The Shrinking Machine Ch. 02

"Oh." I blinked. I hadn't expected this; Dad had never said a word about a girlfriend.

"I have a hell of a lot more claim to his ideas than you do, Rachel. Beyond that, the only way any good parts of your father's work would see the light of day at all would be if someone qualified could review it. I don't mean to sound insulting... except when I do... but did you even finish college?"

I gave a tight smile. "Sure didn't. Bombed out in the second quarter, then it was trade school all the way for me." I'm actually fairly proud of my salvaged life, all things considered.

Dr. Rose leaned back, looking like I'd told her no, I was actually a very serious circus performer. She took a deep breath before continuing. "Listen... I'm the only person on this Earth that is both qualified to understand what Michael was trying to prove, and won't just steal all the credit for myself - if there even is anything in there worth looking at. You're just being obtuse, and the offer I'm presenting you is very generous."

She gestured toward the paperwork spread out on the table. "Short version: you and I would split the proceeds of any publication sales I base on his work, 85 / 15 - in my favor... and considering you had no involvement whatsoever in his work and aren't going to be able to do anything with it on your own, that's basically free money. It might even be quite a lot, if something your father created was valuable."

"I... think I deserve a little more credit than that." I folded my arms as well, summoning obstinacy equal or greater to her own... or trying to. I just needed to buy time, really. "Can you tell me what exactly Dad's work was about? Or what he just thought it was about?"

She waved a hand. "It was yet another way to put together string theory, but wildly divergent from any of the theories so far. He decided one night, right in the middle of sex..." she rolled her eyes again - "... that he wasn't even going to call it string theory anymore. Didn't say what the new name was. He hopped up out of bed and bolted into his study, barely saw him for two days."

"Thanks for sharing that about my dad, Dr. Rose!" I gave her a big smile, trying to bring things back to sanity... at least until the machine was online.

"Right. Sorry, didn't realize impressionable children were listening. I must have had tenure for too long." She crossed one leg over the other. I had to admit, hers actually looked good... no veins, must not have punched out any little ones. I think. She was still talking. "You see, in science, Rachel, even being wrong is important - your father's theories may be wildly off-base or completely wrong, but that's still a valuable thing in the frontiers of science.

"Disproving what's wrong is the next best thing to proving what's right. That's why I'm pis... surprised you won't give me the chance to look at the complete picture. And just so you know, I haven't published in years, and the dean is up my ass about it. I spent a good year in bed with Michael, and twenty playing mathematical hopscotch with strange quarks and leptons. This costs you nothing and might even make you some money. Michael would want this, and you know it."

I sat back, shaking my head and waiting a few moments. "Tell me what you do know about his stuff, then, and what exactly you did with it. I'm curious about what you and he worked on together."

She paused for a moment, glancing at the door as if she expected Stalvert to walk right back in at any time. He didn't. She sighed, sitting up. "Your father's theory was all about a different way to look at the construction of what's inside atoms - in fact, he sort of threw out the idea of atoms themselves. He shifted particle concepts around in ways nobody thought possible..." She gave an odd sneer. "... like he thought the universe was some big orgy, and he was the Master of Ceremonies."

It ended up being easier than I expected; as they say, if you want to get someone talking, ask them to actually tell you about their work. Pretty soon she was effectively lecturing me on the fundamentals of quantum physics, all of which made virtually no sense to me. It went on for some time, completely engaging her.

I found myself smiling at the acidic and entirely uncalled for comments she seemed to love adding in, even when they were obviously pointed at the little bitch keeping her from her next science article. Oddly, I think I liked this sassy, bitchy Dr. Rose more than the prim and imperious woman who'd stepped in. I was even coming to like her fiery red-headed looks; her jacket was nice and tight around her midsection...

"Rachel..." After finishing some ungodly long sentence about spinning uncertain flavors, she eyed me curiously. "Can you tell me how many kinds of quarks are in the Standard Model?"

"Hmm?"

"It's a simple question. I told you just a few minutes ago, but you're spacing out and I'm testing you."

"I am not spacing out." I frowned.

"So tell me how many there are."

I rolled my eyes, and summoned some confidence. I was pretty sure I remembered, even if I'd really been thinking of Summer's tiny pussy on my tongue for most of the last few minutes. She had to be squirming as she listened in on our conversation; she wouldn't dare to bring herself off right now. "Ugh. Four."

She let out a long sigh. "It's six, and you can look it up.

"I meant in Dad's model!" I brightened. Faking it of cou-

"He didn't even believe they existed!" She slapped a palm sharply on the coffee table. "That was one of the first things I said. You've been off in la-la land since I got here, Rachel. Don't try to pretend you weren't. I've been lecturing smarter people than you for going on twenty years now, and I know when somebody is listening and when somebody is phoning it in. Why did you even call me out here if you're just going to waste my time? I could have just sent the lawyer by himself." She paused. "Well, maybe not useless-ass John. Where is he? It's been two hours."

