A woman in her mid-30s named Kendall Draconis pulled out her cell phone inside the grocery store and called her partner. "The suspect is inside the store!"

Two undercover time cops found the suspect and brought him to Kendall.

"I don't want to go back to the year 5150!" shouted the suspect. "I just want to live here in the 21st century and mind my own business!"

"You're guilty of murder back in 5150. You made your mistake in this century by winning the lotto!" said Kendall. "Your cover was perfect, we would've never found you if you hadn't became a millionaire from gambling! Picking the winning horses at most of the races at Santa Anita last week didn't help you, either! You ended up in the newspaper, that's how we found you!" Kendall turned and spoke to one of the men leading the time criminal away. "Take him in your vehicle, I'll meet you back at the station in the fifty-second century to file the necessary paperwork."

As the two male officers led the suspect away, a man hid behind a large display near the door, listening to every word of their conversation. As Kendall Draconis walked through the parking lot, the man followed her. He dodged out of sight as she made her way to her time vehicle. She didn't see him as she used a remote control device to deactivate the cloaking device on her vehicle. What once looked like an ordinary SUV now appeared much more futuristic. Kendall opened the door to her vehicle when her cell phone rang.

"What's up?" she asked.

As Kendall spoke on the phone to her partner, the man jumped inside the vehicle, and made his way to the rear. Seeing a box for tools and equipment, he opened the hatch and climbed inside just as Kendall hung up the phone and climbed into the pilot's chair. Her fingers danced deftly over the control console, and the gull-wing door hatch closed silently.

"Activate cloaking device," said Kendall as she strapped her safety harness on. She took the steering wheel and the vehicle climbed into the air. In a matter of moments, the view in the windshield turned from blue to black with a view of stars as the vehicle entered outer space.

"Put us into a sling-shot trajectory around the sun," said Kendall to the navigation computer. "You can de-activate the cloaking device now!"

The vehicle gained momentum as it flew around the sun, the numbers on the digital display on the control console in front of Kendall grew larger as the vehicle gained a larger and larger percentage of the speed of light.

"Prepare to breach temporal space!" said Kendall. To any eyes watching at that exact moment, it would appear that Kendall's vehicle disappeared or disintegrated, when in fact, it had entered temporal space, also known as the dimension of time.

Kendall unstrapped her safety harness and reached for a water bottle located in a cooler built into the center divider between the two front seats, when she spotted a red light blinking on her control console.

"An intruder?" Kendall asked herself. "Now how did I miss that?" She pulled out her neutrino dissimilator pistol and stood up, then made her way toward the back of the vehicle. She threw open the storage box, revealing the man who had stowed away aboard her time vehicle. "Who the hell are you?"

The man stood up with his hands in the air as a gesture of surrender. "The name's Slick Rick, Slick Rick Stevens, but everyone just calls me Slick.

"I'm Kendall Draconis, of the United Planetary Time Patrol, out of the year 5150! It's nice to meet you, Slick! I'm afraid you're going to be stuck in the year 5150 for a while until I get my time vehicle recharged! My vehicle only had enough charge to make one round trip."

"I don't mind!" said Slick. "You can show me around your century, maybe give me access to a computer with an Internet hookup while I wait!"

"Why don't you have a seat in the passenger seat of my time vehicle, Slick!"

"Don't mind if I do!" Slick replied.

"Strap yourself in, it won't take long to get to my century," said Kendall.

"How does time travel work?" Slick asked.

"In temporal space, time is space," Kendall replied. "Let's say you wanted to travel a year into the past. After phasing into temporal space, you would follow the Earth's gravity trail to wherever the Earth was one year ago. After phasing back into normal space, you would materialize one year in the past, but in the same location in space where you first entered temporal space."

"So you would need to travel that same course twice?" Slick asked. "Once through temporal space, and once through normal space?"

"Exactly!" said Kendall. "My time vehicle is a little more sophisticated than that, it utilizes hyperspace to traverse the distance through normal space that we need to cover. We're about to arrive in my century!" The two of them strapped themselves in.

"Hey, you're from the year 2011, right?" Kendall asked.

