Man or Mouse?
By Aaron Daly



The headlines of the morning edition blared:

COLONEL CHARLES GYURE ATTEMPTS ONE MAN MISSION TO MARS

He knew the entire story. All he wanted to see was the headline heralding his name in full glory. A ten second stop at the mirror left his dark hair combed and his eyes free of sleep sand. He then gulped down the rest of his coffee, stimulating his system much like what the banner headline had done to his ego.

He was scheduled to begin the final preparations of this historic mission at 5 am sharp today. He left his quarters and was soon joined by several military policemen who promptly exchanged salutes with him and drove him over to the mission control center of the base. Col. Gyure could see the silhouette of the experimental craft he had been training to pilot for 18 months. "Damn," he thought to himself while traveling past the machine, "this is probably the last time I'll see her on earth like this."

Charles Gyure was one of the few remaining military men who still regarded vehicles as feminine. This was probably because he treated women in a similar way, as objects to be controlled. Alas, a man bred and trained to succeed under the tremendous pressure of space training usually has a strong male ego driving him. In Gyure's case, his ego had done him well. At 34, he was considered an old timer in the business. In fact, he just barely made the age cutoff for the mission by 4 days. But his lifetime accomplishments were so extraordinary that no one could imagine calling him an old timer.

During his career, there had been two women elected to the presidency. He therefore had much practice in keeping his feelings to himself. But occasionally, he used outlets to vent off and demonstrate his assumed superiority over females.

Dr. Andrea Clemens was his latest outlet.

Dr. Clemens, the only woman on the five person team of scientists who had planned the entire mission, and the one with the brilliant ideas. Andrea had developed a theory whereby electric fields could be used to warp the spacetime continuum over a selected region of space, thus placing convenient interplanetary travel within the reach of man (and woman). She was already guaranteed a Nobel Prize for her work, but she wanted this mission to be successful as well. Women had come so far in her lifetime of 26 years, and she wanted to earn further fame for her sex by being known as the woman who put humankind on Mars.

She was a 5'6" attractive, single woman, who preferred large glasses and wearing her long black hair back in a bun, sort of like the 70's look sported by Lynda Carter when she portrayed Wonder Woman's alter ego, Diana Prince. Gyure remembered how much those reruns had turned him on when he first met her during his orientation. Occasionally, he flirted and got quite fresh with her during his training when he saw the right opportunity.

However, Andrea never reported his behavior to anyone. The press would have had a field day with allegations of sexual misconduct involved with the greatest leap of humankind. The mission could be delayed for up to a year. No, she couldn't have it. "Grin and bear it, Andi," she'd mutter to herself, over and over again, whenever Gyure made a pass at her. "You only have to work closely with him a short while longer, and then he'll be off into space and that'll be the end of it." She didn't realize that by not taking action against Gyure, she was giving him the false impression that she was condoning his actions.

Nevertheless, today would be their last meeting together before the launch. She was beginning to dread her final briefing with the Colonel. He was flying above cloud nine, and soon would be the most famous human in his lifetime. Andrea feared what liberties his ego would take when they were alone in the briefing room.

They met silently outside the briefing room, and at precisely 0500 hours, both Dr. Clemens and Col. Gyure placed their ID cards in the appropriate slots and entered the room. After the security door locked behind them, they were completely isolated from the outside world.

Despite all his discipline and training, Gyure's libido started to control him in this small room. Dr. Clemens had been the only woman he'd seen in the past year of training, "And hey, a guy's only human, right?" he thought to himself. "If anything goes wrong on this trip, she could be the last woman I'd see. Maybe she could give me a little something for good luck," he chuckled to himself.

"It's nice to see you one more time before your trip, Colonel," Andrea said, with a grin which hid her fears. "This final briefing will cover special emergency procedures that will hopefully return you safely to Earth if anything unfortunate happens."

Col. Gyure met her eyes briefly, and then returned his gaze to admiring how her chest protruded against her lab coat as she prepared her slides. She then progressed through the tried and true precautions adopted decades ago by the space program, which were second nature to Gyure. She then concluded with some procedures unique to this mission.

"Your craft will be traveling using our spacewarp system only operating within the well tested parameters. If, during any time of the mission, you encounter a situation which you or the computer deems hopeless, then simply pull on the large red handle located above your head." She pointed to the appropriate spot on the screen. "This will activate the automatic homing device, which will use a higher level of space warping to return you to earth as fast as possible. However, this warp level is untested. We don't know for sure what long term effects it could have on you, if any. But saving your life in time is worth that risk, don't you agree?"

Gyure quickly looked up to her pretty spectacled face, smiled and nodded.

Andrea was starting to feel less tense. The Colonel hadn't tried anything funny yet, and she was starting to slip into a sense of security and really become absorbed in her work.

"Another emergency device is actually wired into your spacesuit. There are thousands of tiny coils embedded in the outer layer." She showed him a magnified picture of the suit material. "When electric current passes through them, they can actually bend light away from the suit, rendering you nearly invisible. This is meant for you to protect yourself from intense radiation on your trip. The battery pack only has a four hour charge, so use it sparingly; if you find yourself being overheated from infrared radiation, for example.

"These precautions seem simple enough," Col. Gyure thought to himself. Indeed, they were not hard to follow. Gyure had spent most of the time admiring Dr. Clemens's body and thinking, "She's pretty, and clever. I wonder what she'd look like without her coat, glasses, and her hair down?"

"That's all I'm prepared to talk about," Dr. Clemens said as she turned off her projector. She walked over in front of the Colonel. "Are there any questions you have for me?"

The dark side of Charles Gyure took that question as its cue: he reached up, caught her by her coat with one hand, pulled her close to his face, and spoke softly. "Only one question, sweets. How about you give me something to remember on my trip?" He followed this query with a wink while his other hand found its way under her coat.

Andrea's face reddened, and with tears in her eyes, she gave him a stunning blow on the cheek. Gyure grimaced in pain as he rubbed his face and watched Andrea's behind follow the rest of her into the restroom. "Shit, what am I doing," he thought, shaking his head," I always knew my limits before. That bitch could ruin everything if she squeals. I'd better calm her down." He rose from his chair and went to the restroom door.

Locked. He knocked. "Go away!" came the response. It was Charlie's turn to blush. Looking at his watch, he began to panic. "Shit! we're scheduled to leave for final countdown preparation in 15 minutes. What am I gonna do?"

Andrea, after locking the restroom door behind her, had locked herself in the stall. She was sitting on the toilet seat with her arms wrapped around her, and was bobbing up and down with her sobbing. She couldn't believe she had let him do this to her. "I should have done something a long time ago," she cried to herself. She had been so absorbed in her work it didn't even occur to her to bug the room for evidence. "Why? Why?" she asked herself, "Why me? Why am I always a victim?" Glancing at her watch, she saw that she'd better stop crying soon, or she would have some awkward explaining ahead of her. With a final shudder gripping her body, she unlocked her stall and went over to the sink. She turned on the cold water, removed her glasses, and started splashing the water on her face, trying to remove the tears and redness. Finally, she filled up the sink and soaked her face in the cold water, periodically raising her head to see if any evidence of crying remained in the mirror. She heard Col. Gyure calling to her from behind the door.

"Dr. Clemens, please, just forget what happened, okay? It would seriously affect the mission if anyone found out." The bastard didn't even care about how he made her feel; like a small sex object. She made up her mind as she was looking at her eyes, which had now lost the puffiness and redness of tears. That prick was going to have a very short mission. She would find time to sabotage the ship. She plotted to let the mission last long enough to prove that her warping field was adequate for an interplanetary trip, and then, an unfortunate life support malfunction would force the craft to return home using the emergency warp. Yes, this plan would resolve the conflicts that were tearing her apart. It would both justify her work and end Gyure's career. He would not enjoy the glory of being the first man on Mars. He would get close enough to maybe establish orbit, and the "unfortunate" malfunction would return him to Earth, and he would be past the age limit when another mission was organized. "Hmmm. Enough plotting for now," Andrea grinned at her reflection. This scheme had put her in good spirits again.

