effects of her presence. One part of that decision incorporated Grove's request: she would stay far away from any clusters of matter. She trusted Shrinx to move her when the time came.

"OK, Professor," she agreed.

When it was time, Kellie selected the closest galaxy to her position, another beautiful spiral-arm, and waited as it continued to grow in size. Shrinx activated her propulsion system and kept her at what appeared to be a 100' distance, never allowing the relative distance between them to close or widen. When she and the galaxy were close in scale, she began to slowly approach. It took a while for Kellie to realize that she was rotating along with the galaxy, parallel to its equatorial plane, an immense extra-galactic satellite. She understood on a subconscious level the energy required to move her along at rotational speed.

Gradually, Shrinx moved her closer to the trailing edge of the closest spiral arm. It planned to insert her, she realized, approaching from behind. She also sensed this would be the least disruptive to the affected star systems, and had to give Shrinx credit; it understood what was going on a lot better than she did. Twenty minutes later, she caught up to, and entered the arm.

"I'm inside the galaxy professor. You'll be happy to know I caused a minimum of disruption this time." Ahead, near the leading edge of the arm, a super nova popped like a flashbulb. God, she thought, I need to go pee.

"I'm approaching a star system." It was slightly more yellow than her last selection and surrounded by eight tiny satellites. Kellie counted them off, describing their characteristics as well as possible from her distance. As before, the outer planets were gas giants, the smaller, inner planets rocky. Unlike last time, Shrinx chose a polar approach, rather than along the ecliptic. This allowed Kellie to pick out the earthlike planet on her first try. Again, it was 3rd out from the sun, in the bio-zone.

"You know, this could almost be home," Kellie marveled. She counted seven large, and four smaller continents. A huge north-south pair, joined by a narrow isthmus at the equator divided the planet in two. From what Kellie could see, ice-shrouded terrain extended into, and covered both the north and south poles. This one super-continent comprised more than half the visible landmass. Kellie detected no sign of life anywhere. Of course, that meant nothing.

She relaxed as Shrinx matched speed with the planet. Again, it brought her in feet first, landing her just at the edge of the north-south continent's west coast. She grinned, imagining herself a West Coast girl. Boy did she have to go pee.

"Professor, I'm down."

Grove acknowledged, asking for details. Kellie looked about, saw nothing but unbroken forest for hundreds of miles inland. The place looked primordial. Cautiously, she stepped away from the shore, leaving footprints hundreds of feet deep in the sand. She estimated her height at a mile. She detected nothing under the water, or lurking in the forest's depths, or rushing at her from the far horizon. Of course, that meant nothing either. She needed to go pee.

"Not yet," Grove warned.

"Why not?" she whined, squirming like a 7-year-old.

"At your present size, you'd pollute the landscape irreversibly. You forget how big your bladder is, how much it holds. We're talking thousands of gallons, Kellie."

Kellie felt like she held thousands of gallons. She popped the button holding closed her jeans and unzipped her fly in protest. Her lower belly bulged. Wouldn't her pee shrink along with her and unpolluted the ground as it shrank?

Grove told her no. "Once outside your body and away from the enveloping energy field, the effect of Shrinx is lost. You'd create a flood of urine that would poison everything around for hundreds of miles."

"Can I step outside the damned field myself?" she grumbled. She looked around to distract herself.

Far to the north, a high plateau, maybe half her own height, marred the otherwise unbroken sea of greenery. A wide yellow river wound sluggishly across the surface, disappearing at the foot of another smaller, narrower plateau. Curious, seeing nothing else of interest in the immediate area, Kellie headed north along the shoreline, leaving behind a series of slowly shallowing footprints. She wondered how long nature would take to erase them. Probably not long, this close to the ocean, she guessed. She glanced to her left, saw nothing but slowly rolling waves clear out to the horizon. No sign whatsoever of marine life, and this unsettled her, more than she could have imagined. Was this world totally uninhabited? What a terrible waste.

Kellie stopped. "Professor? You ever have that feeling of being watched?" She scanned the craggy, broken face of the plateau. It was breast-high to her now, maybe 20 Kellie-feet distant. She squinted and cocked her head, listening.