"Sure am!" said Slick.

"Do you remember the 2000 U.S. presidential election, and the controversy surrounding it?"

"Yeah, anyone my age from my time would remember that!" said Slick. "Why?"

"My 18-year-old daughter Starla is in junior college, and she's doing a report on it. Maybe you could help her while I get my time vehicle recharged!"

"No problem!" said Slick. "I'd be glad to help!"

"When we re-enter normal space I'll call her, " said Kendall. "We can't send a radio signal into normal space from temporal space, because it would require too much power."

"How long 'till we re-enter normal space?" Slick asked.

"In a few seconds," replied Kendall.

In the year 5150, not far from Earth orbit, Kendall's time vehicle exited temporal space. Slick was astonished to see so much traffic in space. There were hundreds of thousands of satellites and space vehicles swarming around in Earth orbit. Kendall pulled out her cell-phone and called her daughter.

"Honey, I'm bringing someone home who should be able to help you with your homework. Meet me in the parking garage, I'm entering the atmosphere right now!"

Slick was impressed as the time vehicle slowed down as it descended. He could see huge, sleek, futuristic structures as well as a myriad of flying vehicles ascending and descending. He saw that they were heading toward a building that functions as a parking garage for flying vehicles that can take off from the ground and fly into space, as well as travel from space and land on the ground.

When the vehicle came to a stop, a girl in her late teens was waiting nearby.

"That's my daughter Starla!" said Kendall. Starla was wearing a miniskirt with mid-calf boots, as well as a t-shirt with a vest. She had bracelets on both of her wrists, and her long auburn hair was tied into a pony-tail.

"His name is Slick, take him to the domicile, he's from the year 2011, and he knows about the 2000 presidential election from a personal perspective!" said Kendall. "I have to take the time vehicle to get re-charged!"

As Kendall left once again, her teenage daughter Starla walked Slick to her apartment.

"Hi! I'm Starla Draconis!"

"I'm Rick Stevens, but everyone calls me Slick!"

Starla smiled and giggled at Slick's nickname, revealing braces on her teeth. "How did you end up in my mom's custody?"

"I stowed away in her time machine. She's going to take me back to the 21st century after she re-charged her time machine."

"Do you realize you're the only person on Earth who isn't low-jacked right now?" said Starla.

"Low-jacked?" said Slick.

"Yes," said Starla, "everyone in the fifty-second century has a chip planted under their skin so we can be tracked in case we are kidnapped, or if a fugitive goes on the run. Not having one gives you advantages and disadvantages."

"I think I can figure out the advantages, but what are the disadvantages?" Slick asked.

"Someone could kill you and nobody would ever find out."

"Well, I'm not going to be in your century for very long, so I don't think I have anything to worry about. So what do you want to know about the 2000 presidential election?"

"History looks back at Katherine Harris as a criminal," said Starla, "because when she was Secretary of State of the state of Florida, she helped George W. Bush steal the 2000 presidential election. Everything was in her power to do the right thing, but she made corrupt decisions. In my time, we see her as synonymous with other infamous historical figures, such as Hitler and Stalin. What was your reaction, when you were living through that experience?"

"To tell you the truth, I wasn't very informed back then, at least not as much as I am now, and back then, I thought Gore was trying to steal the election from Bush!"

Starla stopped in her tracks. "How could you possibly think that?"

"I heard Al Gore didn't want to count the military votes sent in from overseas, so I thought he was the bad guy!"

"Gore only wanted to disregard the military votes that were mailed in after the election deadline!" said Starla.

"I was registered as a republican at that time, so I was biased in favor of Bush. I guess I bought into all the republican hype back then! When Gore said he wanted some of the military votes disregarded, some people in the media tried to make it look like he didn't care about people in the military. They put their own spin on it, and people like me fell for it."

"My report is centered on the idea that anyone living in that era would realize that Bush stole the election!" said Starla. "If you thought Gore was stealing the election, then your testimony is worthless to me!"

"I know now that Bush stole the election," said Slick. "I took a U.S. Government class in junior college, and I saw a documentary about it. You have to remember that hindsight is twenty-twenty, but to the people living in the year 2000 during that election controversy, most people were confused about what exactly was going on!"