She stood up, straightening her jacket and slinging her small purse over her shoulder. "This is stupid, and you're testing my patience. I'm withdrawing the offer, and I'm going to have the firm draw up a new case to simply appropriate everything of Michael's from the estate. And trust me - I will win."

My throat caught. "I'm... sure your lawyer will come back any time. He might be stuck in traffic."

"That was a high point of today, let me tell you. Wish I could just piss off in the middle of my job and charge 250 an hour for it." She shook her head. "I'll drop his boss a nice letter. You'll hear from..."

She trailed off, blinking. "I... don't... feel well suddenly... I... ahhh..." She let out a long breath, and her purse fell with a distant thump on the floor as her hands came up to either side of her head, then shifted, moving to hug herself as sensation swept through her body.

I paused, anxious, then felt delectable heat inside as I noticed the little shift downward - as her height reduced a little. She blinked more, looking around, perplexed, as if she'd forgotten something. I smiled, and reached down for my cell phone, switching off speaker mode.

"Summer?"

"Rachel, if I can talk to you privately-"

"You already are." I grinned again as Dr. Rose continued to stand, looking around in a daze. "You're such a good girl, Summer."

"I - I am?" She sounded confused, but very happy. "I mean - I'm sorry Mistress, I know you said to wait until you gave permission, but it sounded like things were going badly..." Her voice was starting to speed up, like it did when she was very nervous about displeasing me.

"No, Summer. You were a good toy. And... you deserve a playmate." I heard her inhale sharply in surprise at the news, and an eager cheer and clapping afterward. I let one hand rub against the inside of my jean-clad thighs, massaging my needy little clit after being reminded just how incredible the machine's power was, once everything was in place. Dr. Rose was suddenly paralyzed with indecision.

I had to jerk my hand away from my clit to keep myself from coming quite yet as I watched another inch gradually stolen away from the redhead forever. The first of many, I thought. I spoke into the phone again. "Go ahead and clear that sequence, but leave her frame in the buffer. Boot up my new interface too, and wait for me. We're not done with Dr. Rose yet."

"Right away, Mistress!" I heard her incredibly slow typing; she had to kneel in front of the space bar and reach over to slam down each key with a full palm slap. It was sort of like watching her play some weird combo of Twister and Whack-A-Mole - more than ten minutes or so could actually wear her out.

I wasn't cruel enough to make her do that normally, of course. Her new online paralegal career - as well as her normal surfing, movie viewing, and porn habit - were all run off a new Blackberry I'd taken her on a shopping trip to pick out, to celebrate her first week as my slave... it was much better suited to her tiny self.

I ended the call, and walked over to Dr. Rose, sliding one hand into the small of her back. She didn't resist, but glanced down at me, still seeming confused. "I... I was leaving, wasn't I?" She shook her head, seeming to come back to her senses briefly. Her clothes were already a little loose, not quite fitting her diminishing body.

Dr. Rose nodded to herself. "Yes, I was leaving, and I was going to have the firm try to claim the whole estate." She turned and started toward the door, but tripped and almost fell as a shrinking foot slipped out of her shoe. She gasped and caught herself on the countertop. I smiled.

"No, you aren't leaving. Stalvert isn't coming back either; he's actually forgotten about you for good, after deleting your entire client file. I want you to stay, Dr. Rose." Her body jerked to a halt mid-stride. She turned to face me, angry yet perplexed. We were interrupted briefly by a loud hissing sound - what I knew was the machine's cooling system kicking in. Shrinking women, even only a little, was a power-intensive process. She glanced in that direction, distracted for only a moment, before turning back to me and flashing her seething anger.

"You can't change my mind now, Rachel. You had your chance. I'm leaving." She stood in place, frowning down at her shoe as she tried to slip her foot back into it - and finding it quite loose. She'd already shrunk a bit.

I leaned one arm against the countertop, no longer bothering to hide my grin. A frown became visible on Dr. Rose's face as she remained standing right there, looking around the room as if something was wrong - not quite yet having noticed her perspective gradually shifting downward.

I gave her an exaggerated expression, confused and holding up my hands. "Did you need some help finding the door? You said you were leaving just now."

"I am." She nodded, but remained motionless. "I - what is this? I'm leaving. Right now." She stamped a foot, but didn't budge toward the doorway. Her face began to redden. "Did you..." She glared at me. "I've never heard of any drugs that do this, but I don't follow the scene anymore. Shrimpy little bitch! What did you gi-

I slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes going wide when she found she couldn't push me away. Oh, just for that, I'd make sure she got an extra dose of the machine's power. I really didn't like comments about sub-5-foot height. I gave her a wide, knowing smile as I stepped away; she got the message now. Be quiet. "No, I didn't drug you. Come back here, close to me. And don't call for help or shout, or anything like that."

