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Please note this is a work in progress and a very brief introduction. This is also a working title. I have several sections written but I am heavily editing them at present. Feedback and criticism of all kinds is welcome! 


Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Something seemed off when a young, 20-something girl approached me in the twilight glow of the late university campus hours. Light reflected in haphazard ways across the large cathedral-style structures, bouncing off concrete blocks in one bright way but leaving a dark abscess in another. This beautiful woman with distinctly slim Asian contours, yet accentuated with austere, light, rounded Caucasian features, walked toward me in an alley near the library with a feminine gait. 

"Hey! I noticed you studying in there," she said, pointing a dainty finger towards the library.

I nodded, at a loss. My mouth opened, but no words came out, flustered. I turned towards the library to redirect the center of attention. 

She continued undeterred, "Can I ask what you were reading? I've seen you here a few times, are you a professor?" 

I swallowed, regaining my composure under sharp interrogation. "Hello, yes actually I am auditing a few courses here. I was reading a recent release on early Byzantine history; a new take on the Komnenos' role in reducing steppe nomad populations in the Balkans." 

I couldn't help but eye her over once again as I spoke in monotone. I could tell she was much more athletic than I first gave her credit for, with sturdy musculature in her quads and slightly elevated arms above her lithe chest. 

She pulled her ponytail back, fingering through it as she looked me directly in the eyes. "Well that's interesting, I love history but I don't know much about Byzantium. But I also noticed you were in one of my classes on quantum physics. You must have quite a diverse appetite for knowledge, but what brings you to Mrs. Matsuyama's class?" 

I stuttered for a moment, breaking eye contact even more than usual, but truth is always the best policy. "Well... I, I'm interested in shrinking technology, and from what I can tell from her peer-reviewed work she's the farthest along in shrinking biological matter. A recent paper from her lab indicates that she managed to shrink a mouse, and the brain was by all indications fully functional with no neurological anomalies or detriments. White and gray matter decreased in volume but retained proportions, as did cortical structures, densities, and neuronal columns. This shocked me... I..." 

The young lady quickly raised her hand, readying it towards me with a smile. I have never seen such a smile with a perfect angle. I shook her hand. "My name is Laura, it's great to meet you. I'm one of Professor Matsuyama's grad student assistants." 

"Well, um... Nice to meet you, I'm Lorenz. Were you headed somewhere? Is there something I can do for you?" I stammered out. Having a woman approach me like this still had me offguard and I was looking for an escape route. I began to feel self-conscious about the age discrepancy and the potential to find myself in trouble of some sort. 

"Actually, I was wondering if you might come with me to the lab tomorrow and meet with our team and Mrs. Matsuyama. She is looking for volunteers for a few experiments we are doing and we'd love to have someone that is genuinely passionate about the subject. I know this is a bit awkward but..." she stopped for a moment, searching for words. 

Fireworks erupted in my mind, possibilities flitting this way and that. My face must have lit up as she raised her eyes to meet mine. I couldn't hide my excitement, my dreams suddenly awakening as from a long death. "I would love to, please tell me the time and place." She smiled broadly. 


The Next Day -- 6:30 AM



Consigned to a dark corner of campus behind a delapidated basketball court and basking in the shadow of the mathematics department, I walked toward what amounted to a rectangle of concrete. The building kept its low profile thanks in part to a substantial amount of tree cover, adding to the shading around it but oddly making it a welcoming sight in its obscurity. Still, as I walked ahead, I felt a sense of foreboding that I didn't feel until now. I hadn't questioned my impulse to answer "yes," but I felt a sudden jab of existential dread as I noticed no one around me. Silence. A quiet breeze and a shady parking lot. Shrinking a mouse is completely different. What if this wasn't only risking my life, but my actual mind would change? What if human intelligence is different? Or, if it did go well, what kind of freedom would I have and could they turn me back? 

I was already at the door. And, frankly, I was ready. What would my regrets be if I passed up the one chance to have my most fulfilling fantasy, lived in real life? And what of it to be the first among all unique experiences in history? I felt as if I could see it now. 

[CLICK!] The door in front of me opened as I reached for the handle. 

"Good morning, Lorenz, thank you for coming," another Asian woman stood in front of me with the door propped open. She was older, perhaps in her mid-thirties, but had lost absolutely nothing in youthful appearance and gained everything in wisdom, with a knowing smile that peered out from behind inquisitive bespectacled eyes. Her hair was pitch black, and flowed down equally on both sides with purpose. Shorter in stature, she wore a researcher's lab coat and was not nearly the imposing figure I encountered last night. No flair, no undue conspicuous attention to her appearance, but she comprised a sincere and genuine countenance.

She smiled again, "Please come in. We're ready for you."  

Inside I was greeted with a menagerie of computers, equipment, microscopes, containment or radiation suits lying strewn about, and tables stacked high with papers, cups, old food containers. It was a bit disorienting walking through what I would describe as a clean mess; a clear path to get through, order and organization only where needed. The walls were covered in white boards and scribbles that I could not make out. 

And, as we walked in, I glimpsed in the back a room that was separated by glass and flanked by a set of computers and a control panel. Inside the room was white padding and what appeared to be mounted cameras, but a second glance indicated that this was probably the mechanism by which the shrinking inside happened. They looked like a sort of ray gun, but with wide apertures and seemingly directed at haphazard angles to all corners and sides of the room. 