Andrea unlocked the restroom door and walked past Charlie without making eye contact. "We have an appointment in 5 minutes, Colonel. I hope this briefing session was useful. Let's go." Charlie felt his jaw go slack. A queer feeling began creeping over him, one of both relief and uneasiness. He was relieved that Andrea had appeared to have ignored the incident for now, but he felt uneasy at the fact that she was able to appear so in control and cheerful so quickly. It seemed almost like a split personality thing. "Weird," Charlie said to himself as he rubbed away the last tinglings of Andrea's slap and followed her outside the room.

After opening the door at the end of the hallway, they met the men who were responsible for preparing Gyure for the liftoff at 1000 hours. Andrea was not obligated to help them with these preparations. She had her own plans. After a quick alibi was given to her superiors, that she was going to give the emergency systems another diagnostic, she stole away to the sub basement level of the building, which allowed access to the craft. She had no problem gaining entry with her identification.

She was extremely skilled at electronics. After finding the relays for the life support systems, she managed to create a time delayed short circuit that would occur approximately 30 minutes after lift off. She estimated that Gyure would be over halfway to Mars by then. The communication systems also were added to this future mishap, as an afterthought. "Let the bastard shit his spacesuit," she said with a smile. She had studied enough circuit failures to make her work appear to be accidental. She was trembling with joy, knowing that she had just put the final touches on Gyure's career. Looking up, she saw the red emergency handle. Her mind started working. Since this mission was now going to end prematurely, she might as well use the opportunity to obtain important data for her research. Even though the current emergency warp setting was untested, its behavior and side effects could be predicted with 95% accuracy. Andrea was interested in pushing the warp limit even further, into a truly unknown region. Opening the circuit box for the emergency homing device, she doubled the curvature coefficient setting, which would return the ship to Earth at about half the speed of light. "That'll give him something to remember from his trip." She completed her preparations, double checked for incriminating evidence, and then, true to her alibi, checked out the emergency systems throughout the ship. She almost glided back to her laboratory, with her hands sweating in anticipation of the downfall of Gyure.

Morning passed quickly. All of the other preparations were now finished. Colonel Charles Gyure was in his spacesuit, harnessed in the cockpit of the ship, and ready to make history. Here came the final countdown: "T minus 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0... IGNITION!"

Gyure thought it was quaint how "ignition" was still used even though flammable rocket fuel was no longer used. He felt the smooth acceleration of the ship as the warp drive kicked in. Since the space around the ship was being "warped", relatively little power was needed to bring the ship up to speed and keep it there. The added bonus was there was also very little G force to deal with. Gyure even had the luxury of Earth's gravity thanks to Andrea's genius. She had certainly worked out what seemed to be hassle free space travel, as convenient as traveling on Earth. "This'll be a cakewalk," Gyure laughed to himself as he watched his instruments and maintained communication. Two minutes had passed, and he could now see all of North America. Further and further from Earth he soared. Now he could view the entire planet, and only after 5 minutes! He watched its dimensions grow smaller and smaller. 10 minutes; a basketball. 15 minutes; a softball. 25 minutes; a marble. 30 minutes ......

ZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!

Gyure yelped, jumped up, and hit his head squarely on the emergency handle. Groaning, he slumped to the floor; "Fuckin' .... stupid .... handle ......" He was so confident about his safety that he had unharnessed himself for more comfort. He stirred out of his painful daze after a few minutes, awakened by the smell of smoke. The life support panel had caught fire, and the sparks were starting to spread. "Oh .... fuckin' .. shit ..," Gyure mumbled, stumbling to his feet. He unfastened the extinguisher from the wall and promptly smothered the fire. Rubbing the top of his head, he knelt down by the panel to inspect the damage. Opening the outer panel, he saw that all of the circuits were fused or blown apart. No chance of repairs either. The damage was too extensive. He checked the communications panel with the same result. "Fuck," he muttered out loud. He looked back at the main instrument panel. The stats showed him that he only had 10 minutes of fresh atmosphere left. The computer was instructing him to pull the emergency handle and abort the mission. That news brought Gyure to full consciousness.

"No ...No!... NO!" he yelled, kicking the ruined panels. "It's not supposed to be this way!" He realized that after he returned home, he would be grounded; a soon to be forgotten astronaut who paved the way for another hotshot who'd end up getting all the glory. Then he remembered who had designed the ship. "Stupid cunt's junky spaceship!" he shouted. "Stupid fucking woman!" The end of his dream had made Charlie quite irrational, and the blow to his ego had caused him to ignore the crisis he was in. After a few minutes, he had calmed down enough to remember the computer's directive. Entering the proper codes, he acknowledged the directive, strapped himself in, and pulled the red handle.

This trip was not smooth. The entire ship was rattling, and the acceleration was tremendous. Charlie's body instinctively reacted to these forces which he had trained for months to endure. If his mind wasn't so clouded with rage, he would have noticed a feeling of falling inward as well. After a few seconds, the Earth ballooned before him as he headed toward the west coast of North America. Just as he started hoping that the ship would land safely, the ship pulled out of warp, leaving the momentum behind in the wake, which allowed the ship to fall from rest about 10 miles above sea level. "Thank God, she managed to do it after all." The landing parachute automatically deployed, and now all he had to do was brace himself for the fall in the ocean. He passed the time thinking bitterly about how he'd spend his time after he was "retired".

Meanwhile, at mission control, Dr. Clemens spirit had jumped for joy the second that communications were lost. The accident had happened right on schedule. She had to fight back a grin as she heard her superiors yelling on the phones to other bureaucratic types and explaining about the aborted mission and how they'd have to find another pilot for the next one. But there was recorded proof of the ease of warp travel. Andrea's work was justified; further funding would come her way. An investigation would show that the fire was caused by a few faulty circuits which had failed. Now all Andrea wanted to see was the expression Gyure would wear on his face after he returned.

She was thinking about all these wonderful things while she was monitoring the ship's return. A strong signal was sent from the ship when the emergency warp was activated. Her instruments were showing her a truly bizarre event, though. As Colonel Gyure's ship approached Earth, the signal should have increased in intensity; however, the signal was weakening, almost as if the source was diminishing. Finally, the signal was lost, being too weak to even register. She recorded this data to add to her analysis of the warp effect. The computer had used the signal to calculate the ship's trajectory, and now it had calculated the most probable area of ocean that Gyure would land in. The recovery crew soon departed, with Andrea tagging along. She wanted to be the first person Gyure would see when he landed.

The target zone was 15 miles from the coast. The crew stopped at the coast, and began waiting for orders from mission control, which was trying to pick up the ship on satellite scanners, radar, and other instruments. Andrea checked the time. The calculations predicted a splashdown in 10 minutes, but Gyure's ship should have been detected long before now. 15 minutes later, Andrea was puzzled. She contacted mission control, asking for permission to proceed with rescue operations. After 2 minutes of painful waiting, she got permission. The restless crew then drove the hovercrafts out into the ocean. They soon reached the target area and searched visually and with sonar. Nothing. Then each hovercraft started circling out in a radial pattern that extended about 5 miles. Still nothing. Andrea actually started worrying about Colonel Gyure. She remembered how the emergency signal grew weaker and disappeared. For a moment, she wondered if the ship was destroyed upon reentry. "Wait, it couldn't have," she reassured herself. She knew that all of the excess momentum the ship gained from the spacewarp would be shunted off, and if the ship did disintegrate, the signal would have disappeared abruptly, not just diminish like someone was turning down its volume.

Half an hour had passed, and the crew had located nothing. Following the rescue procedures to the letter, the crew began an extensive systematic search that would cover 100 square miles. The Coast Guard was employed to aid in this search.

The search was completed in 6 hours, with no news of the Colonel's return. No tracking station on the coast had picked up anything on radar. Andrea now feared the worst, that her new warp setting had indeed blown apart the ship. There was still a small chance that Gyure had just been blown way off course by the prevailing winds. It was the only explanation, assuming that the ship was undamaged. An international effort was intiated to expedite Gyure's recovery.

Charlie, meanwhile, had peacefully floated to earth about 20 minutes later than the predicted time, and, thanks to the winds, about 50 miles south of the target area, quite close to the coast. Charlie unharnessed himself, and started to lean forward on the seat to stand up, with his muscles instinctively using the proper amount of effort needed to stand upright.

