They crawled out of the first vent grate that they saw, helping one another through the slits. It took a second to realize that they were in Lab 3, which was currently deserted. There was only one security light on, so most of the lab was shrouded in darkness. It was surreal walking through the canyons formed by the office furniture.

“There’s no one here,” Isaac said. “We should go back into the shaft.”

“No, wait. I see someone!” Joanna could see a figure through the glass doors and thankfully, it wasn’t Naomi. Despite his sheer size, she immediately recognized the gray and gold uniform that the giant man was wearing. The main lights flicked on as the doors hissed open and he stepped through.

“Captain Dyson!” Joanna shouted as she waved her arms above her head. “Down here!”

His massive right foot slammed down in front of her, only a few feet away, and she realized that there was a distinct possibility that he could stomp on her by accident. She ran across the floor, still screaming at the top of her lungs, praying that he would look down.

The captain’s gigantic leg shifted and his foot raised up again, soaring directly overhead. Joanna gazed up in horror as the treads of his boot became her sky, vast and awful. Cowering, she shrieked his name one more time…and then he finally looked down. The boot stopped its deadly descent and instead settled back down to the ground away from her, close enough that she could feel the vibrations through the floor.  Like a skyscraper collapsing in on itself, the huge man knelt down. It was still a great distance to his face but she could see that his eyes were round with wonder.

“Thank God,” she said as he squinted down at her.

“Joanna?” His voice was deafening, like a rolling clap of thunder, and it made her eardrums ache.

“Captain, Naomi has the SR838 controller! She’s around here somewhere and we need to—,”

Ethan cocked his head, his brow furrowing. “I can’t hear you.”

He reached for her, fingers outstretched, and then saw the way that she instinctively cringed away. So he placed his hand palm side up on the ground and indicated that she should get on. Joanna climbed onto the expanse of his open hand, noticing how she could feel the thrum of his pulse beneath her feet. When he lifted her up before his face, she nearly lost her balance but she caught herself at the last second. She glanced up into the two immense hazel eyes.

Again, she tried to relay what had happened.

“Naomi stole the SR838 controller and she’s lost her mind. She’s already killed several people in Lab 1,” she told him and he frowned, still not hearing her properly. He moved her closer to an ear that was nearly three times her height. Joanna cupped her hands around her mouth and repeated her statement. The titanic head nodded in understanding.

“Jesus. Did anyone else make it out besides you, Joanna?”

“A-a few,” she answered, noticing how the gigantic eyes narrowed. When something brushed her back, she nearly jumped. It was his index finger, tracing the lines of her curves.

“How awful,” Ethan replied. His finger was unwelcome, especially when he stopped to caress her buttocks. She resisted the urge to push it away and instead took a step back. The giant’s eyes narrowed further.

“You need to help us before Naomi gets back,” she said.

“No.”

She wasn’t sure if she heard him correctly; then, as the vicious smile stretched his mouth wide, she realized that she had. To her horror, she saw that Ethan’s enormous fingers were curling inward toward her.

“Don’t, Captain! Oh, God, Ethan, stop!” Joanna pleaded, her voice dissolving into frenzied screams as his fingers blocked-off the light. She fought against the fingers as they began to press up against her body, squeezing tighter and tighter. There was a searing blast of pain, more excruciating than anything that her mind could comprehend, followed by several sharp cracks. Somewhere in the back of her brain she understood that the noises were her bones splintering and then she knew no more.

***

On the floor, Ava and Isaac watched as a thin line of scarlet trickled down from the giant’s palm onto his wrist. He opened up his fingers and peered at the ruined remains of the little woman, looking inordinately pleased with himself. Ava didn’t have time to question why he had just murdered their colleague in cold blood; all that she could think about was the grim certainty that they would be next.

“Run,” she choked out. Isaac didn’t need to be told twice. He was in far better shape than she was and he was already wiggling through the slits in the ventilation cover by the time that she got there. Behind them, Ethan was standing back up to his awe-inspiring height. Ava slipped into the ventilation shaft as the ground began to tremble with his footfalls.

