Chapter 7: Summoned by the Dark Mistress

Alexa wandered around the Verso common room, bored. Stratus approached Alexa with a small hand held device and a roll of string. "This is a neural stimulator, you're going to need it if you have shrunken man."

"Thanks," Alexa replied. "What does it do?"

"It stimulates the area of your brain that induces vomiting, in case you swallow your captive," Stratus replied. "This string is edible, it will dissolve in your stomach, and it's cherry bubble gum flavored. You can have your captive climb on it before you plunge him into your mouth."

Alexa went to her dorm room.

Alexa decided to spend some time alone with her shrunken captive. She opened the heavy lid and pulled him out, then placed him on her desk. She had some edible string.

"Climb onto this edible string," Alexa commanded. He complied and climbed up the strand of string, and when he was halfway up the six inch length of edible string, Alexa lifted him above her mouth and lowered him in. Once he was firmly on her tongue, she closed her mouth with a small length of the edible string hanging out of her mouth.

Just before she was about to swallow her captive, Alexa changed her mind. "I can swallow you later," she said as she placed him back inside his terrarium. She placed the neural stimulator and the edible string in a drawer of her desk.

She got up to go to the bathroom, but when she was done and about to exit the bathroom, the room was in reverse, a mirror image of how it was supposed to look. There was a tall mirror five feet high and about two feet wide, the bottom of which was six inches above the floor. When Alexa looked into the mirror, she could see the way the bathroom was supposed to look.

"It looks like a reflection," said Alexa to herself. She peeked out the door of the bathroom. On her desk, the terrarium containing her shrunken captive was gone. "What's going on?" Alexa asked.

Just then, a woman entered the dorm. It was the same woman who had been in the hologram on Monday morning.

"Greetings, Alexa!" said the woman. "I am Morgan Lefevre, and I've summoned you here."

"Where am I?" Alexa asked.

"This is an alternate space time continuum. This dimension is a halfway point between your universe and the one I dwell in. I've developed a base there, and I created a mirror image of your dorm building here in this halfway point. It appears exactly as it would if you looked in a mirror in your world. There is a hologram of you in your real dorm room bathroom, to fool any surveillance devices."

"Who exactly are you?" Alexa asked. "Nobody can give me a straight answer about you."

"I was a student at the academy about a hundred years ago," Morgan replied. "I graduated at the top of my class, and about fifty years later I tried to take over the world of the ephemerals. The academy stopped me. Since then, I have been developing lost technology in an effort to gain an advantage over the scientists of Futurian academy."

“Why does the academy oppose you?” Alexa asked.

“They don’t tell students the truth about the time we originally came from,” Morgan replied. “Our people came from around 800,000 years in the future, not one million years, and in that era, whites are the master race, and all non-whites were miniaturized and enslaved. Between the 21st century and our own era, there have been at least half a dozen race wars. The white race was almost wiped out more than once, so the whites enslaved them. My goal is for everyone to be equals, but the academy opposes that, because they feel that making everyone equals will once again endanger the white race, as has happened before.”

"What do you want from me?" Alexa asked.

"I want you to consider becoming my appreantice," Morgan replied. "My technology allows me to scan the mind control devices that they use on the first year students to determine whether they go into Verso house, or Recto house. Your readings were off the chart. I've never seen a student with more Verso potential than you possess!"

"What's so special about me?" Alexa asked.

"People like you and me are seen as evil by the outside world," said Morgan. "But we just want to bring order to the chaos that is the present day world. We can end the wars, and poverty and disease by establishing a new world government, with ourselves as absolute rulers!"

"How close are you to your goal?" Alexa asked.

"I am less than a year away from developing technology that would allow me to create an alternate timeline where Futurians rule the world of ephermerals as gods!"

"That sounds cool," said Alexa. "I must possess some kind of skill that is valuable to you, am I right?"

"Yes," Morgan replied. "You have the potential to become a great scientist some day. I wanted to approach you and explain that to you."

"When I studied neutrino dissimilators, that inspired me to want to become an engineer," said Alexa. "Before that, I planned on becoming a lawyer."

"Over the next school year, I want you to focus on science. Quit the debate team, and join the recovery of lost technology club instead."

"I was already planning on doing that," said Alexa. "I was also planning on running for president in the student election."

"That would be great," said Morgan. "The more people you can influence, the better!"

"How do I get back to my own world?" Alexa asked.

"There is a mirror that connects to the mirror in your dorm room, just step through it, and you'll be back in your dorm at the academy. I'm using technology that the greatest scientists at the academy don't currently have. If you do decide to become my apprentice, you can enter this parallel world through the mirror in your dorm to find me. Only you will be able to pass through the mirror to this alternate world."

"The head mistress wants me to get in touch with her if you try to contact me," said Alexa. "How should I handle that?"

"I want you to contact her, but don't tell her about the mirror or the hologram. Just tell her I asked if you wanted to be my apprentice, and you said no. Also, don't tell any of your friends about meeting me, I know girls your age love to gossip, but you must keep our meetings a secret. Now get back to your reality, before people get suspicious that your hologram is hanging around a mirror for so long. If she gives you a tracking transponder to wear, don't worry, she won't be able to track me down." 

"Okay," Alexa replied.

"Be sure to step out of the mirror backwards, and your hologram will disappear and you will replace it."