"Be careful, Kellie," Grove cautioned.

"Careful is my middle name," she muttered. Her eyes discerned a series of unevenly spaced openings, caves, she realized, many partially obscured by undergrowth jutting from the jagged rock-face. She blinked in surprise as a tiny figure appeared in the mouth of one cave, swathed in rough-cut skins, moving in a crouch, brandishing a crudely made bow and arrow in one hand, cautiously moving forward with the other hand against the rock wall. The creature looked aboriginal: hairy, stoop shouldered, filthy. It appeared both terrified and enraged at her presence. Kellie judged her distance to be within range of the bow and arrow and took a judicious step back, and then another.

"You'll never believe what I just found," she told Grove. She described the hairy cave dweller.

"It's humanoid?" Grove asked excitedly.

Kellie shrugged. "It has arms and legs and a head. It walks upright ... sorta," she hedged. "It's smart enough to make a bow and arrow, which thankfully it's not pointing at me right now." She had the presence of mind to look down and inspect the surrounding area for further threats. When she looked up again, she discovered a female had joined the bearded cave man at the opening. She knew the second figure was female because it had breasts.

"Mr. and Mrs. Lump," she muttered edgily. She raised her hands in what she hoped was a universal gesture of non-aggression. The male raised the bow at her movement, but then slowly lowered it again as the female shook her head and gesticulated with her hands. Kellie tried to put a name to their familiar appearance and finally came up with the term Neanderthal. Grove grudging gave his assent.

"Based upon your description, it's certainly what they must be. I find it interesting that the female advocated restraint," he mused. "I don't care to be presumptuous, but I wonder if that could be a universal constant?"

"Don't read too much into it," Kellie cautioned. In both the bordering caves, heavy-breasted females had appeared, one carrying a club fashioned from a large knobby bone, the other with another bow and arrow, held at the ready, a quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder. Kellie backed away an additional step. She noted the top of the plateau was now up to her chin. This was not a good place for her to be, she decided, as more of the creatures appeared in the cave mouths.

"Time for me to go."

Grove concurred. "Make sure you don't trample any of their kinfolk accidentally, though. There could very well be hunting parties about, or gatherers."

Kellie lifted her right foot in alarm, inspecting the trampled vegetation and her footprint for any local inhabitants. Seeing none she carefully replaced her boot and raised the other, looking at the cave people on the cliff face warily. She discovered the original male on his hands and knees, gesticulating and jabbering at the cave mouth. Her gaze followed the direction of his pointed finger. It was tough making out anything in the dense vegetation, especially with lazily drifting fog further obscuring her view. She caught movement off to her right though, some hundred yards from the cliff face. She cocked her head to listen: were those tiny shouting voices she heard? Suddenly the cliff dwellers were all jabbering wildly and pointing down at the ground. Kellie resisted the urge to run away.

"What's going on, Kellie?"

Kellie shook her head. "I don't know. It looks like..." She half-squat to be closer to the ground, to better see fleeting movements through the trees. Suddenly the forms of a dozen racing cave people resolved themselves, shouting and dodging between trees, scrambling toward the cliff-face, the front-runners extolling the ones behind to get their asses in gear and hurry up. There was no missing the terrified nature of the cries. Kellie stood erect and scanned the thick forest through which the cave people had fled. She heard something besides tiny shouted voices. Her eyes flew open.

"Holy shit, Professor!"

"What is it, Kellie? What's the matter?"

Kellie watched with bugged out eyes and dropped jaw as a dinosaur twice the relative size of a T. Rex came storming out of the trees into a small clearing before disappearing back into the trees again. Its powerful roar almost overwhelmed the crashing sounds it made mauling the vegetation. Kellie guessed the creature was 30 feet tall and close to 50 feet long, with a blocky rectangular head and huge jaws packed with curved yellow teeth. Its dark green hide was splotched with dark red spots and incongruous yellow stripes slashed across its torso and down its sides like racing stripes. The powerfully muscled legs ended in three-toed, clawed feet that gouged the ground and tore away huge clogs of dirt and vegetation with each lunge forward. It closed the distance between itself and the cave dwellers quickly.