The interns and Dr. Matsuyama were all seated off to the side of the room. Laura raised her head from her tablet computer and nodded at me, smiling. There was also a young Caucasian man, short in height and a little overweight, wearing some metal-rimmed glasses, a relatively unimposing figure slouched over in his chair staring at his phone with a blob of text on his screen. And then there was another woman in youthful middle age, swinging around from her computer to greet me. At best guess, she was Indonesian but with some Central American ancestry. She wore her brown hair down on the sides at shoulder length, and her darkened skin gleaned beautifully against the lab's and the computers' bright lights. She too was in a lab coat, short in stature, and had a nerdy but graceful and mature look about her. 

I stammered out, "Well hello everyone, I'm Lorenz." I raised my hand timidly at Laura, who waved cutely. I reached out to the guy, who responded, "Hello, I'm Robert." "Pleasure to meet you. And uh, miss?" I reached out to shake the hand of the lady with the thoughtful appearance, "Nice to meet you," I said. She gave me a subdued, but intelligent and empathetic smile, "Nice to meet you as well, Lorenz. I'm Anne. I've heard you have a bit of a curiosity streak in you," she said. I nodded, smiling, glancing nervously at the professor in the background. 

Dr. Tsuruko Matsuyama could not be bothered during the meet and greet, turning around and focusing intently on a screen. She was indeed an intimidating figure, and there was an aura of importance to whatever she was doing; the team seemed attentive to her and waiting for her to act. From her appearance one might surmise she was in her late 40's, a lithe but athletic figure without much muscle or girth of any kind to speak of, but one had the sense that she packed a punch on both a physical and mental level if you stood in her way. Before that, she left everything on the court. 

"Pardon me. I was just looking over our new AI algorithm to replicate synaptic pathways in the brain," she said, swiveling her chair around. "Lorenz, is it? It's nice to meet you. Laura has told me that you're interested in volunteering for our shrinking project." She quickly snatched a clipboard next to her on the table and handed it to me, "Please if you would, take a look over the legalese here. To summarize, and I think you realize already, this is a fairly risky experiment, but the potential rewards are enormous, and I think you're familiar enough with my previous work to understand that we do our utmost in rigor to ensure safety, efficiency, and results. Given our track record, I don't think you have anything to worry about," she said confidently, pointing rather subtly to the signature line underneath the 20-page document. 

I spent a couple of minutes skimming it, noting the "Not Liable For Permanent Harm, Injury, or Death" line in particular with a line of sweat forming on my brow, and signed the dotted line. 
"Excellent. Just so you're aware of how this is going to work, let me explain briefly. We use quantum fluctuation and entanglement to exchange, modify, and destroy unnecessary molecules in your body and simultaneously replace them with analogous, but much smaller structures. The brain has been a particular challenge due to its emergent connectivity, but we have demonstrated that we can use generative AI to create synaptic pathways and neuronal states that are exactly the same in every feature and facet to your brain's current state. The only real difference is in caloric requirement and volume."

Mrs. Matsuyama stood up to her full height of 4'11, gesturing at the screen and then at the room. 

"We are going to start by shrinking you to about 5 feet from your original 5'7, so you will end up being a little shorter than Lauren here at her height of 5'4. From there, we will see how well your body tolerates the effects and make a judgement to go further with the shrinking process. Do you have any questions?"

I nodded then quickly shook my head no. "I understand, I am ready to go through with the experiment."  

Mrs. Matsuyama gestured me to stand up, and led me into the room. I could feel the excitement building in my veins. My heart was racing, my head was on fire with excitement, and my mouth began to water as I eyed the beautiful women leading me to my dream to which they were seemingly oblivious at their task. 

"Hold on just a moment," she said. "Laura, would you?"

Laura rapidly stood and accompanied me as I stepped inside the room. It was probably about 20 feet square and blindingly white once inside save for the devices. I could see the team sitting behind various stations and consoles behind the glass. 

Mrs. Matsuyama came through on the speakers, talking through a microphone visible through the glass, "Mr. Tallot, please stand on the circle in the center if you would with Laura standing at your side. We're going to take a picture for comparison." 

I stood in the middle with Laura next to me. She stood about half a head shorter than me, facing the window. Her skirt flowed out nicely, subtly revealing a very firm back side. "Face front, please Mr. Tallot." Ahem. 

A flash went off, and Laura swiftly exited the room. Just as abruptly Mrs. Matsuyama flipped a switch and a glass door slid shut, sealing me in the room with a disconcerting thud. 
"Alright, we're calibrating the machine to your dimensions and performing a complete scan of your cranial attributes and internals. Please remain perfectly still."

I felt my head begin to vibrate, lights and lasers dazzling me. I was not ready for the noise, which sounded like a bass boosted MRI machine, pummelling the brain bouncing inside my skull. A few minutes passed and the buzzing in my head stopped, along with the red beams, flashes, and cacophonous noise that had been assaulting my senses.

"We're ready to begin the procedure. Again, please stand perfectly still in the center of the white circle. Hold your hands and arms out perpendicular to your body."

I did as Professor Matsuyama ordered. I was as ready as ever as I saw the lights dim and the machines start to whirr around me.  

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