Alexa did as Morgan instructed, and found herself back in the bathroom of her dormitory. When she exited the bathroom, she did as Morgan had instructed her and headed to the office of head mistress Victoria Valerius. Once there, she knocked on the door, and was summoned inside.

"I saw the dark mistress," said Alexa.

Victoria Valerius was holding an electronic tablet, and quickly put it down when she heard this news.

"What did she say to you?" Victoria asked.

"She wanted me to become her apprentice," Alexa replied. "I told her I wasn't interested, and she left."

"Our sensors show no signs of any inter-dimensional contact," said Victoria.

"Her technology outmatches yours," said Alexa. "She even told me so."

"If she did summon you, I want to try to discourage you from joining up with her. She tried to take over the world half a century ago, and she will probably try again. If you become her apprentice and she tries to take over the world again and fails, she will cast you aside like trash. She is not your ally!"

Victoria got up and went to an electronic station and said, "Dimensional transponder, please." A small electronic device appeared on a tray below the monitor of the electronic device.

"What is that machine?" Alexa asked. 

"It is a matter duplicator, it can take a pattern stored in the computer's memory and make a physical copy of it." Victoria held out the small device. "This is a transponder, if Morgan Lefevre ever takes you to her home dimension, this transponder will send us a signal so she can be located by us. I want you to wear it like a necklace."

Alexa took the necklace and put it on. When Victoria dismissed her, she returned to the common room of Verso house. There were about a dozen Verso girls socializing in the room, sitting on chairs and couches, and having a good time. Umbra and Stratus were there. When Umbra saw the necklace Alexa was wearing, she approached Alexa.

"Did the Dark Mistress summon you?" Umbra asked.

"No, what makes you think that?" Alexa asked.

"You're wearing a transponder necklace," Umbra replied. "I've read about those! It's worn to track you if you journey to another space-time continuum! Did the head mistress give it to you?"

"Yes," Alexa replied, "but not for that kind of reason. It's just for protection, in case I do get contacted by the Dark Mistress."

"Those aren't given out frivolously," said Umbra. "You must be in some deep trouble if they're forcing you to wear a transponder!"

"Aren't we your friends?" Stratus asked. "You can tell us anything! If you're going to help Morgan Lefevre take over the world, I want in on it! I can help you."

"I don't know what either one of you are talking about!" said Alexa, and she departed from the common room and headed to her dorm. Her terrarium was still on her desk, where she had left it before being contact by Morgan. She opened the lid, and retrieved her tiny captive and the ball of flavored string.

"How do you feel about becoming my captive?" Alexa asked.

"How would you expect me to feel?" the tiny man replied. "I've been yanked from the life I knew and taken here and held hostage."

"It's really not too bad," said Alexa. "You would've lived to be about a hundred years old or so, give or take a decade or two, but in this life, you can live for hundreds of years!"

"Are you really going to keep me around that long?" the captive asked.

"You're immortal, so you've got nothing to worry about." said Alexa. "There's nothing I can hypothetically do to you that would put you in danger."

"But I can't eat, or enjoy foods like pizza," said the captive.

"You don't need food any more," said Alexa. "Most people would give their life savings to be in your position!"

"What would've happened to me if you hadn't abducted me?" the tiny man asked.

"Who knows?" Alexa asked. "History regards you as missing from the day I abducted you, so maybe you would've diappeared some other way."

"Is it remotely possible," the tiny man asked, "that the only reason I'm missing is because you abducted me?"

"I'm sure that's a possibility, but we might never know," Alexa replied, as she broke off another piece of cherry bubble gum flavored string and held it at the waist level of her shrunken captive. "Now, grab on!"

The shrunken man did as he was told, and grabbed onto the edible string. Alexa lifted him above her face, and began to lower him toward her open mouth. Just before she could drop him inside, Stratus showed up. Alexa set the captive down on her desk.

"Alexa, you have to tell me the truth! If the dark Mistress contacted you, could you tell me?"

"Stratus," Alexa replied, "I told your sister that the head mistress gave me this transponder as a strictly preventative measure, because of the hologram of the Dark Mistress that appeared Monday morning. There really is nothing more to it than that!"

Just then, the shrunken captive interrupted the conversation. "Who is the Dark Mistress?"

Stratus slammed her fist down on the desk with all of her might. "Speak when spoken to, you pathetic toy!"

The shrunken captive was alarmed at the ferocity of the cruel girl, and stepped back.

"You shouldn't let them get the better of you, Alexa. They are toys, not people! They don't have the same rights as us."

Alexa thought this was funny, so she gave a sinister smile. "This is something I could get used to!" Alexa turned her attention to her shrunken captive. "How does it feel to know you will spend the rest of your life as my tiny little toy?"

Stratus got angry when the shrunken man failed to respond. She slammed her fist down again. "When you're questioned by your mistress, you will respond, is that understood?"

"Yes!" the tiny man replied loudly. "I apologize!"

"Now answer the question your mistress gave you!" Stratus said sternly.

"I don't mind at all," said the tiny man. "I could get used to it, there are worse fates!"

"He wasn't saying that earlier," said Alexa. "He was lamenting the fact that he wouldn't have gone missing if I hadn't abducted him."

"They all get accustomed to a life of servitude," said Stratus. "It just takes time. Once he realizes he's never going back to his original lifestyle, he'll accept his fate! My sister has a shrunken man, and it took the better part of a semester for him to accept his new life, but now there aren't any problems."

Alexa smiled as she pondered her friend's words.