Chapter 5

Her next planet-more correctly, theirs--was perfect in every respect: crystal clear air, sparkling water, vegetation as green and abundant as a still-life painting ... and not a trace of intelligent life. Nothing but insects and birds. After a bitter afternoon of enjoying Paradise, they shrank away on a moonlit beach, into a grain of perfect white sand.

The fifth planet was even worse. Marie set them down on the outskirts of a deserted city on the west coast of the largest continent, amid ancient ruins. The lost civilization had obviously been humanoid: people-sized doorways and decayed vehicles, park benches and telephone booths, restaurants with tables still set with silverware and ceramic dishware; the tablecloths had long since disintegrated into dust. Since no obvious signs of looting or riot destruction existed, Grove opinioned that it happened quickly, possibly overnight. His opinion was buoyed by the presence of coins in the tills of ancient cash registers and bank drawers; paper money, visibly collapsed into dust alongside the coinage, still bore the discernable likenesses of humanlike personages, as did the coinage, although both sexes appeared to be hairless and had two noses instead of one. Despite the differences, gazing upon those ancient faces caused Kellie a painful nostalgia for home. She found a corner to sit in and cried into her folded arms until time to mount the coin she had taken from the restaurant's till and sat on the floor just beyond the reach of her quantum field. Inconsolable, she dwindled into nothingness on the engraved eye of a former president, or some other dignitary.

You have to eat, Marie warned. And drink.

Listless, Kellie floated between two super-galaxy groups. As she offered no preference, Marie guided them toward the smaller group, and then to an unremarkable spiral galaxy within. Grove was distraught as well, fearing Kellie would slip into a hopeless depression. It had been sixteen hours since she'd last removed a bottle of water from her backpack and quenched her thirst; longer still, since her last meal. He'd never imagined the rations would last this long. Kellie had downed only three meal packets over the entire course of her journeys, and drank but four of the 16 oz. bottles of water. He was nearly frantic with worry.

"Can't you do something?" he complained angrily.

Marie retorted: Maybe you should have thought about this before you sent a 14 year old on a permanent vacation, Grove.

"That's not helpful, Marie. Can't you take her over? Make her eat and drink?"

Kellie disinterestedly listened to Marie fume.

I told her I wouldn't do that anymore. It's bad enough she's in this predicament to begin with. She needs to worry I'll commandeer her nervous system any moment? There's a sure cure for depression, asshole.

Kellie eyed the spiral arm Marie had sidled them up to and a small yellow star embedded within. She looked away incuriously, and lost the star amongst the thousand others just like it. Marie had noted it as well, and not just curiously. Twenty minutes later, she reoriented Kellie and smoothly slid her into the star field. Kellie was unaware and unconcerned when the small yellow star stopped changing perspective against the background stars and slowly grew larger and more distinct. After a time, she inadvertently noticed the grouping of tiny planets, which eventually resolved into a an inner quartet of small rocky worlds, an outer quartet of colorful gas giants, and possibly, though not certainly, a tiny 9th planet that orbited off-plane from the ecliptic. Kellie didn't particularly care if the 3rd planet looked habitable. She found herself more interested in the immense gas giant with the gorgeous, multidirectional brown and red bands, and the even more amazing globe with the extravagant ring system. She had seen nothing comparable in her other landings. Even as Marie oriented her into a polar orbit around the 3rd planet, Kellie wistfully imagined herself swallowed by the huge storm raging around the equator of the 5th planet, or exploring the stunning ring system around the 6th. She only paid attention when Marie pointed out the fleecy white clouds, oddly shaped continents and the translucent green oceans.

"Pretty," Kellie muttered, unimpressed. She found more interest in the surprisingly large moon, pockmarked with a million craters. She wondered if the inhabitants, if any, had ventured there yet. One particular grouping of craters formed a lopsided face, Kellie thought. Whatever caused the moon to keep the same face constantly to the planet, allowed the eyes to keep constant vigil. Talk about being spied upon, she thought numbly.

Pick a continent, Marie invited.