Starla stopped at a door. "We're here!" Starla punched in a password on a keypad, and a sliding door slid to the left, then another door slid vertically, revealing another keypad. Starla punched in another password, and another door slid horizontally to the right.

"Why so many doors?" Slick asked.

"There's a lot of crime in this city," said Starla as they entered the domicile. Once inside, Starla pressed a button on a console built into the wall and the doors closed behind them. They entered the living room, and Starla walked over to a console built into a wall near a counter.

"We have an organic juice dispenser, we probably have varieties you don't have in your century," said Starla. "Would you care for a drink?"

"No," said Slick, "but I am interested in getting at a computer so I can look up the winning California lotto numbers from 2011!"

"The computer is right there," said Starla, "but first let me see your identification card."

Slick took out his wallet and pulled out his I.D. card and handed it to Starla, who scanned it with a device built into the computer.

"Do a search on the person I just scanned. Give me all information about him!"

Information appeared on the screen instantly. After viewing the results, Starla said, "There doesn't appear to be any information about you after 2010 or 2011, Slick!"

"Maybe I'm staying here in your time, who knows!" Now let me take a crack at those winning lotto numbers!"

"Computer," said Starla, "display all winning California lotto numbers for the year 2011!" said Starla, and she got out of her seat.

As Slick sat down to view the winning numbers, Starla became angry. "You can't even give me any useful information on the 2000 election! I don't know what I'm going to do with you! If I don't get an A on that report, I will kill! You're completely useless to me, I might as well use a Portasizer on you!"

This caught Slick's attention, and he turned to face his host. "A Portasizer? What's that?"

"I'll show you" said Starla. She walked into the hallway, and came back moments later with a device in her right hand that looked like a weapon.

"This is a neutrino dissimilator pistol. It can shrink things. This one is manufactured by the Portasizer company, but there are other brands. There are gangs that go around shrinking people and eating them."

"I thought everyone was low-jacked," said Slick. "Can't they track someone who has been shrunk and kidnapped?"

"When the low-jack chip is miniaturized," said Starla, "it can't be tracked as accurately as it can at normal size."

"How is shrinking even possible?" Slick asked.

"Most of the matter composing the protons and neutrons of the atoms of a person's body and clothing are converted into neutrino particles," said Starla. "The electrons shrink, too. Don't ask me to explain dimensional braning, because that's over my head, but I do know it has something to do with forming a protective dimensional layer around the miniaturized atoms of a shrunken person's body. The process is known as neutrino dissimilation, and the technical name for a shrink-ray is neutrino dissimilator."

"And when were shrink-rays invented?" Slick asked.

"About a hundred years after the time you're from," Starla replied. "Now let's get back to talking about the 2000 U.S. presidential election, and if you don't provide me with any useful information, I'll zap you!"

"I told you all I know!" said Slick. "I didn't know anything crooked was going on until after the last time I got released from prison and started attending junior college."

"Are you still a republican?" Starla asked.

"The last time I was registered to vote, I was a democrat, but I stopped registering when I started going to junior college because I got tired of getting jury summons. They shouldn't send those to college students, it can really screw us up!"

"I think I'm going to shrink you!" said Starla. "I've got the sizing scope set to a ratio of seventy-two over one! If you're six feet tall, that'll reduce you to one inch tall. That's a perfect swallowing size!"

Slick stood up from the chair he had been sitting in. "Starla, let's talk about this!"

Starla raised her arm slightly, taking aim at Slick's torso. "I've already made my decision! Almost all of the popular girls at my school have swallowed a captive! Even some of the cheerleaders have! I don't want to be the only one who hasn't, so I can't pass up this opportunity!"

Slick jumped toward Starla in an effort to grab the Portasizer, but Starla's thumb hit the trigger before he could get close enough to grab it from her. In an instant, he was reduced to about an inch tall. Slick looked up at Starla, who now seemed massive from his tiny perspective. She knelt down and giggled as she looked him over.