The inside of the shaft was dark and it became even darker when the giant crouched in front of the grate, his bulk cutting off the light. He began to fiddle with the cover, trying to pull it off. Through the slits Ava could see his bloodstained palm, all that was left of poor Joanna. She stared, paralyzed with revulsion and fear, and then Isaac took her hand. He pulled her along with him, down through the blackness of the shaft.

***

The narrow hallways were empty and the only sounds were Naomi’s footsteps. Of course they were empty; she had shrank every single person that she had encountered so far. Well, except for one. She saw the captain as he strode out of one of the labs, the glass doors closing behind him. There was a handkerchief in one hand and he was using it to clean his palm. Naomi noted the red splotches that contrasted starkly against the white fabric of the handkerchief.

“Two of them escaped into the ventilation shaft,” he said, slipping the bloody handkerchief into a recycling unit mounted to the wall. Naomi made a tsk of annoyance but she didn’t say anything. There were probably still two dozen or so of the tiny people running around the station. The good thing was that she had the controller and there was nowhere for them to go except for the frigid vacuum of outer space. She would hunt them down, one by one, until they were all dead.

And what fun that would be.

***

“Everyone’s gone fucking nuts on this station,” Isaac said as they huddled in the shaft, trying to decide what to do. The air was hot and heavy with dust and Ava found herself coughing from time to time. She was getting over a particularly bad coughing fit when she realized something.

“The comms room,” she said slowly.

“What?”

“We need to get to the comms room and contact Ostara Station,” Ava explained. Ostara Station was the closest station to Lani and they had Alliance troops aboard. If they could contact them, perhaps they would be able to send help. It was as good of a plan as at this point. She tried to calculate the distance to the comms room, which was near the front starboard side of the station, and the thought was depressing. At their size, it would take them a day or two to get there…assuming that they weren’t found first.

***

In his quarters, Ethan watched Naomi as she settled down on his couch and pulled one of the side tables closer to her. He had to admit that she was a breathtaking woman, her confidence and cruelty adding to her physical beauty. His eyes trailed up her slender legs and then settled on her chest, her scarlet blouse clinging in all the right places. Naomi saw him looking at her and he quickly diverted his gaze. She smiled coquettishly at him as she stretched out on the couch, her regal bearing giving her the air of a queen upon her throne. It made his heart beat faster. And that wasn’t the only physical symptom of his attraction to her. He could already feel a raging erection pushing up against his pants. Ethan turned toward the bar before she could see his arousal, grabbing for two tumblers as he did so.

“Care for some?” He asked, holding up a bottle of single malt scotch imported from Earth. It was hideously expensive and he had been saving it for a special occasion. This counted, he figured. If everything worked out, he would be an admiral in a few months. Too bad about the crew and the scientists, but the whole proverb about needing to break a few eggs to make an omelette was proving to be true in this situation.

“I’ll have to decline. I never drink on the job,” Naomi replied. He poured himself a finger of scotch, regarding her with fascination as she deposited a small bag on the end table. Her dark eyes twinkled with wicked glee as she untied the bag and took out a shrunken man. She held him between two fingers, the bright red nail of her thumb pressing into his vulnerable torso.

“Where are the others?” She asked, bringing her tiny victim up to her face.

He said something, although Ethan couldn’t hear it from where he stood. It evidently wasn’t what Naomi wanted to hear because she sneered and drilled her thumb down into the man’s abdomen, eliciting a shrill screech of pain.

“I’d consider myself adept at the fine art of torture,” she said matter-of-factly. “And I’ll get you one of you to speak, I guarantee that.” With that, she delicately pinched his arm with her fingertips and yanked, separating it from the rest of his body with dreadful ease. She did the same with the other arm, as though she was pulling the wings off a fly. The man turned grayish-white, shock setting in almost instantly. She placed him on the table, allowing him to bleed to death.