Gyure shot up off the seat and struck his head on the ceiling. Even though his head hurt like the dickens, he didn't black out this time. "What the hell's going on here?" he yelled. Due to utter confusion, he neglected to curse Andrea's name. In trying to stand up, it was like someone had turned down the gravity. Standing up again, very slowly, he marveled at how little effort his legs and butt had to use. It was like someone was tugging on him with many invisible marionette strings. He then started bouncing lightly on his toes and swinging his arms from side to side. With each bounce, he left the floor and almost touched the ceiling again, with his arms swinging out at maximum arcs.

"Damn, maybe this trip wasn't a total waste," Charlie thought to himself. "Wouldn't it be cool if I got this strength as a side effect of that flaky bitch's warp gizmo? Gee, retirement might not be so bad now. I could really have some fun with this. Yeah, it'll be my little secret. First, I think I'll call up the Guinness World Record people and set a new high jump record for them." Gyure's ego had rejuvenated as he was getting excited at being number one again. His mind was swirling with visions of medals, money, and the models he would fuck.

While he was daydreaming, his ship was steadily floating toward the shoreline. He glanced toward land and shook himself out of his dreaming. He could see people on the beach. Now the elation building up in him made him feel like a shaken soft drink. Soon he would be mobbed by people and worshipped as a hero. He hoped the bikini clad girls would get to him first. He floated closer and closer to the shore. The people seemed close enough that they should see him now, but no one looked out at him. Charlie popped open the hatch, stood outside the ship and starting waving his arms to get their attention. Still no one looked at him. Charlie was getting impatient. "Maybe the sun's in their eyes," he thought. His view of the beachgoers zoomed larger and larger. They appeared close enough to hear him now, but no one looked out at him as he yelled toward the shore. "Huh? What's going on here? HEY GUYS! YOU DEAF? I MADE IT BACK FROM SPACE! IT'S GOOD TO BE HOME!" He was ignored again. Charlie was very confused and he just stood there, watching the people grow larger and larger. And larger and larger. And larger and larger. And still larger and larger. Charlie felt his stomach start to twist itself into a knot when the people starting looking a little too big, and he slowly grew more and more nauseous as the people grew larger and larger. Extremely confused and dizzy, he thought he was suffering from hallucinations or something. When the people became large enough that he actually had to tilt his head back to look at them, he realized something was horribly wrong. The people stopped growing. Charlie's ship was touching the sandy shore, and he had to hold his gaze almost vertical to see the faces of these people. With his lower lip trembling, he realized what had happened to him. Somehow, the trip using the emergency warp had shrunk him to the size of a grasshopper. And like a little insect, his muscles could now lift many times his own tiny weight. "Now what am I going to do," he started whining, with tears forming in his eyes. "The only record I'll set now is the tiniest pipsqueak of all time! What will happen to me? Will they put me in a cage? My life's over, OVER! I'll never get a woman again! What chick would get turned on by looking at my dick through a magnifying glass?" Now the tears came at full force as Charlie totally lost it. "It's all her fault! I know it! She did this to me! That crazy cunt! Wait'll I ..." He stopped his ranting, thinking, what would he do to Andrea? What COULD he do to her? She now would literally have more strength in her pinky than he did in his whole body! He shuddered as he realized that he was now inferior to every woman who was ever born. Only female fetuses were smaller than him, and young ones at that. He started hoping that whatever happened, he would not see Andrea again, because he had just remembered what had happened in the briefing room that morning. Boy, would she have a score to settle with him.

All this time, Charlie's ship was quietly bobbing against the shore, his crying unnoticed by the nearby people. Some kids were building a parking garage sized sandcastle close by. An outburst of their joyful yelling and screaming was the magnitude of jumbo jet engines to Charlie's tiny eardrums. He instinctively clapped his hands over his ears and huddled inside the ship, waiting for a moment of silence so he could close the hatch. Finally; peace and quiet. Charlie jumped up and slammed the hatch shut. The noise soon resumed. Now it didn't hurt his ears, but the whole ship still vibrated as if he were inside a megaphone.

He regained his senses, and started thinking about a plan of action. "They'll be looking for me. I've got to contact the authorities somehow." He certainly wasn't going to wade out onto the beach towards civilization. Covering the beach alone would be a day's journey to him. Hell, he doubted he'd even last a day; he'd probably get squashed under the feet of some overweight woman. His only realistic option was to be carried by someone to the authorities. He would have to wait and be discovered.

He didn't have to wait long. He heard a large weight land on the top of the ship, and suddenly his perspective became topsy turvy as the ship lifted and the floor of the cabin swung away from under his feet. He went careening to the front of the ship, which was now pointing downward. Looking out the front windows, he saw a pair of enormous bare feet far below, connected to immense legs, which touched part of a pink bathing suit. Despite his new bruises, Charlie tried to climb upward over the seat and equipment to get a better view of his discoverer. Looking out a side window, he saw an enormous little girl. She looked to be about 8 years old. He starting getting queasy again, knowing that he was just a toy to this little girl. The ship vibrated to her laughter, and Charlie was shaken down to the front of the ship and was violently bounced around with each step the giant girl took towards her mother, who was sunbathing nearby.

"MOMMY, MOMMY," she cried, "LOOK AT MY SPACESHIP." No answer came from her sleeping mom. The girl sat down next to her mother and started playing with the ship, steering it through the air while making whoosh whoosh noises. Luckily, by this time Charlie had the good sense to drag his sore little body up to his seat and strap himself in again. He started praying that the ship was sturdy enough to withstand her playing. All the turns and dives that the girl was forcing the ship to make were making Charlie sick again. He was relieved when she stopped and landed him on a large red hill. She had placed the ship on her mom's butt to get her attention. It took Charlie a few seconds to figure out where he was from his new perspective, and then he felt himself turn as red as the bathing suit of the woman he was perched upon. He was flushed partly from embarrassment of being so tiny and so close to a woman, and partly from being turned on by her large round ass. Unstrapping himself, he looked out the windows to view her titanic body better. He looked at her tanned, toned hamstrings and followed their tapering all the way to her heels. Next, he went to the windows behind him and followed the graceful curve of her spine from the small of her back up to her huge clavicles and neck, which was surmounted by a sea of golden hair. He began to quickly look back and forth from her heels to her head. "God," he exclaimed. Looking out along her body was like peering over the entire deck of a sexy aircraft carrier. Charlie started to feel less embarrassed about being tiny. Actually, he thought it would be downright kinky to explore the body of a woman this size. His hand was halfway to the hatch handle when he remembered that the gigantic girl was still out there, and thought better of it. "MOMMY, WAKE UP! LOOK AT MY SHIP!" the girl cried out again. "MMMMMMMMMHHHHHH ......" her mother mumbled as she awoke from her little snooze and started to roll over on her back. The little ship slid off of her rump onto the sand. Charlie, unharnessed again, took some more painful tumbles. Then he saw an enormous shadow loom over the ship. The huge woman was rolling over, and was going to crush him under her ass!

"MOMMY, DON'T BREAK MY SHIP!" yelled the giant girl, snatching the ship away just before her mom's backside made a nice dent in the sand beneath itself. Charlie took another roll in the ship as the girl quickly yanked the ship away. He managed to make it to his seat again and buckled himself in, promising himself that he would stay there until he was left alone for awhile.

The girl's mom had sat up now, and was curious about the toy her daughter had found. "LET ME LOOK AT THAT, HONEY," she said, taking the ship from her. Charlie felt the ship slowly rock back and forth and then he gulped as it was turned upside down as the woman examined the craft. She absentmindedly started muttering, "THIS HAS WAY TOO MUCH DETAIL TO BE ONLY A KID'S TOY. THIS LOOKS MORE LIKE A MODEL, AND AN EXPENSIVE ONE." Even though she said this under her breath, Charlie still heard every word loud and clear, as if a gale was speaking. The woman thought it was quite foolish for someone to bring such an expensive looking model to the beach. She lifted the ship up to her face and looked through the windows into the cockpit. Charlie felt his bowels turn as he saw her enormous eyes through the main viewing glass, looking at him. "GEE, IT EVEN COMES COMPLETE WITH A LITTLE PILOT," the woman grinned. Charlie knew she had smiled from how the large wrinkles around her eyes had moved. He was struck dumb with amazement. This colossal, sexy woman was smiling at little him! But only because she thought he was a toy pilot, he remembered. He wondered what she would do if she knew she was looking at a little living man.