"Professor! Professor, they have dinosaurs here!"

Grove gasped in her ears. "How big is it?"

"Big!" she assured him, unconsciously backing away. It hadn't missed her attention that the chicken-sized creature could play hell with her jeans and might savage her calves if it chose to attack. So far the thing hadn't spotted her, or hadn't recognized what she was with its primitive brain, but that could change any moment. She prepared to stomp down on the thing if required. Her previously overpowering need to go pee was almost forgotten.

"Kellie!" Grove pressed her insistently. "What's happening?"

She quickly described the creature and gave a blow by blow of the unfolding events. To her surprise, a number of the stampeding Neanderthals had ceased their headlong flight and, with unexpected agility scaled a pair of trees bordering a path that she hadn't realized existed until moments before. More a game trail, she decided, than a path. The bellowing T. Rex widened it considerably as it pursued the game.

Two Neanderthals, one in either tree, both with a large, clumsy looking weapons slung across their backs, crawled out along a pair of thick, overhanging limbs. Kellie realized with a start that the limbs were lashed together with thick vines, directly over the middle of the trail. Attached to the limbs via twin pairs of thick vines, one set at the front, the other at the rear, was a 12' long stake fashioned from the bole of a tree. At its widest, the stake was over two feet thick, tapering to perhaps 6" at the sharpened, business end. Encircling the middle, adding considerable weight to the instrument, were a ring of doughnut-shaped, rough-hewn stones each a foot in diameter. Holes had been chiseled in their middles to allow securing vines to pass through and bind the stones firmly to the wood. More thick vines secured the rear of the stake to another set of overarching tree limbs above. In its "cocked" position, the stake pointed straight down. She quickly told Grove of her observations.

"My God," he said, obviously in a state of wonder. "They lead it into a trap." Kellie nodded agreement.

Twenty feet shy of the trap, the dinosaur suddenly slowed and stopped. Panting, its huge chest bellowing with every breath, the animal canted its head and swung it slowly back and forth. It snorted like a horse, clawed the ground anxiously with one huge foot, and then almost comically bobbed up and down. It looked suspiciously into the trees overhanging the trail ahead, squinting its large yellow, reptilian eyes. The creature was not as dumb as it looked, Kellie realized. She almost laughed when it stamped its huge right foot and bellowed in rage.

"What? What is it?" Grove insisted. Kellie explained. "Well, I'll be damned," he marveled. "I wouldn't think the creature's brain capable of logical thought. It must be much more advanced than our own brand of dinosaurs was."

"Maybe," Kellie muttered. The monster had finally noticed her, towering over the trees. It observed her in obvious consternation, its eyes moving from her face to the overhanging trees ahead, and then to her face again, as though trying to determine if she was part of the suspected trap. The tiny ambushers had finally noticed her presence as well. All stared up at her in alarm, cringing away, as though trying to blend into the tree limbs. The T. Rex roared up at her.

"Oh, shut up," she grumbled. "If you were a chicken, I'd wring your scrawny neck." This was bravado again as the thing's neck was anything but scrawny. She wondered if her girlishly dainty hands were even capable of such a thing. The thing would probably claw and bite the hell out of her unprotected wrists and forearms.

The T. Rex backed away. Backing away was not something it did often, evidently, and it did so clumsily. With some amusement, Kellie watched the rex snort and look awkward back over its shoulder, something else it was not accustomed to doing. Kellie was put in mind of a new driver trying to back Dad's SUV down the driveway. Twice more, T. Rex repeated its indignant roar and then it turned in preparation of slinking away. The cave dwellers were having none of it.

Startled, Kellie blinked at the sound of their sudden, strident hollering. She looked to find them waving their arms and beating their feet against the tree limbs; those previously taking shelter in the brush beyond the tree now poured onto the path and jumped up and down, hollering and waving their thickly muscled arms, trying to taunt the T. Rex back into the danger zone. The T. Rex looked undecided, almost anguished, Kellie thought. It seemed to know what the wee folk were up to and was battling against basic instinct. The huge thick tail switched back and forth, obliterating shrubbery and small trees either side of the path. It shook its huge head back forth in frustration. Still it didn't move, and Kellie began to respect its intelligence. It looked up at her and growled accusingly.

