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Chapter 1 - Failure

A focused blue laser shot forth from the machine, lighting up the room with bright light. After the last remnants faded away, Liz kept her eyes shut a little while longer.



“Please…” She whispered. “Please let it work this time.”



She took a deep breath and held it, then opened her eyes.



“Mother fucker!” She swore, louder than she meant to.



The chair was still there, same as it ever was. It didn’t look like it had gotten even a little bit smaller.



“Yet another failed attempt.” Liz thought to herself.



Liz walked up to the chair and examined it. Sure enough, there were no obvious signs of change. Not even a scorch mark where the laser had found it’s mark in the middle of the backrest. Just to be sure, she pulled a tape measure out of her lab coat pocket and checked the chair’s dimensions. But her fears were confirmed when the measurements came back the exact same as they had before the experiment. She replaced the tool in her pocket and pulled a notebook from the other pocket. She approached her desk and sat down, grabbing a pen from the mug she used to store them. She smiled glumly. It read: “World’s greatest scientist.” A gift from her boyfriend, Matt.



“Oh yeah, I’m the greatest! The most important project of my career and I shit the bed.” She mused.



She scribbled some notes onto the paper. This was the 26th failed test fire, by her count. The suits at the meeting were going to drink her milkshake.



“As if I needed any more stress right now.”



Liz worked as a research scientist at the local university. She specialized in biological engineering. The composition of the human body had fascinated her even from a young age, and she’d decided to dedicate her studies to finding ways to improve life through engineering change in anatomy, even down to a molecular level. It didn’t make her popular with the older, more conservative side of the scientific community, but it had accelerated her rise in the ranks at her job. Which is how she’d gotten the job she was currently working on.



A private defense contract company had contacted her, requesting her skills in developing a new weapon for the United States military. The old rules of engagement were going out of fashion, it seemed. They were seeking a way to weaponize physical changes. Because bullets rearranging a person’s internal organs weren’t enough anymore. They wanted ways to wipe out an entire army in one fell swoop. Liz had initially prepared to turn the offer down on principle, until the payment offer had showed up in her inbox. She’d changed her mind in a hurry after that. Everybody, it seemed, did a have a price.



But once she’d accepted the offer, she realized that she had no idea what to do. That was, until one afternoon in the school’s library, she’d found her inspiration in the fiction section, of all places. A novel by Richard Matheson titled “The Shrinking Man.” But of course, it was regarded as a classic in the science fiction genre, and it had inspired the even more classic film from the 1950s. But what if it didn’t have to be fiction? What if the ability to shrink matter could be real? The thought of being able to miniaturize enemy vehicles, reducing them to toys before they could even strike…it certainly held some appeal.



She’d checked the book out immediately and read most of it in her office that evening. The shrinking process in the book, in which the main character became exposed to a radioactive cloud after accidentally ingesting insecticide, didn’t seem that far-fetched. The radioactivity catalyzed the chemical properties of the insecticide, giving him what amounted to a reverse cancer that caused him to shrink in size rather than grow. What if a concentrated dose of each was administered in a compact form? It was surely worth an attempt at least.



And so, she’d set to work, setting up a makeshift home laboratory in the basement of the house she shared with Matt. Months of work, building what was essentially a mounted rail cannon that would fire the chemical mixture in a heated ray form. It hadn’t been easy getting approval to remove certain materials from the university’s lab, but her tenure afforded her certain privileges. She also felt bad because she’d neglected so much time spent with Matt. But this was big. If she could make this work, the money she received could allow her to open her own personal lab. And then she’d be free of any and all restrictions.



But then came the failures. Lots and lots of failures. She’d tried everything she could possibly think of, but nothing changed. Every test run of the machine came back negative. And time was up. In just a few hours, she was required to give a presentation at the lab on the status of the project. Big wigs from the defense company would be there, as well as board members of the university. She faced the distinct possibility of being fired today.



She closed the notebook and stood up. She gathered all the documents relating to the project. And with one last look at the machine mounted to a table on the far side of the room, she hung up her lab coat and walked upstairs.