Looking at her daughter, she said, "MARIA, SOMEONE WILL BE LOOKING FOR THIS. WE SHOULD TRY TO FIND THE OWNER." Maria crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "FINDERS KEEPERS. I WANNA KEEP IT."

"LET'S GO HONEY. THERE'S PROBABLY SOME KID HERE LOOKING FOR THIS." Maria had a grumpy expression on her face as her mom took her by the arm with one hand and walked along the beach holding Charlie's ship in the other hand, looking for the owner of the ship. Charlie had a good view of her legs and feet far below him. He admired the woman's shapely legs as she walked, watching her thighs and calves flex to her walking rhythm. He was also fascinated by the enormous footprints she made in the sand, and especially how the sand squiggled up between her long lovely toes. From his strapped in position, he could comfortably massage his manhood through his suit as he looked in wonder.

After 20 minutes, they had not come across the owner, having questioned several kids about the ship. It was about time to go home. "OK, MARIA, YOU CAN KEEP IT FOR NOW. BUT I'M GOING TO PLACE A FOUND AD IN THE PAPER AND ON THE BBS. I KNOW SOMEONE WOULD WANT THIS BACK, SO TAKE CARE OF IT." The only word Maria heard was "KEEP". She grabbed the ship back and started spinning around with it, yelling, "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" as Charlie was saying "Urrrgggggggh ...." Charlie did not have a comfortable ride to the girl's house. She kept rolling the ship back and forth across the car seat and in her lap. He was upside down for about half the trip. He was praying that this monstrous girl would forget about her toy soon and play with something else. All of his astronaut training couldn't prepare him for the roughhousing of a kid! He was badly bruised, nauseated, and his nose was bleeding. Nature was calling as well. Soon, Charlie heard the car motor stop. He sighed with relief when he knew the trip was over. "Ok. Now she'll take me in the house and forget about me," Charlie hoped.

Sure enough, Maria took the ship, went to her room, enjoyed a few more minutes of playing with her toy, and put it under the bed so she could go watch TV. Charlie felt as if he were on a roller coaster ride as he zoomed down into a twilighted area: the space under her bed. He landed upright, and Charlie watched her enormous feet kick off her shoes and walk out of the room with steps that shook the entire ship. After the feet went out the door, he quickly unharnessed himself from his seat to find some relief in the latrine ...

It was the most nervous movement he'd ever had. His body felt more rigid than a wooden ruler; it was bracing itself for another unexpected tumble. Luckily, he needn't have been so anxious; the girl had left him alone for an afternoon of cartoons. As his body emptied so did his mind; the cloudiness and tension seeped away little by little. He then cleaned up, and tried to treat his injuries the best way he could using the first aid kit. Then collapsing in his chair, he started thinking what he was going to do next.

The only option open to him was to contact the gigantic mother and convince her he was Colonel Gyure, the missing astronaut. He felt really nervous about this. He hoped she would believe he was a human being before she unthinkingly swatted him like a fly. How was he going to do it? Charlie closed his eyes as he thought deeply. "She mentioned putting a found ad on the BBS. So she must have a computer and a modem! I can contact ... hell, forget about her, I can contact mission control, and have them come over here and rescue me! Shit, I wonder if I'm even heavy enough to depress the computer keys? And even if I was, it'll take me a long time to type even a password. I can't leave myself out in the open like that for any length of time! How am I going to stay out of sight?

Charlie got his answer when he lowered his head in disappointment. His eyes were looking at the gadgets in his belt. Too bad he never got to use these devices on Mars, including, ... the invisibility field! "Holy shit! I CAN do it! Andrea's suit might get me out of trouble after all!" He had completely forgotten that the suit could make him invisible. Who could blame him?

He remembered that the suit's battery would last four hours, so he'd have to make every minute count. He planned to sneak along the base of the walls in the house, switching on the invisibility when he heard someone approaching, and eventually find the computer room. "Wait a minute, what if that warp fucked up the suit, too?" he worried. He found the controls on his belt and flipped the switch. He heard a hum not unlike an old TV set, and his body became invisible except for his head, which was bare, his bare hands, and the switch itself. Luckily, the physics of the device still worked despite its shrunken size. He was eager to begin his journey. He turned off the device, and started preparing himself. He packed some rations and water, some mountain climbing and survival gear, and his helmet and gloves. He was ready. He opened the hatch and stepped out of the ship for the first time since he had left Earth.

He sealed the hatch behind him and locked it with an electronic combination. "I hope that huge kid doesn't manage to open it," he thought to himself as he entered the proper codes. Then scampering over the thick brushlike carpeting, he headed for the wall of light shining at the edge of the bed. The bottom of the mattress overhead make Charlie feel like he was under the ceiling of a huge warehouse. Finally, he stepped out from under the bed out into the open. He was distracted by the sight of the scale of the room's furnishings. Her dressers were the size of office buildings. He saw a chair the size of the Eiffel Tower. And nearby was one of her shoes, which was larger than a garbage truck. The walls were painted light blue, which created the illusion that he really was looking up into the sky.

He focused on his goal again, so he ran over to the nearest part of the wall, and started taking long slow steps along the baseboard of the wall, keeping one hand close to the invisibility switch. He made it to the doorway of the girl's bedroom, and looked out into the hall. The coast was clear. He wrapped around the corner of the baseboard and inched down the hallway. His ears were more alert then they'd ever been in his life. He was waiting to hear the loud thumping of gigantic footsteps. After a few minutes, he came to the edge of the nearest doorway. Charlie poked his little head around the corner so he could see what was in this next room. It was the TV room. The girl was lying down in front of the tube with her chin cupped in her hands. Charlie could get a very good look at her from the doorway. He shook his head, still struggling with how mind boggling it was that he, a full grown man, could be just an insect to a little girl. She seemed to be absorbed with her program, so Charlie took a chance and started to walk along the threshold of the doorway, out in plain view.

Bad timing. Maria had already grown tired of the show and got up to switch off the TV. Charlie panicked as her large form began to rise. He had forgotten to keep a hand near the invisibility switch, so it took him a few seconds to turn it on with his trembling hand. When he looked up, his now invisible body almost collapsed from fright. The girl was leaving the room, and walking straight towards him! He was smack dab in the middle of the doorway, so he decided to run towards the far side of the door. Maria's body loomed larger and larger. Charlie heard the padding of her gigantic feet on the carpet. Never had he heard footsteps so loud. They sounded like blunted thunder. Running at top speed, Charlie managed to avoid getting smushed by Maria's foot as it landed, bah WHUUUUMP!!!, less than an inch from him. The displaced air from under her sole buffeted his little body further still into safety. Charlie tumbled away, landing against the far side of the doorway. He laid there in the fetal position, hearing Maria's footsteps grow quieter, ... quieter, .... gone. He laid there still, trying to cope with just how close he had just been to a gruesome death. He was almost squished by a little girl. God, he felt low.

He remembered that he had to conserve the suit's power, so his nervous hand flipped the swtich off. Charlie tried to climb to his feet, but he could only get up on his knees because he was shaking so badly. He bent over, put his hands on the ground, and tried to control his breathing, saying to himself, "You can make it, Charlie. The closer you get to the computer in this house, the closer you'll be to safety, even if it's in a cage." From the direction of Maria's footsteps, he figured she must have went back in her room. "She can play with her toy all she wants too, now," he said to himself, managing a weak grin. Leaning against the base of the wall, he finally was able to climb to his feet, and felt steady enough to continue his mission.

His trip toward the next doorway was, thankfully, uneventful. He poked his head around the corner of the doorway again to look inside the room. Hallelujah! He saw the colossal lady sitting in a den, working on her PC! Charlie examined the enormous room carefully. The woman was the only visible living thing in the room. He decided to go for it. He dashed straight for the phone cord, which was hanging down by the chair the woman was sitting on. When he reached the phone cord, he took a moment to look up at the large woman, still in her bikini. Up and up and up. From her shapely feet, up her tanned, lovely legs, to her slim tummy and up to her, oh mercy, her huge, gorgeous breasts. Charlie thought they looked like water tanks he'd seen at treatment plants; but, oh, no tanks were ever so shapely, and so full. He had to stop a moment and rub the crotch of his spacesuit after taking in all this wonder.