"This is none of my doing," she protested defensively. "Blame them." The hominids on the ground and in the trees peered up, surprised and furious at her booming voice. Their brethren in the caves shouted their own angry protests, gesticulating at her with upraised weapons. She was now forced to look up at them slightly. The original female had noticed this discrepancy also, and looked with furrowed brow at the distance between the top of Kellie's head, and the edge of the cliff-face above her. She attempted to bring this observation to the attention of her mate, but was ceremoniously ignored. She continued to observe Kellie warily. Things weren't so different here than at home, Kellie thought, wryly.

The T. Rex lowered its head and scratched the tough hide with its short but thickly muscled arms. They were much longer than a true T. Rex, Kellie realized, at least those in the movies she'd seen recently. She was amazed at how humanlike the creature's actions were, its emotional reactions. This thing was smarter than a dog, maybe as smart as the prey baiting the trap for it. Kellie fought the sudden, almost overpowering urge to bend down and pet the thing. She was glad that Grove chose that moment to demand information.

"They've got sort of a stand-off going," she said. "The creature's aware of the trap, and trying to figure out what to do. The midgets are jumping up and down and trying to make up his mind for him. So far, neither side is moving."

Suddenly, the rex bellowed and charged forward, lowering its head almost to the ground and turning it so that its gaping maw straddled the path. So surprised were the hominids on the path, they stood frozen in place, mouths open and eyes wide. Then, as a group they fled screaming into the underbrush in all directions, one panicked individual actually running toward the open jaws of the rex before coming to its senses and veering off at the last moment. It missed being lunch by less than a foot. Surprisingly, the rex ignored it and continued its mindless charge.

Only, the charge wasn't so mindless. At the last moment, even as the two watchers on the tree limbs slashed at the restraining vines with crude but effectively sharp stone axes, the rex came to a staggering, clumsy halt, like a runner sliding feet-first into 2nd base. It stayed down and watched as the 12' long missile flew out of the tree limbs and passed harmlessly 6' over its head. It craned its neck to follow the shaft's upward progress, and then plummet back toward earth again. The rex almost got itself head-butted when it rose up too far. After a few diminishing swings, the 12' long stake sat rocking slowly back and forth above the rex. Kellie would have sworn it grinned. She laughed.

"What?" Grove demanded. Kellie filled him in. "That's ... absolutely remarkable!" Grove gushed. "Falling wasn't an accident?"

Kellie shook her head. "I don't think anything this dinosaur does is an accident, Professor." She watched as the behemoth struggled to its feet-not an easy job, as heavy and disproportionately built as it was-and roared in triumph. She laughed again as the rex chomped down on the middle of the stake and twisted it furiously against the restraining vines. Tough as they were, vines were no match for the rex's bulging neck muscles. With a growl of satisfaction, it tore the stake loose and hurled it crashing into the trees. Kellie almost clapped her hands. But her merriment was short-lived.

"Uh-oh," she said.

"What's the matter?"

"Rex is not happy." She held her breath as the rex moved carefully beneath the crossed limbs and twisted its head for a clear view of the thwarted hunters. Obviously it planned to avenge itself upon the hapless pair. Panicked, the two scrambled higher into the trees, attaining the thick branches that had restrained the failed missile. Rex eyed them with obvious relish, almost licking its non-existent lips. Tall as the rex was, however, the tree limbs were higher still. Even craning upward on its tippy-toes, the rex came up a dozen feet short. It roared in frustration and clawed the ground with both feet. Kellie watched it ready to jump. She unwisely giggled.

"What's going on there?" Grove demanded. Kellie explained quickly, even as she bent forward and waved her hand to distract the rex. Intimidated, it shrank away and growled at her menacingly. Kellie didn't like the idea the creature was now the size of a rooster rather than a hen. If it snapped at her, it could do some real damage. It was time for her to leave.

"Good idea," Grove agreed.