You pick one, she thought She saw-or thought she saw-a structure meandering lazily cross-continent over thousands of miles of terrain, crossing rugged mountain ranges, lowlands, valleys, broken in many places only by the intervention of a river. A volcano in a small grouping of islands spewed dark gray ash thousands of miles eastward; a second volcano, an ocean away, embedded in a far northern island chain running westward from the bottom of a huge land mass did likewise, though with a much smaller plume. A finger from this landmass almost met a like finger of land extended from an opposite continent. Snow and ice covered great areas of both land masses. She noted with half-interest the vast, glistening polar ice field. She wondered if there was water or land underneath the ice. A good portion of all the northern continents were covered with ice.

One continent group, Kellie noticed, was very much like the one she had landed upon on her first planet. The large northern continent was joined to the southern continent via a narrow isthmus, very near the equator. This combined land mass neatly divided the planet in two; Kellie knew the only way around it was by skirting the southern tip, very near the southern artic ocean. At second glance, was that a narrow line of water crossing the isthmus at the narrowest part? Kellie thought it was. This was a canal, and a canal indicated intelligent like, as did the long meandering wall she'd seen. For the first time, Kellie regarded the planet as a possible nice place to visit.

"I like this place," she said. "Let's land where we landed on Planet Number One? Right about there." She indicated a spot midway up the west coast of the northern continent. Even at this distance an inland bay was visible, joined to the ocean by a narrow ribbon of water. The bay ran north-south, long and narrow, maybe a hundred miles long.

Without comment, Marie aligned Kellie feet-on, and when the time was right, lowered her into the atmosphere. She evidently sensed danger, because Kellie had noted the shield come to life, even before crossing the orbit of the moon. She also noted that Marie waited much longer than usual to bring them in. Kellie guessed her height at less than a mile. Not that she cared.

"I like that bridge," she mused. It was right beneath her feet, spanning the narrows. Where exactly did Marie intend to set her down? The south side of the narrows was heavily populated, she saw; the northern section not so much. As she grew closer, the rugged northern landscape almost invited a set-down. The trick was to set down without trampling innocent bystanders. Of course, they would have evacuated by now.

Kellie was encouraged by the high concentration of buildings surrounding the bay. It was not the glistening cityscape of the Moth-People, nor even the dense architecture of the lost civilization of her last planet, but Kelly spotted many tall and interestingly shaped buildings in the city centers, and great expanses of densely-packed neighborhoods, strikingly like her own back home. This could easily be any of her own planet's west coast cities. She wondered what this one was called.

It goes by multiple names, Marie informed her. Oakland and Alameda inland, San Francisco to the west, many smaller municipalities making up the whole. The three major centers are Oakland, Alameda and San Francisco. The bridge and the body of water just below is called The Golden Gate. The bridge is a national landmark and of great concern to the inhabitants. They have mobilized various municipal and national forces, as well as their military. Those small flying craft you see circling are helicopters. The fast moving aircraft are fighter jets, nearly identical to our own, though not quite so sophisticated. Some broadcast stations claim nuclear weapons have been deployed, although other sources deny this. The military neither conforms nor denies the allegations.

This had Kellie alarmed. Should we abort?

I don't know. Nuclear weapons scare me a lot. That's a hell of a lot of energy to deal with. I don't know if I can block all the radiation.

"What do you think, Professor?"

Grove ignored Marie's automatic grumble. "Based upon Marie's report, I judge you'd face the same mobilization no matter where you landed. At least in population areas. Jet aircraft can track your movements wherever you go--a planet stretching flight excepted, of course, as you did on the machine world--but at this point I have to advise against any unexpected movements. My guess is they already have itchy trigger fingers, and you don't want to chance a panic reaction. I say just continue to slowly descend and land in the area you picked out. I applaud Shri-I mean, Marie's decision to bring you in extraordinarily small. That was far-seeing on your part, Marie."