The sight of her was truly amazing; enough to make him temporarily forget his recent brush with death. That's probably why he moved closer to her chair. He had to be near the body of this goddess. Charlie started to creep toward her big feet. As he approached her pretty toes, he smelled a stong sweaty scent. Strong, but hardly repulsive, Charlie thought. He stood in front of her left foot, which was positioned with the tips of her toes on the carpet and the heel in the air. Charlie was right in front of her toes, and he looked at the attractive spread before him. Feet on women had never really caught his attention before; he was now starting to appreciate how sexy they could be. He looked over all five of her toes, each at least the size of his body, with well groomed nails painted a pretty red, which matched her bikini. Her toenails were large enough to be big shiny red serving trays. Charlie bent over slightly to look at her big toenail. "Gee, I could fit a twenty course meal on this one," he chuckled to himself.

He could see his reflection in the smooth, shiny polish. Charlie pulled off his helmet to see his face. Always concerned about his looks, he took time even now to fix his hair with a little spittle. He almost started laughing out loud at how ludicrous this was; he was actually using a woman's toenail as a mirror.

Charlie was getting giddy from admiring this woman's foot, and he did a very foolish thing. He wanted to see if she was ticklish. He walked around the perimeter of her toes to the back side, under her raised sole. He guessed that she was probably most sensitive near where the ball of her foot met the underside of her toes. He went down on one knee, streched out his arm, and gave her soft sole some long strokes with his fingers.

She was too absorbed with her work to notice, but her reflexes handled the situation. Her toes instinctively curled up and knocked away the source of their irritation.

Her toes had the force of an entire defensive line as they flung Charlie several inches away. While trying to get his wind back, he winced at how utterly stupid he had been. His libido had gotten the best of him again. Looking up from his supine position, he saw stars and other floating shapes for a few seconds, and then his vision focused on the woman's heel poised above him. He swallowed hard as he looked at her raised sole, which was leaning over him like the Tower of Pisa. Immediately he crawled out from under the gigantic sole. He shuddered since he knew he had come close to being squashed again.

He focused his attention on the phone cord again. He seized the cord, which was as thick as his torso. He removed some hand grips from his pack, put them on, and started to climb. Charlie didn't even need his feet to grip the cord as he climbed; his insect sized body could pull its weight up the cord just by climbing hand over hand. He couldn't help but look at the woman's calf as he was ascending the cord. Now he was level with her knee, and he looked at the small canyon her inner thighs made up to her crotch. He had assumed that his love life was over now that he was smaller than a woman's pinky, but he wasn't so doubtful now. He thought he could still give women some pleasure; it would just be a much larger effort for him now. He hung on the cord, fantasizing about rubbing this woman's enlarged clit. Slow, then fast, over and over and over. Mmmmmm, there were so many possibilities available to him now, and Charlie thought of many bizarre things he'd like to do if a woman would let him explore her anatomy.

He suddenly realized that he was still visible, and he was now in the woman's field of vision. He flipped the switch and resumed his ascent. He reached the top of the table that that the computer equipment was resting on. Looking at the woman, he focused on her large, lovely bosom, which was within jumping distance from the edge of the table, and almost level with his head. At this distance, her breasts looked even more lovely than from below. He could see her nipples protuding through the fabric of her bikini; they were as large as fire hydrants. Charlie had to fight the urge to leap off the edge of the table and try to bounce on her bodacious breasts like they were part of an amusement park. Biting his finger, he managed to gain his senses again.

He looked at his surroundings, and saw the computer mouse close to him. It looked as big as a Corvette. He thought it would be a good idea to go to the other side of the table since he didn't fancy being knocked off the table when the woman's huge hand reached for the mouse. He manuevered around the back of the machine, negotiating his way among the thick wires, and came around to the other side a few minutes later. Creeping up to the keyboard, he looked at the large, lovely hands resting on it. The nails were long, pretty, and painted like the woman's toes. He was mesmerized by the sight of those long red nails. They each looked like half of a surfboard.

He looked at the screen, which was larger than a movie theater's. The woman was conversing with someone. He read the conversation printed on the screen, in words as big as he was. From what had been typed, he learned that the woman he had been worshipping was called Joy, and she was separated. He smiled at that news. She was typing to one of her girlfriends on the network. Charlie soon became bored with their idle chit chat, and looked at her enormous lovely fingers pressing the keys. He was awed by the power she had; the keys were the size of large crates, and she was making sounds like doors slamming when she pressed them. Charlie waited for her to end the conversation. He hoped it would be soon: he had 3 hours of invisibility left.

Joy's friend logged off 15 minutes later, and Joy started to work on the found ad she was going to post. Charlie took out a personal recorder and spoke her address and phone number into it when she typed it into the ad. The mission control center was only three counties to the north. Charlie hoped it wouldn't take them long to get to him when he sent a distress message to them.

Joy had finished typing her message, and Charlie was getting ready to do the biggest typing of his life.

Charlie was too impatient to wait for Joy to leave; he climbed up on the parking lot sized keyboard and kept watching her marvelous giant fingers. His eyes widened as he saw the heel of her hand move towards him! It was way too fast for him. With the force of a speeding bulldozer, the massive hand knocked him back a foot or so. Charlie flew backwards through the air, and he fell down towards a lower table adjacent to this side of the computer. Charlie was unconscious when he fell with a tiny *ker plunk* into Joy's glass of tea.

Charlie was dreaming that he was being caressed by many shapely, warm female bodies. Ohhhh, it felt so good, he wanted to stay here forever. Then the bodies grew warmer and warmer and warmer ....

....AAAAHHHH!!!!....

Charlie was shocked to his senses by the hot tea he was floating in. It had started to leak into his spacesuit, and he had to grit his teeth against the searing pain. Suddenly, the heat was the least of his worries, as he saw Joy's giant hand reaching for the glass!

"SHIT! I'VE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!" he screamed, "I'LL BE SWALLOWED ALIVE!" He started crying when he saw her huge open hand approach the glass. The palm pressed against the glass wall, and the titanic fingers wrapped around most of the perimeter of the glass, with her soft skin smushing up against the glass wall. Charlie could see nothing but the fleshy mass of Joy's palm and fingers. Then he felt himself rising. He screamed like he'd never screamed before: "NO! NO! DON'T DRINK ME! STOP! I'M IN HERE! WAIT! DON'T!... DON'T!... DON'T!..."

He saw Joy's cavernous red mouth above him growing huger and huger, and she heard nothing as he continued to scream. Charlie suddenly stopped screaming because he knew he'd need all of his breath to make it out of here alive. He saw Joy's red lips, which were larger than a pair of big rubber rafts, engulf the rim of the glass. Then the glass tipped forward as Charlie's surroundings began to empty into her mouth.

Charlie starting swimming upstream like a madman. The undertow of the brown waterfall was tremendous, and he kept fighting ... and fighting ... and fighting ... while the glass kept tipping up ... and up ... and up ...

Eventually, the current was too much for him to swim against, even with his relatively stronger muscles. He started to fall backwards toward the inviting lips. "NO! NO! I WAS GONNA MAKE IT! SHE'S GONNA SWALLOW ME! THIS CAN'T HAPPEN! I'M A MAN, GODDAMN IT, A MAAAAAAN!" He started to choke and sputter on the hot tea washing over him as he was screaming pitifully. Charlie didn't give up his struggle when he felt the rim of the glass under him. He managed to grip it with his arms and legs and cling to it for dear life as the last dregs of tea emptied into Joy's monstrous mouth. Gripped by absolute terror, he paid no more attention to his senses, so he didn't hear Joy's tremendous lips smack while she placed the empty glass next to the keyboard.

He was still clinging tightly to the rim of the glass, crying like a baby, and wet both on the outside and inside. His latest brush with death had totally broken him down; he felt so insignificant, so powerless. He would have been a meager morsel to Joy. She wouldn't have even tasted him. He kept bawling and wishing his shrinkage would wear off so he could be a man again. He was still in no state of mind to see or hear anything, so he didn't move even when Joy turned off the computer and left the room, thankfully, without the glass.