"This is like a dream come true for me!" said Starla. "I've known I wanted to swallow a shrunken man since I was in junior high, but I always thought I'd have to wait until I turned twenty-one to do it!"

"Starla, does that shrink-ray have a way of restoring me to normal size?"

"It does, but I'm not going to reverse the shrinking process. You're a historical dead-end, Slick! If you had amounted to something back in the 21st century, I wouldn't have any choice but to allow my mom to take you back to your own time."

Slick broke for it and tried to run. Starla simply crawled in his direction and pounced on him. She cupped her left hand over him, then she scooped him up.

Slick tried to reason with Starla. "Won't your mother be angry with you if you swallow me? She's a time cop!"

"I could just tell my mom that I opened the door and you ran off!"

"And what if you get caught?" Slick reasoned. "You'd be guilty of murder! You could do time!"

"People from the past or the future who are here in this century without a visa aren't protected by the law as ordinary citizens are. Therefore, I could swallow you without fearing prosecution. And to be honest, the court system is so backed up with cases of people getting swallowed, if your death was even taken to trial it would just get thrown out of court."

Starla sat on the carpet with her legs outstretched, and placed Slick on her left thigh.

"I know how long it takes my mom to recharge her time vehicle, so we have plenty of time. You might as well enjoy your last few minutes of life!" Starla smiled and rubbed her hands together with excitement. "Why don't you march over to my kneecap, and see if you can maintain your balance as I lift my knee?"

Slick didn't see any choice in the matter, so he marched over to Starla's left knee and stood there. Starla bent her knee and folded her leg, and in the process her knee rose into the air. Slick did a good job of balancing on Starla's kneecap.

"Maybe you could keep me as a pet, and wear me as a piece of jewelry!" said Slick, getting desperate to try to reason with his captress.

"You're talking to the wrong kind of girl!" said Starla. "I'd rather swallow a captive than keep him. Besides, they won't let us bring captives to school, I'd get in trouble. My mom wouldn't let me keep you anyway, she would make me re-enlarge you so she could return you to your own time. I need to swallow you before she gets back!"

Starla grabbed Slick in her fist and raised him over her head. She smiled. "I'm not going to swallow you right now, I'm just going to put you in my mouth for a minute to get a feel for this."

Starla opened wide and lowered Slick toward her mouth. He looked down to see her tongue moving from side to side. Her braces glinted in the sunlight that filtered into the room from the wide window in the living room. When Slick was about six inches above Starla's mouth, she let go of him and he plummeted into her waiting maw. Slick looked up at the opening of his new prison to see Starla's massive teeth close quickly above him, blocking out the light.

Starla walked over to the drink dispenser, and ordered a strawberry-mango drink. When she grabbed the drink, she took Slick out of her mouth and said, "Corruption is an intrinsic part of human nature, and I'm just as guilty as anyone else! People of the fifty-second century aren't more enlightened than the people of your time, we're just more aware of how imperfect we really are!"

Starla tossed Slick back into her mouth, then drank some of the juice in her other hand. Slick tried to fight the current of the beverage coursing over Starla's tongue, but he wasn't strong enough. With a tilt of her head, Starla knocked Slick to the back of her mouth and swallowed him, then finished off her drink.

After dropping to the depths of Starla's stomach, Slick fought to hold his breath, hoping for some form of escape. His teenage captress had no intention of vomiting Slick back up, but he still held onto that vague hope that she would.

Meanwhile, as Slick struggled within the depths of Starla's belly, Kendall arrived home later that afternoon. "I'm home, Starla! Where's Slick?"

"He ran away when I opened the door, mom!" Starla lied.

Kendall checked the security cameras from the home computer in the living room. It showed Kendall and Slick arriving, but as the camera sped up, the only person who left and came back was Kendall.

"Did you use the Portasizer on him?" Kendall asked.

Starla smiled, and nodded her head. "It was fun! I always wanted to swallow a shrunken man!"

Kendall sat down on the couch next to her daughter. "Since Slick was never low-jacked, nobody will ever find out!" Both of them laughed.

"Will you ever bring any more captives home from the past?" Starla asked.

"Only time will tell!" said Kendall.

THE END