Marie took the compliment stiffly. The truth is, I've been monitoring their broadcast frequencies for some time and I've deciphered most of their spoken languages. There are many, but the two most spoken on this continent, and especially here on the west coast are variants of English and Spanish. This continent also appears to be the most stable, both politically and economically, and has the least amount of religious tension, although religion plays a large role in their everyday lives, and seems to be a cause of strife across the globe. And you are certainly right about their itchy trigger fingers. Many political hardliners are calling for us to be blown out of the air. Luckily, though extremely vocal, they are in the minority. Most commentators are taking a wait and see approach. The local populace is excited about our arrival. It seems we resemble them very closely. She laughed coarsely. It hasn't escaped their attention that Kellie's a female, and evidently a pretty one. I won't bore you with the lurid details.

Kellie felt herself blush. Suddenly, her lethargy was gone, replaced by intense interest, and excitement. "How much like us are they?" she demanded.

Marie snickered. Are they cute, you mean? The guys?

Kellie blushed bright red and muttered. "Never mind."

She was low enough now that helicopters circled her at all altitudes, from the soles of her boots to the top of her in-need-of a-good-shampooing head. Though skittish, she kept her arms firmly at her sides and smiled vaguely at the circling pilots. She was some five hundred feet tall, and not the towering giant she'd been on her former planets. If truth be told, being this small worried her. What if they weren't intimidated enough by her size? All she could do was wait. Marie was correct, however: the faces she saw examining her from the helicopters and jets making close flybys were entirely human-like. Some even grinned at her, whether from friendliness or embarrassment, Kellie didn't know. Her smile certainly was embarrassed.

Grove said: "May I make a suggestion?"

If you must, Marie grumbled.

Ignoring her tone, he suggested: "This might be a good choice to remove yourself and let Kellie return to a normal life."

Both girls replied: "What?"

"In half an hour, Kellie will be the same approximate height as her hosts. They are obviously humanoid and of a civilized enough nature to accept her into their society with a minimum of conflict. I won't downplay the difficulties, Kellie; it will be a circus for years and every government on the planet will demand access to the intergalactic guest; you're life will be miserable. Eventually, because you are obviously quite human and unremarkable without the presence of Marie and the nanos, the humans will lose interest in you, at least scientifically. You're 14, after all; what can you tell them other than your adventures on strange worlds. Without Marie and the nanos, you'll be just another school-age human female."

Kellie was panic-stricken. "No!" she shouted. "You can't do that to me! You can't do that to Marie!" Tears flooded her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks. Her obvious agitation was mirrored in the faces of the helicopter and jet fighter pilots; what could have brought on such an alarming change in the visitor's demeanor, they wondered. Kellie-well, Marie, anyway-didn't need to be told that her reaction put them in heightened danger.

"Kellie, listened to me," Grove urged. "I told you in the beginning that Shrinx-Marie-would eventually find you a new home and let you get on with your life."

"Yes!" Kellie protested. "But you didn't say anything about getting rid of her!"

Kellie, Kellie, listen to him, Marie urged. He's--

"No!" Kellie said hotly. "Forget it!"

A helicopter picked that moment to do a flyby too near her face and Kellie, already agitated, swatted at it involuntarily. Though she missed, her sudden movement and the resulting turbulence caused the pilot to loose control and go momentary into a flat, gyrating spin. Someone with their finger too tight on the trigger to begin with fired a heat seeking missile in response, and a billion eyes watched in horror as smoke plumed beneath the fighter jet's wing and surged forward and downward at supersonic speed. Kellie didn't stand a chance. The missile approached from above and behind her and she had only just begun to react and snap her head around as the warhead impacted directly below her left shoulder. Millions screamed at the exact same moment she did. The explosion drove her forward and down from the waist and unconscious, she began a head over heels plummet toward the earth below. Marie, already overextended by the force and unexpectedness of the explosion, somehow managed to keep Kellie from plunging headfirst into the top of the tallest mountain. Her limp arms impacted the mountain's shallow sides and crushed, flattened or splintered a thousand innocent trees, leaving huge furrows in the ground. Her shield absorbed most of the impact and Kellie would later have only a broken forearm to show for the immense destruction.