When Charlie finally gained some sanity back, the room was dark, and the battery in his suit was dead. He had cried himself to sleep while perched on the glass rim. From looking out the windows in the room, he saw that nighttime had arrived. He gathered himself up, and jumped down onto the table. He had shaking knees when he landed. Charlie felt like kicking himself in the balls for getting too close to Joy's hands. He felt shivers of fright grow up his spine when he thought about how close he had come to being a snack for that tremendous sexy woman. But she was probably asleep now, and he would have all night to send his distress message and return to his ship. Damn. If only his battery had more power, he thought to himself. Now he would have to complete his mission without being invisible. At least it was dark now.

He would first have to turn the computer on again. Charlie looked at the side panel of the computer box and found the switch, which was as large as he was. He pressed against it; it didn't even budge. Charlie then walked back to the edge of the table, and sprinted to the switch, slamming into it with his shoulder. He could feel it shift slightly. Catching his breath, he knew he had a hard night's work ahead of him. He repeatedly ran into the switch again and again and again. After 5 minutes, the switch slid entirely into the ON position, and Charlie heard the hum of the electronic circuits. Collapsing in a heap, he rubbed his sore shoulder as the machine booted up.

After he was rested up, Charlie walked over to the massive keyboard and climbed on top of it. He groaned as he realized he needed the monitor on, as well. He found its switch above the top right corner of the keyboard, so he repeatedly ran up the incline of the edge of the keyboard, and slammed his little body into the switch. This switch was a somewhat looser; it only took about a minute for Charlie to bump it into the ON position. The screen lighted up, focused, and the computer was now ready to use.

Charlie started approaching the crate sized keys nervously. He hoped he would be able to press them down. The first key he came to was the CTRL key. He lifted his leg and put his foot on it, pressing down timidly at first, as if he were testing the strength of a sheet of ice. One foot wouldn't do it. He then climbed up on it, and jumped up and down. He felt the key depress every time. He breathed a sigh of relief. He would be able to communicate with mission control, albeit slowly. The lettered keys were no larger than the CTRL key, so he knew he had the alphabet at his disposal. He was now worried about the larger keys. He passed the SHIFT key, realizing that it would be impossible to use, and came to the ENTER key. He climbed on top of it, jumped on it, and happily saw the command register on the enormous screen. His final concern was that he would accidently press unwanted keys during his meandering over the keyboard. He slowly started placing his feet in the crevices between the keys, and he saw that he could walk in the crevices without accidently pressing anything. He was ready to begin.

He had recognized the program that Joy was using to talk to her friend. After taking 10 minutes or so to type out the letters of the appropriate command, Charlie ran the program. He traveled along the row of numbers on the keyboard, and dialed the unlisted number of mission control. Now he sat back and waited.

#HELLO, DR. CLEMENS HERE. WHO IS THIS?#

Charlie fell to his knees, and started yelling, "No! why did it have to be Andrea, of all people?" He didn't want to be within a mile of her while he was still this size. If she found him, he knew that the frightful events which had happened to him in the past 24 hours would seem like a picnic. He had to get rescued though. "The recovery crew will be the ones sent to find me", he thought, "not Andrea."

Charlie then typed out his message the best he could. The spacebar was impossibly large for him to depress, so he used periods to separate words. Andrea saw the following message appear very slowly on her screen:

#gyure.help.shrunk.314.elm.st.springfield.id.216346893#

Andrea saw the characters appear very slowly, about one every minute. She patiently waited while she saw a "g" and "y" appear because she thought there was some serious lag time on the lines. Her eyes widened as she saw "gyure" printed after five minutes. "What? is this a prank or something?" she said out loud. She decided to trace this call. She was in charge of computer security, and she wanted to discourage this jokester from trying to interfere with government work again. The tracing took some time, and Andrea kept watching the characters appear. The message didn't make sense. There seemed to be an address, and now what looked to be an ID number. After an hour or so, Andrea saw the entire message. She was bewildered when she checked the ID number with the database. It was Gyure's! The tracer had also returned an address that matched the message's. Was this weird message a call for help? Why would Gyure be using a computer to call for help? If he had managed to find a computer at the listed address, there should also be people around there who should have recognized him. Why wasn't he discovered? Her fingers trembled as she typed:

#IS THAT YOU, COLONEL GYURE?#

Charlie fell to his knees again and said a silent prayer of thanks. Someone knew he was Charlie Gyure. He felt a little more like a man again. He was so excited, he had a hard time keeping his balance as he typed:

#yes.help.i.was.shrunk.by.warp#

Andrea patiently waited for the message to appear. This had to be Gyure. But there was that word again, "shrunk." Did he mean it literally? "That's utterly impossible," she thought to herself. She rethought her answer when the word "warp" appeared. Her mind started working again. She had been trying to solve her equations for the magnitude of warp she had set for the ship, but to no avail. Maybe she hadn't found a solution because she had ignored what she had believed to be impossible. Using this little insight, she started working on another computer close by, assuming that the solution to her equations was that a region of spacetime shrunk under extreme warp, and tried to work backwards to her original warp equations. She also used the data from the decreasing signal of Gyure's ship she had recorded that morning.

It worked. Her warp field had actually become a miniaturization field. She spun slowly around in her chair, marveling at her good fortune, and at what a benefit her added discovery could be to humankind.

She remembered Gyure on the other end of the line again, and typed:

#ARE YOU OKAY?#

Charlie didn't know how to respond to that question. His entire life had changed in one day. He finally spelled out:

#help.ship.is.girl's.toy#

Andrea was stirred from her feelings of triumph when she read the message. She hadn't thought about what Gyure must have went through. She rechecked her work again, and tried to approximate how large Gyure would be using her data. Unbelievable. He was smaller than her fingers. She sympathized with his situation, but she found it quite amusing, as well. "Serves him right," she smiled to herself. She thought it would be fun to hold him in her hand and scare the living daylights out of him. She remembered how much of an asshole Gyure had been during the whole mission, and she decided she wouldn't stop at just holding him in her hand, she would scare him even more by slowly closing her hand around him, as if she were going to crush him. But she wouldn't, she thought. Letting him live at such a tiny size would be a worse punishment than death. The thought of having such a tiny man under her absolute control excited her beyond belief, and she quietly rubbed her crotch, which was starting to get a hint of wetness. As she did this, she imagined other places she was sure Gyure would love to see. Like the sole of her foot. She giggled as she imagined him running in terror from her shoe as she brought it down on him, slowly enough for him to escape so she could continue her fun. Maybe she'd remove her shoes and socks so she would actually feel him tickle her sole. As she started rubbing faster, she imagined placing Gyure there and commanding him to service her. She was all tingly with waves of blustering joy as she orgasmed to this thought. Her moans were quite modest as she spasmed in her chair. Luckily, she was in her private lab.

"What's she waiting for," Charlie said out loud. "I hope that bitch still isn't holding a grudge against me. Come on! Answer!" The screen then responded:

#THE CREW WILL SOON BE THERE TO RECOVER YOUR SHIP, COLONEL GYURE#

Charlie did a little dance, and said another prayer. His life was soon going to get better. He typed a final message:

#thank.you.bye# and typed the command to end the connection. He didn't have to worry anymore. He would soon be rescued, and they would find a way to fix him. He was feeling almost as good as when he started his space mission. Without bothering to turn off the computer, he went over to the telephone cord, and shimmied down to the carpet. He ran to the doorway, and inched down the dark hallway back to Maria's room. Everyone in the house was asleep by now, so Charlie had an easy trip back to the room. He was in such good spirits that the enormous form of Maria sleeping in her bed, looming before him like a mountain, didn't phase him. He walked right up to it, and kept moving under the bed.

Thank God, the ship was still there; but it was moved, and it was upside down. Maria had played with it some more. As he approached the ship, he hoped he was strong enough to roll it over. Bracing his back against it, he started to push with all of his might, and rolled it far enough so he could open the hatch again. Charlie entered the proper combination, opened the hatch, and went inside. He closed and locked the hatch behind him, took some nourishment, and strapped himself in the cockpit again. Exhausted, he soon fell asleep, dreaming of being big and popular again.