There was a vicious yet gleeful quality to her actions, a sadistic brutality that even surprised him, a lifelong soldier who was used to seeing the Alliance raze entire worlds simply because they were in the way of some goal. Like all of the other members of the military, he had been whisked off by the Alliance when he was six years old and any sense of compassion had been long erased, replaced by a cold efficiency. But this assassin had him beat when it came to sheer depravity, there was no doubt.

Ethan’s erection grew harder, almost painfully so. Naomi was monstrous and awful and so damn sexy. He realized that he hadn’t wanted to fuck someone so badly in ages and he took another sip of scotch, allowing the burning sensation in his mouth to distract him from the insistent throbbing between his legs.
 
This time when Naomi reached into the bag, she pulled out two people, a young brunette and an older man with a wrinkled lab coat. She put them down on the table and leaned forward, her lips spreading wide to reveal gleaming teeth.

“So, who’d like to answer my question?”

Again, the tiny people couldn’t answer. Naomi moved her hand down toward her victims but she didn’t touch them, instead clicking her long nails against the table. A thoughtful expression crossed her lovely face and then her grin broadened. She tapped a few commands into the SR838 controller and then aimed it at the little man. He raised his hands up instinctively, as if to shield himself, and then he disappeared. Ethan frowned and set down the tumbler of scotch.

“What did you do to him?” He asked, heading over to the table. The inch-tall woman was still there, staring at him with horror. For some reason, her fear was triggering a sort of predatory response in him. God, he was so aroused right now.

“Oh, he’s still there. He’s about the size of a flea, but he’s there. And you’re going to step on him,” Naomi said to the shrunken brunette. The woman stared at her as if she couldn’t comprehend English, her face rapidly losing color.

“Step on him or I’ll swat you like the insect you are,” Naomi commanded, her hand hovering ominously. Ethan leaned forward, fascinated. When the woman didn’t obey, she brought her open palm down closer. Something the size of a grain of pepper moved slightly and a chill ran down his back as he realized that it was the other scientist, microscopic in size. He couldn’t even make out any details of the man at all and he only saw him because he was leaning down toward the table, squinting.

The tiny woman shrieked something, her high-pitched voice too garbled for either of the normal-sized people to comprehend. Naomi lifted her hand and smiled cruelly as the woman raised her minute foot and then brought it back down with a sob of despair.

“Excellent work,” Naomi told the weeping woman before she brought her hand down on top of the scientist, crushing her with a wet splat. Her dark eyes glittered with sadistic delight as she drew an abstract design in the splatter of blood. Ethan had to admit, he had never been so terrified of anyone in his life. And yet the erection was still there.

Naomi’s eyes shifted over to where he stood and she smiled slyly when she saw the bulge in his pants. She stood up gracefully and he caught a quick peek at her cleavage, the silky blouse open just enough. 

“I see that you appreciate my interrogation techniques, Captain,” she purred. He startled and backed away from her even as she moved uncomfortably close to him. Her perfume was something light and flowery, possibly lavender. When she touched his chest with one hand, he realized her intentions.

“This is not befitting of a captain,” he said stiffly.

“Neither is betraying everyone on the station.”

“Touché,” he replied, then gasped when she reached out and grabbed his cock and balls, giving them a firm squeeze.

“You need to relax, Captain,” Naomi purred. “Here, let me help you.”

Once more she reached into the bag and she withdrew yet another tiny person, one of his own crew. He had known Janet for well over two years and he didn’t look away from the redhead’s pleading gaze, not even when Naomi yanked open his pants and deposited her inside. Ethan clenched his teeth as he felt the tiny woman squirming desperately against his cock, and she only thrashed harder when Naomi cupped him again. This time when she squeezed Janet simply smashed into paste, emitting a muffled squeak of anguish as she did so. A small dark stain began to spread across the front of his pants but he didn’t care because he came at the exact same time, his orgasm more intense than anything that he had ever experienced.

“That’s better,” Naomi said, grinning.