Taking advantage of the rex's momentary distraction, the ground party advanced on the creature from every direction. Most of the hunters bore a long spear, the head made from chiseled stone lashed to the end of a stout tree limb, looking at once dangerous, and slightly comical. Kellie pointed her index finger and slewed it counter-clockwise in a circle. "Better watch out," she warned. To her surprise, the rex immediately looked down and roared at the stalkers. Its thrashing tail took out four of them in one vicious swipe, sending them crashing head over heels through the underbrush. The rex roared again and executed a rough turnabout in the path, taking out two more attackers with its tail. The others wisely withdrew to a safe distance in the brush. In the trees, the handful of hunters railed at Kellie with clenched fists. She felt vaguely guilty, or thought she should have. It wasn't right to side with the beast over her fellow hominids. But she couldn't help it.

"You come with me," she said. Bending down, she held out her hands in what she hoped was a peaceful gesture of offering. The rex eyed her suspiciously, and then eyed the advancing war party-how could there be so many of them now, she wondered-and swiftly made the elementary deduction. As if knowing exactly what Kelly planned, the rex nodded and raised its own short arms in acceptance. Kellie reached down and carefully picked the rex up, straightening and holding it protectively against her midsection. She didn't have to be told how much damage the thing could do to her there with its savage claws and wickedly sharp teeth.

"You okay?" she inquired. To her astonishment, the rex rumbled happily and rubbed the edge of her ribcage with the side of her head. She laughed, and the rex rumbled again. She looked down at it wide-eyed.

"Tell me you didn't just pick that thing up!" Grove demanded angrily.

"I won't tell you then," Kellie agreed. Sticking out her tongue, and then her middle finger at the outraged hunters, she carefully made her way through the dense vegetation and out to the shoreline, where she walked northward parallel to the side of the plateau, now twice her height, and away from the colony of hunters. She stroked the neck and back of the rex as she walked, and was rewarded with the same contented rumbling, its version, she imagined, of a cat's purring. When a 2nd T. Rex, fully twice the size of the one in her arms crashed out of the forest behind her bellowing in rage, and then charged forward, Kellie quickly lowered her pet to the ground and stepped back. Mommy or daddy rex was the size of a gobbling turkey.

"I warned you," Grove scolded. "Get ready to run."

Kellie readied to run. To her surprise, the young rex complained loudly about being released, rubbed longingly against her knees and gestured to be reclaimed. Kellie was having none of that. Momma had slowed, and was eyeing the both of them with suspicion. Behind her, two more rex's exited the forest and stalked forward in momma's footsteps. Kellie wondered if the things could swim. She thought maybe tossing junior in the water and hightailing it northward up the coast wasn't her best move, but she couldn't bring herself to it. Instead, she just held still as momma slowly closed the distance. It stopped, three feet away and gouged the sand with its clawed feet. Baby rex shook its head and pushed hard against Kellie's legs.

"Oh, please don't do this," she whispered. "I don't want to be eaten." Behind momma rex, the other two, nearly as big and equally ferocious looking, moved out to flank her. Kellie checked over her shoulder and was dismayed to find her retreat up the beach cut off. Two more rex's waited for her, ten feet away. She thought maybe the ocean was a good choice after all ... for herself. She flinched as the juvenile rex stretched up and licked her dangling fingertips.

"Stop that," she hissed, eying momma warily as the rex's eyes moved slowly from her child, to Kellie's face, and to her just-licked hand. She would swear the rex furrowed its brow in consternation. Then it took a cautious step forward, then another, and then butted baby rex with her head. Junior cooed happily and butted her back. Momma rex backed away. She growled softly at Kellie for a moment and swished her powerful tail back and forth. Then she made an unmistakable get-lost motion with her head at the two flanking rexes and then growled at them menacingly when they reacted in disbelief. Kellie could plainly read the shocked outrage on their faces. Unbelievable, she thought.

Looking over her shoulder, she discovered the two rexes behind her looking equally perplexed. Then momma bellowed at full volume and flinching, each of her larger offspring-if that's indeed, what they were-retreated, and finally, discontentedly, melted back into the forest. Momma snorted and motioned for junior to join her. With Kellie's whispered pleas, he did. Junior was none too happy about it though.

 
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