Andrea smiled when see saw Gyure's final message appear on the screen. She imagined how he must be walking over a keyboard, typing out the message letter by letter. She thought that was so cute. She wished she could have seen him do it. She didn't dwell on that loss for very long as she realized she would soon have the opportunity to see him do whatever she commanded of him. There was one problem nagging her. Was his condition permanent? She had insufficient data to answer this problem. She thought it would be a good idea to keep Gyure a secret; otherwise, the public would never feel that her method of space travel was safe. She decided she would keep him like a test subject and try to figure out how she could reverse his condition. She grinned a wicked grin when she knew that when she figured out how to reverse the effect, she wouldn't restore Gyure to his proper size. He would tell about what she'd done to him, and things would get really messy. No, she thought, she'd keep him as her pet as long as she could. "It's better for everyone to believe that he perished in space," she convinced herself. She copied down Gyure's address, and went to her locker for her coat, her hat, and a change of panties ...

As Andrea drove along the interstate towards Springfield, she tried to imagine seeing the world through Gyure's shrunken perspective. "He must be frightened out of his wits," she said to herself. Andrea promised herself that she wouldn't scare him too much at first; he might drop dead of shock, and that would be the end of her fun.

She was looking for a girl's "toy". She planned to flash her government ID to the occupants at 314 Elm Street and explain that she was trying to recover a special military top-secret ship which was lost at sea. Never mind that she was going to wake a household at an early hour; she had to have Gyure in her possession NOW.

She pulled up to 314 Elm Street, which was the location of a one level ranch house. She rang the doorbell and knocked on the door quite loudly. Charlie was awakened by both sounds, which sounded like huge church bells and loud construction to him. Joy was also stirred from her sleep. "Who the fuck is it at this hour?" she mumbled as she looked at the clock. She rolled out of bed, put on her robe and slippers, and wandered, bleary eyed, to the front door. Looking through the peephole, she saw an intellectual looking woman. The woman didn't seem dangerous, so Joy turned on the porch light and opened the door.

"Yes?" Joy asked. "Hello," Andrea answered. She showed Joy her identification. "I'm Dr. Clemens, of mission control at Madison Air Force Base. We got word that a girl at these premises has found one of our missing experimental craft. We would appreciate its return."

Joy was intimidated. Gee, the feds really knew just about everything. All of the "Big Brother" rumors didn't seem so silly now. She knew that Maria's toy had looked strangely out of place. "Oh! Yes. Yes. My daughter has it. I'll get it from her right now." Andrea waited impatiently on the front step while Joy crept into Maria's room.

Maria was still sleeping peacefully. Thank goodness, Joy said to herself. She didn't want to deal with an angry kid at 1 am. She found the ship still under the bed and grabbed it. She decided not to mention this to Maria unless she brought it up.

Charlie saw a light appear from outside Maria's door, and then he saw a gigantic pair of fuzzy slippers enter. The ship shook with their every step. The slippers stopped at the edge of the bed, and the huge body connected to the feet in the slippers started to fall to the carpet, blocking most of the light. Charlie could barely see the silhouette of a giant hand reaching for the ship! He calmed himself down; it was probably Joy's hand, which was going to take him to the recovery crew. He figured it was Joy since the slippered feet were much larger than Maria's. Charlie felt the great weight of the hand close around the ship; then, he was quickly pulled out from under the bed and into the air. His stomach began getting queasy again from the ride, and he hoped the recovery crew would be much gentler with him.

Joy brought the ship to Dr. Clemens. Andrea quickly fought down her reaction of amazement at the sight of the craft she had designed and helped build for over a year, which was now the size of a drinking glass. Even though she had worked out the formulas which proved that miniaturization was possible, it was still hard for her mind to grasp the proof she now held in her hands. She now brought the ship to her face and looked in the windows. "Oh ... my ... God," she thought as see saw a little human figure in a little spacesuit seated in the cockpit. She started to get excited; this was really happening. She was actually holding this little man, who had caused her so much pain, in her hands. She could do whatever she wanted with him. She quickly thanked Joy for her help and left for the base.

Joy, still stunned at her involvement with the feds, went to the kitchen to have a glass of milk. Passing by the den, she noticed that the computer monitor was on. Entering the room, she scratched her head. "I thought for sure I turned it off." She then turned off the computer and monitor, and took the dirty tea glass to the kitchen. She rinsed it out and refilled it with milk. As she enjoyed her drink, she was wondering if Andrea had messed with the computer.

Charlie had felt the ship being bumped around a lot, and he couldn't really see anything. Then he saw a bright light above the ship as he was lifted. He turned as pale as white bread when he saw a large pair of spectacled eyes peering at him through the windows. "Andrea ..." was the only word that escaped his lips. He started praying that she would have mercy on him. The light above his head disappeared, and he felt the ship being carried again. He was finally placed upright in a large dark area, with a bunch of huge white hunks of something surrounding the windows. He soon recognized these as styrofoam packing material. Andrea had put him in a carton complete with packing material because she didn't want the ship to be jostled around.

Charlie heard the familiar sound of a car motor starting and running, and then he felt the smooth acceleration as the car slipped into gear. He was starting to get anxious; should he be grateful, or worried? The trip back to the base seemed very short, and Charlie finally heard the car motor stop. Then he felt himself rise as Andrea took the entire box up to her lab. Now that the ship was cushioned by the packing material, Andrea's walking footsteps didn't rattle the ship very badly. Charlie felt the box land on something, and he waited to be removed from the box. But first, Andrea had to make some preparations.

She went to the electronics shop, opened it with her master key, and sifted through the spare parts. They had what she needed. She rigged a makeshift wireless radio with which she would be able to hear Gyure's amplified voice. She figured that his voice would barely carry more than the whine of a mosquito. The radio that Gyure would speak into was probably, oh, about as big as a refrigerator to him, Andrea estimated. The receiver went in her ear. She wiped her sweaty palms on her trousers and tried to feel like an angry giantess. She wanted Gyure to fear her from the start. She giggled as she thought this would be great fun; she'd get to act as if she were big and powerful, and see how a tiny man would react to her.

Andrea started acting out her part as a giantess by taking very heavy steps back into her lab. Charlie felt the entire ship shake, even through the packing material. He gulped as he heard the all too familiar weight of a huge hand land on the ship and lift it in the air. He saw Andrea's tremendous fingers outside the hatch, trying to pry it open. He gritted his teeth as tears formed in his eyes. He hoped she wouldn't hurt him. He was amazed at the strength of her fingers as they simply pried their way into the gap between the hatch and the wall of the ship. Bending the shrunken space age metal like cooked pasta, her fingers easily popped open the hatch with a gut wrenching "RRRRRRIIIPPP!"

Charlie was temporarily blinded by the bright light shining on him. Andrea had turned on all the lights in the lab to get a good look at him. Oh, he was so adorable; he was as cute as a button. She couldn't get over how little he really was; he was about half the size of her pinky. But he had to suffer, so she quickly suppressed her feelings. When Charlie's eyes adjusted to the light, he held his head down, afraid to even glance at her.

"LOOK AT ME, LITTLE MAN," boomed Andrea's voice. Her volume was greater than a fighter jet taking off. Charlie clapped his hands to his ears again. Andrea knew her loud voice would be unbearable to him, and she smiled when she saw his tiny hands cover his little head. Charlie still held his head down.

"LOOK AT ME, LITTLE MAN, AND I WON'T TALK SO LOUD." Charlie had no choice but to look up and up and up at Andrea's angry face through clouds of tears. He couldn't believe he had actually tried to take advantage of this continent of a woman only yesterday.

"THAT'S BETTER. NOW, UNSTRAP YOURSELF, AND STEP INTO MY HAND," she thundered as she brought her open hand, palm upward, next to the hatch. Charlie started weeping as he unharnessed himself and took shaking steps toward her open palm, which looked big enough to comfortably hold a two car garage. He carefully placed one foot into her palm, and then the other. He then went to the center of her palm, and fell down with his hands over his head.

"GET UP, LITTLE MAN," her voice boomed again. Charlie shot up to his feet. His tears were leaking out faster as he saw Andrea put the ship back in the packing box. He then saw her pick up a freezer sized black box, which she placed next to him. Even through his tears, Charlie noticed how nice her enormous fingers and nails looked. Her nails were unpolished, but still healthy, smooth, and beautifully trimmed. He looked at the box and wondered what Andrea was going to use it for. Meanwhile, Andrea was really starting to get into the act.