Slowly, gently, Marie righted her host's limp body, horizontal to the ground and crossed Kellie's arms over her chest. She did not retaliate against the jet fighter nor destroy the squadron of helicopter gun-ships continuing to buzz around them, though she was sorely tempted. Grove was yelling continuously for an update, and she barked at him savagely to shut up. Then she attended the damage wrought by the guided missile, a gaping wound in Kellie's shoulder, back and neck that sickened her, making her cry bitter tears through Kellie's tear ducts. She had slipped, but the shield was full strength now, and she dared divert her full attention to Kellie and the nanos. No human could survive such a wound, nor live through its infliction as Kellie had, but Kellie was no mere human. While Marie held her motionless and fended off Grove's aggravating questions, the nanos did their work.

Still want to inflict this world on our little girl?

"What happened was an accident; terrible, but foreseeable, Marie. The humans made no further aggressive moves, right?"

I wish they had, Marie said bitterly. I wish they would.

Grove sighed. "Despite what happened, this is the best opportunity Kellie might ever have for a normal life. You know what the chances are of ever being given another. You have to let her go."

Marie laughed bitterly. I pray you blunder into a star when you come down here, she hissed. It sickens me I had anything to do with this.

"Be that as it may ... will you let her go?"

Marie bared her mental fangs, but said nothing.

The nanos, working with incredible swiftness, had nearly completed repairs to Kellie's skeletal structure and were beginning work on her soft tissues. She was astounded that Kellie had survived at all, nanos or not. The shrapnel had penetrated her lungs and shredded the upper reaches of both, especially her left lung, directly under the explosion. The destroyed organ was clearly visible inside Kellie's ribcage, still oozing blood and secretions. Kellie's heart had been perforated as well, although it was now fully repaired and beating strongly. And the fault was hers. She had not maintained the shield at full strength, choosing instead to keep Kellie aloft until the very last moment. Grove was right: Kelly could look forward to this kind of danger everywhere she went.

Without Kellie, I'll cease to exist, Marie whispered dejectedly. Her tissues give me life. I don't even know that I can extricate myself. I'm bound to her atomically, Grove. And it's already a race to heal her wounds before she shrinks to her normal 5'2" height. With all the repairs ongoing, I can't chance altering her rate of reduction. In her present condition she would die within minutes. She doesn't even have lungs, for God's sakes, she cried.

Grove empathized. "It's preferable that she lives, if not here, then with the possibility of finding someplace else. If the clock runs out, abandon the situation and take her to a deserted spot on the planet and leave her unconscious until she's able to function again. If necessary, you can make the transition to molecular space yourself."

You should never have designed me to extricate myself in order to stop the process, Marie said bitterly. You knew Kellie's life might depend on it.

"Regardless..."

You are a fucker, Grove ... She sighed. Let's hope this works.

Kellie was less than 50' long and still the nanos had not finished repairing her lungs. It finally hit Marie that repair was not what the nanos were attempting; they were faced with outright replacement of irreplaceable tissue. Every ounce of flesh needed to replace destroyed tissue had to come from someplace else within the body. She moaned, berating herself for letting this happen. Then she almost laughed, realizing one place the nanos had swarmed to as a replacement tissue site.

Don't you hit her there too hard, she admonished. She wasn't all that big to begin with. She redirected activity to Kellie's backside and thighs, anywhere Kellie considered herself to be unsightly. It was like undergoing liposuction, she thought half-amusedly. But Kellie had lost significant weight lately and didn't have the reserves she could have offered in the beginning. This frustrated Marie all the more.

At 20' length, the nanos had completed repairs to her right lung and had restored all but the upper node of the left. 1000' below, emergency vehicles with red, white and blue flashing lights had gathered anywhere a road penetrated the dense forestation below Kellie's position. It occurred to her the last place Kellie needed to be was this isolated location, miles from any surgical or rehabilitation centers. She cursed herself again for her stupidity.

