Set in the year 2045, shrinking technology came into existence and while you’d think something so incredible would change a lot, it didn’t change much at all due to the illegal nature of using it. Shrinking technology was largely restricted to research laboratories and the military where it was used on special ops missions. For the most part shrinking technology stayed out of the public eye.

Enter 25 year old Marcus in grad school studying philosophy. Marcus knew philosophy probably wasn’t the greatest idea due to the economic outlook, but hey, he liked it a lot so he went for it. Unfortunately, grad school meant student loans. And that meant being poor most of the time, so whenever an opportunity to make some extra cash came up, he jumped at it. One such evening he was looking through online postings for odd jobs on Craig’s list. He happened to click on a post requesting someone to take part in an experiment. Marcus didn’t really understand the intense science that was described in the post, but he caught a few words of it, and noticed that it involved the use of shrinking technology. He thought it was too good to be true once he saw how much it offered: $200 per hour. He immediately sent in his information and didn’t try too hard to understand the details and figured he’d just get the explanation once he showed up.

The next day he received an email from a woman named Hellen Miller. The email signature was signed with her position, she was the head scientist of the lab. Basically, she was very excited and surprised that someone had offered to take part in the experiment and wanted to Marcus to come in the very next day. Marcus excitedly agreed and couldn’t believe how lucky he’d gotten to find the job, though he was a bit confused as to why no one else had jumped on the offer.

The following was the post listing:

“””

Next Generation Innovations is seeking someone who is willing to take risks and take part in something larger than themselves. To be a part of something bigger. Applicants need only send in their name, age, and gender. We’d like the applicant to take part in an experiment studying the effects of volatile molecules emitted by certain bacterial metabolic processes. The bacteria in question are Brevibacteria, Propionibacteria, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Micrococcaceae,  Corynebacterium, Pityrosporum. All of these bacteria are found naturally cutaneously as part of the natural flora of homo sapiens sapiens. The testing will make use of a licensed size reduction machine to expose the participant to the metabolic byproduct of the aforementioned bacteria in-vivo using other applicants of the female sex. Males and Females are all welcome to apply, however the specific goals of this experiment are to test the effects of the Female microbiota on the Male olfactory and lingual senses.

“””

Marcus merely scanned it as he couldn’t understand 80% of it.

The email that Dr. Miller had sent to Marcus is as follows:

“””

Hello Marcus,

I’m very excited to have received your application! To be honest I wasn’t sure we’d get ANY male applicants, but we do have plenty of female applicants so you can be sure you’ll be paid very well for your participation. We have just one spot open for a male applicant, so please let me know ASAP if you’re interested in accepting this position. Consider this a formal offer!

Hope to hear from you soon,

Dr. Hellen Miller - Chief Researcher at Next Generation Innovations

“””

Marcus slept very well that night thinking about how lucky he’d gotten to land the position. And it’s a good thing too, because Marcus may very well be plagued with nightmares for the rest of his life.

To be continued