"THIS BOX WILL BE YOUR MICROPHONE. WHEN YOU SPEAK INTO IT, I WILL HEAR YOUR PUNY VOICE THROUGH THE SPEAKER IN MY EAR. NOW, TELL ME WHY I SHOULDN'T CLOSE MY HAND AROUND YOU AND YOUR BOX AND CRUSH YOU BOTH LIKE MISERABLE BUGS?"

Charlie was trembling on the brink of another breakdown. Would his torture ever end? He just stood there, scared speechless. Even if he gave her an answer, she would just keep tormenting him, he said to himself. She would never be satisfied.

"YOU'RE ANGERING ME WITH YOUR SILENCE, LITTLE MAN. WHEN I GET ANGRY, THINGS HAPPEN. LIKE THIS." She started to ever so slowly close her hand. Charlie saw her immense fingers rise up and form a canopy over his head, like a rising tsunami of flesh. The sight of those fingers, which threatened to crush him, pushed him over the edge. He fell to his knees and draped his body over the microphone. He started bawling into the box.

"Please! ... Mercy! ... I can't take anymore! ... I'm sorry for what I did to you! ... I've been through so much! ... So much ... I ... I ... that woman almost sat on me! ... and ... that ... that foot almost squashed me! ... and ... that girl shook the ship like a tornado! ... and ... and ... the woman almost swallowed me! ... and ... and ... I can't take any more! ... I'm sorry! ... I'm sorry! ... I'm sorrrrrrry!"

It was Andrea's turn to be speechless. Gyure's cries of anguish had pulled her out of her mean spirited giantess role. Her heart started to soften as he kept sobbing. She could check the validity of his story easily enough. Carrying him carefully in her palm, she brought him to another table in her lab which had a stereoscope on it. It was used for inspecting small parts of equipment for damage. She found a clean microscope slide, and placed it in her palm next to Charlie.

"COLONEL GYURE. PLEASE DISROBE AND LIE DOWN ON THE SLIDE."

Charlie was taken aback by her sudden change in language and tone. She had actually called him by rank and said "please". Still sobbing, he removed his outer suit, then the inner thermal layer, and finally, his underwear. He was too scared to even feel embarrassed about being naked in Andrea's palm. Charlie walked to the slide and laid down in the cold center. There was still room for another tiny man on it. Andrea very, very carefully placed the slide under the lens of the stereoscope. Then she removed her glasses, placed her eyes against the eyepiece, and focused the instrument on Charlie's tiny body.

She had some medical training under her belt, and what she saw made her feel terrible. She winced at all the bruises, lacerations, burn marks, and scars his little body had from his forehead to his shins. His adorable little penis was also bruised. He looked like he had been through a meat grinder. "OH DEAR," Charlie heard her cry out with sadness. He stopped sobbing as he realized that she had believed his story and felt sorry for him.

Andrea felt like an evil monster. It was her fault that he had suffered so much. To think what she had planned to do to him! She felt so selfish. Colonel Gyure had been through more than enough to make up for what he'd done in the past. She couldn't help but feel attracted to the spirit this little man had. Lesser men would have let themselves go entirely to pieces after his experience, and would probably commit suicide, but Charlie had managed to get himself rescued when he was less than two inches tall. He hadn't lost hope. Despite his faults, she knew that made him a wonderful little human being, and she wished she could treat his wounds properly. She wanted to cuddle his little body close to hers, but she didn't want to hurt him or scare him.

"CHARLIE, COME HERE, PLEASE," she said, bringing her palm, which had the microphone on it, up to Charlie. He stood up and gingerly stepped into her hand, wiping away his tears. Andrea brought him up to meet her eyes. He was shocked to see that she had great, shining tears of her own.

"OH CHARLIE, CAN YOU FORGIVE ME? I'M SO SORRY! ... I DIDN'T KNOW! ... I WAS JUST GOING TO SCARE YOU BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU DID TO ME ... I ... PLEASE, SAY SOMETHING, ALREADY!" She smiled at him as she started crying. Charlie's tears flowed anew as he sobbed into the microphone.

"Andrea, I'm so, so glad you're not going to hurt me. I was expecting you to step on me ... or swallow me ... or ..." He broke into deep sobs again as his terrifying memories returned. Andrea realized how miraculous it was that he had survived his ordeal.

"THERE, THERE, LET MOMMY MAKE IT ALL BETTER, NOW." She brought a giant finger over to him and petted his little body as gently as she could. She had to do something to make up for putting him him through a day of utter hell, so, oh what the heck, she smiled to herself. This was a truly unique situation, and maybe if Charlie liked what she was going to do, he wouldn't want to return to normal size. He deserved some fun after what he'd been through. Still carrying him in her palm, and drying her eyes with her other hand, she locked to door to her lab, and pulled out the cot she used when she had to work all night. She lowered Charlie to the mattress.

"HERE, YOU'RE SAFE NOW. I WON'T LET ANYTHING HURT YOU EVER AGAIN," she cooed at him. Charlie came to his full senses and stood up, wiping his face dry. He looked around at the view of Andrea's cot, which looked as big as a city block. "PLEASE, GET ON MY BED," she smiled at him. Charlie's libido, always at the ready, started to warm up. He stepped off of her palm onto the bed. Andrea then placed the microphone next to him, and stepped back. Charlie looked way, way up at the mountain of a woman in front of him and waited to see what she was going to do next.

"YOU KNOW, CHARLIE, I'VE NOTICED YOU OGLING ME FROM TIME TO TIME. YOU WERE UNDRESSING ME WITH YOUR EYES, WEREN'T YOU?"

"Yes," he meekly answered into the box. He blushed as he remembered he was still naked.

"WELL, FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS!" She gracefully removed her glasses and undid her hair, which allowed her black tresses to cascade down, down, and down the curvaceous slopes of her body. Her hair was so long, it almost reached the mattress. Charlie almost got knocked down by the wind that her falling hair had made. Then she started to remove her clothes. His little prick had no trouble coming to full attention as he watched her remove her lab coat, her blouse, and her bra. He fell to his knees as he witnessed the uncovering of her magnificent breasts, which reminded him of lovely swelling water balloons.

"DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?"

"Oh, yes!"

"WELL, CLIMB UP AND SHOW ME!"

Charlie jumped, grabbed a lock of her long, black hair, and started climbing. She was amazed at how fast this little man could climb up her hair. Charlie looked up as he was climbing. Oh boy, he was getting closer and closer to her pink hydrant sized nipple, when suddenly, Andrea's palm moved over him, stopping him from climbing further.

She laughed. "BOY, SUCH SPIRIT! YOU AREN'T AFRAID OF ME AT ALL, ARE YOU?" She didn't hear his answer. "OH YES, THE MICROPHONE," she stated absentmindedly as she lowered her hair, which still had little Charlie clinging to it, to the box. Charlie jumped off of her hair and spoke into the box, unashamed about revealing his deepest thoughts.

"Andrea, you're so magnificent! I think I'm in love with you! It's so wonderful knowing that I'm safe around you! I just wanna crawl all over your body and tickle you in all the right places ...." He was feeling giddy again. Charlie was getting close, oh so close, to having a supertanker sized woman give him total freedom with her immense body.

Andrea melted at his answer. "WELL, HERE THEN. LET'S START OFF WITH A KISS," she said as she gathered Charlie into her hand and laid back on the cot. She put him in her belly button and puckered her lips.

"COME, CHARLIE. GIMME A KISS." Charlie wasted no time in hopping out of her belly button and running up her toned tummy. Andrea had a hard time holding her lips puckered as she felt his tiny footsteps tickle her up her belly. He made it to her chest, and he had to stop and look at the fantastic fleshy hills of woman that surrounded him.

"DON'T DAWDLE, LITTLE MAN. I MIGHT GET ANGRY." Charlie looked at her face; did she revert to a vengeful giantess again? He saw her smile and wink at him. Charlie was relieved. His nightmares were finally over, and his wildest dreams were just beginning. He hoped this would never end. He continued to run closer and closer to Andrea's marvelous luscious lips ...

THE END