Not concerned with the circling aircraft, she rushed Kellie south above the Golden Gate Bridge and into the city of San Francisco. Her entourage of aircraft followed, taking up picket positions either side as Marie searched out a likely spot for a hospital. Sifting through Kellie's memories for suggestions, she discovered a likely candidate just west of the intersection of two major highways, in the north of the city and descended to 500'. Personnel flooded from the building complex into the parking lot and pointed skyward, hands shading eyes and conversing excitedly with nearby onlookers. A helicopter located within a white-painted circle with a red border powered up and lifted off, slowly spiraling upward to join Kellie's inert form at 500'; it circled lazily. From the aircraft's markings, Marie pegged it as some kind of rescue vehicle. It was obvious the occupants wanted Kellie lowered into the vacated space, where even now, a dozen personnel in multi-colored garb arranged hospital gurneys side-by-side and end-to-end in order to accommodate Kellie's present bulk. She was 15' long and weighed roughly 340 lbs. Marie kept her stationary while the nanos continued to work and the rescue helicopter circled.

"Hello the patient!"

Marie started at the amplified voice and lost 10' of altitude. What the fuck do you want, she grumbled angrily. Locating an open channel, she spoke directly to the helicopter's pilot.

"Keep your distance, friend. We don't want any more unfortunate accidents."

The pilot reacted with obvious surprise. "You speak English. That's good. Do you need immediate assistance?"

Marie laughed. "What do you have in mind?"

"The patient is obviously gravely injured. We've monitored her wound from the ground and don't understand how she still can be alive, although it appears some kind of internal repair is ongoing. As she appears humanlike-other than her large size-it's possible our facility could render assistance. You could land in the space we vacated."

Marie mentally shook her head. "She's getting all the assistance she needs right here. Anything you could do in your hospital would be redundant at best, and more likely counter-productive as you don't understand her physiology. I intend to keep her airborne until repairs are complete ... or failing that, if she shrinks past an acceptable size, somewhere safe where she can complete her recuperation in safety."

"You can't stop her shrinking?"

"Not without endangering her life."

The helicopter went silent while the pilot and whoever else was listening digested this information. Kellie had shrank to 10' and was far from what Marie considered minimally able to survive on her own. The nanos has just begun to re-stitch the gaping would in the flesh of her back, shoulder and neck. It would be a miracle if they were completed in time. Marie accessed the helicopter's data connection and searched for nearby, deserted locations. Vast deserts and numerous, internal mountain ranges were within easy reach. She could hover here until the last possible moment.

"Who exactly are you?" the pilot asked.

"I'm what's making her shrink," she replied caustically.

"Do you have a name?"

Marie laughed. "Call me Marie."

The pilot choked on the word. "Marie?"

"It's her middle name," she informed him. "I took it when I became self-aware and Kellie balked at calling me Shrinx."

The pilot laughed uncomfortably. "Kellie's the girl?"

"She is," Marie confirmed. "Kellie Marie Orlansky."

"That name sounds very ... American," the pilot said. "Where do you come from?"

Marie laughed again. "Up there."

The pilot laughed in response. "Yeah. We know that. We've been watching you for a while now. It caused quite a stir when you entered our solar system and picked out our planet. People got ... a little edgy."

I noticed that, Marie thought sourly. "What's your name?"

Surprised, the pilot took a moment to respond. "Phillip Kagan, US Naval Reserve. Currently flying helicopters for San Francisco General Hospital."

"That's the complex below?" Marie asked.

"It is. If Kelly needs assistance, you couldn't have come to a better place." His tone sobered. "My guess is you that you had the ability to retaliate when the jet fighter fired its missile."

"I still have that ability," Marie said stiffly. "Your pilot is lucky to be alive."

"I think he knows that," Kagan agreed. "Believe me. He'll wish you had retaliated before the brass are through with him."

Marie noted that only a pair of jet fighters remained in the area, circling at great distance, one currently over the ocean, the other barely visible on the eastern horizon. A great many of the helicopter gun-ships had landed in available open areas, or had returned to their bases. She guessed most of the helicopters still circling were private aircraft, belonging to news outlets and broadcast studios.

"Kellie needs a home," she said quietly. "She was forced into this situation by an unscrupulous adult on her own world." She took a moment to permanently fry Grove's transmitter. "He's out of the picture now, but Kellie is cursed with his legacy. I can neutralize her condition when she reaches the appropriate height for this world, but only if her injuries are healed in time. They may not be completely. It will be putting her at great risk regardless. She has no natural defense against your pathogens. The only way to stabilize her is by leaving her completely, and doing that also removes her defenses. I won't be here to protect her anymore. She's suffered immeasurable psychological damage as it is. I need assurance she'll be taken care of when I'm gone. Otherwise, I can't risk leaving her defenseless."

The pilot responded haltingly. "It's not up to me, Marie. I don't make medical calls and certainly not political ones. A lot of people reside above me on the food chain and they all have different agendas. I don't have to tell you how important a discovery this is, an ability to manipulate gravity, to say nothing of quantum mechanics and nanotechnology. The healing power you've demonstrated is staggering. She survived a missile strike that half the people on this globe saw the results of." He laughed shakily. "That technology is worth billions, earth-shattering-"

"And it will all be gone when I'm gone," Marie persisted.

The pilot was quiet a moment. "You're talking about compassionate suicide."

"Yes," she agreed.

The pilot sighed. "How long do we have?"

"Minutes," Marie warned. "She is barely a foot taller than her normal height."

"You better get her down on a gurney, don't you think?"

"Can I trust them?"

Kagan came back immediately. "You don't really have a choice. Besides, the people down there are listening to this conversation and ready to offer immediate assistance." As proof of this, a dozen onlookers within the designated white circle began to wave frantically and point to a lone gurney in their midst.

Reluctantly, Marie resumed her descent and lowered the immobile girl into their waiting hands. The attendants, all women, gently lowered Kellie to the clean white-sheeted mattress and rolled her onto her side as lovingly as if she one of their daughters. All but the outer layers of the wound site were repaired now and after inspecting it closely, a doctor in attendance directly a pair of nurses to sterilize the site with strong disinfectant, while another advised what dressings should be used to bind it. Kellie groaned weakly twice, but didn't awaken. They began wheeling her toward the Emergency Department entrance, while others gathered the no longer needed gurneys and hurried them off the landing pad. With a whine of its turbine engine, and with practiced ease, the helicopter descended and settled onto the center of the pad with a soft bounce. Immediately the pilot cut power and was out the cabin door before the blades had even begun to wind down, a clear violation of protocol. He left the co-pilot to run through the shutdown list alone and ran for the doors the gurney bearing Kellie had passed through moments before, fighting through the unruly, noisy crowd. If the authorities didn't get things under control soon, he thought, people would die. Only his flight uniform and helmet got him through the crowd at all.

Inside, panting, he yelled at the confused security guards to get the hell outside and reestablish some order. Sirens approached from all directions. He knew that most of the police force had been detailed north of the city for crowd control. No one had expected the visitor to land in a hospital parking lot. At the intake desk he removed his helmet and said to a nurse he didn't recognize: "Where did they take her?"

The young girl looked at him wild eyed. She was just as confused and harried as everyone else. Behind the desk, half a dozen nurses tried to answer the deluge of incoming phone calls. Kagan wondered the phone system still operated at all. He had tried ten times to reach his wife via cell phone, and finally that system had given out. He'd received an harried message from his son, saying he was caught on the 405 in the massive log-jam.

The girl blurted, "I don't know if you're authorized-"but he cut her off.

"I'm the one who talked her down."

She gaped in astonishment, almost awe. Kagan didn't have time for that. "Which room is she in?"

The nurse just shook her head dazedly and pointed toward the intake doors. She hit the auto-open button as Kagan headed back, staring at the helmet he'd forgotten on the counter-top. Distractedly, she put it away beneath the counter next to a computer monitor. One of the older, more experienced nurses was yelling for her attention.

In the back, Kagan followed the stares of disbelief and pointed fingers to Exam Room 15, reserved for VIP's and dignitaries. Just that morning the mayor of San Francisco had been seen there for unspecific chests pains and difficulty breathing, released with a prescription for tranquilizers and anti-anxiety pills. Now the Earth's first extraterrestrial visitor occupied the bed. A great day for the hospital, Kagan realized; most likely this room would be canonized, if a room could be granted sainthood He suspected the church would make an exception in this case. He was not surprised to find a throng of personnel jamming the doorway.