Her body moved again despite the shocked look on her face. It was priceless. She mechanically walked over toward me, methodically, one step then another. She suddenly directed a hateful, venomous glare at me. "I'll have you put in jail for this, you little witch!"

"Hmm... we'll see who's little." I pursed my lips, fighting back the urge to capitulate. I'm not a brave person, never have been. Under any other circumstances in my life, I'd have been intimidated; I'd let too much bullying about my small and weak body when I was young affect me in a profound way, and now I knew I'd let it make me weak. Now, though, I forced the little brush with that outdated fear away and smiled up at her. "Be nice, Dr. Rose. Don't say or do any mean things until I release you from this order."

"Understood." She suddenly went silent, but seemed quite confused at her sudden acceptance of the command. She didn't continue talking - but well, I guess she probably only had mean things to say at that point. I really did like her spicy side, but I'd only want to release that again when she was pocket-size... it would be cute as hell then.

"You're absolutely right about one thing, Dr. Rose. What's your first name, by the way?"

"Jennifer." She seemed surprised at herself for even giving away that much, but went mum again afterward.

"Jennifer, you're right that I'm not really qualified to understand Dad's theory - I only understand his machine's interface. I need help from somebody who knows what actually makes it tick. You see, I can only just barely operate it... the machine he built, I mean. The one that's messing with your mind."

Her eyes suddenly went wide. I ran one finger down the front of her blouse, between her breasts, which seemed to infuriate her all over again. "Seems Dad's theory was correct, Jennifer. All of it, up to and including the crazy parts about changing minds and bodies. I'm going to show you everything - but only after I'm sure I can trust you."

"Of course you can trust me." She blurted it out right away.

"Jennifer..." I unbuttoned the front of her jacket, looking inside, then pulled it off as she stood with her mouth agape. She had a nice figure... clearly, she'd worked hard to stay in shape. She had sizable boobs, though they were sagging, and her skin had a number of spots and wrinkles. "You can no longer tell me any lies. Can I trust you now?"

"No. At the first opportunity I would try to undo whatever it is you've done to me, up to and including any amount of lying to or tricking you..." Her eyes went wide with horror as the words tumbled out. "... and I would try to find out how you did whatever this is so that I could use it. At the very least, I would sabotage your father's invention if I couldn't use it myself."

"See? Now that we're being honest, we can move forward. You need to be somebody I can trust. Don't worry, you'll get your wish. I'll show you everything... after a few adjustments." I took her by one hand, leading her out into the center of the room. "Just so you know, I wasn't originally planning on going this far with you. I was just going to use it a little bit on you - to make you go away and give up on ever getting anything from the estate.

"But then I realized, you were only trying so hard and spending so much money because you must have known Dad was onto something... which means you understand at least a little about his theory." I turned, and ran one hand through her ponytail, sliding it down until it came to rest on her ass. She looked positively outraged, but remained silent. "And then you said something mean about my height. I really don't like that. So, knowing all that, now I have to do something very special to you."

Her deep breaths through gritted teeth slowed, and she paled as she looked down at me. "Are you going to kill me?"

I frowned. "Absolutely not. I'm going to make you as happy as can be - but first, I need to see what I'm working with. Strip, Jennifer."

The indignation in her eyes gave way to something else as her hands went to her blouse, unbuttoning it. I had to give her credit - she was doing much better at controlling her fear than Summer had. She hadn't even panicked or cried yet. Her blouse was discarded, showing me a pair of covered boobs enhanced by a wire bra.

She bit her lip as she undid her pants, letting them fall to her feet. I was surprised to see that she had some tattoos - two abstract designs twisting around each ankle, and one flowery design - or maybe it was a dragon? - on the inside of her forearm. They were all looking faded and washed-out; I couldn't exactly tell what each originally looked like. She looked up at me. "Completely...?"

"Of course completely!" I raised an eyebrow. Really, what else would I want? She obediently kicked off her flats, and then unsnapped her bra. I'd have guessed her breasts were large Bs or small Cs, not as big as they'd looked under the blouse, and sagging almost enough to not be attractive. Her waistline was surprisingly tight - not quite like mine, but that's a little unfair. I'm tiny. It was more like Summer's shapely body, and I doubted most any man would have kicked her out of bed even at fifty-whatever she was.

Her diminishing must have ceased at some point recently - she was just a bit taller than me now, maybe five feet and two inches? As she slipped off her boring white panties and they fell to the floor, I saw that she, too - as Summer once - didn't keep herself shaved... even trimmed. Tut-tut-tut. Bald pussy is best pussy. We'd have to correct that. I sighed. "Turn around."

She did a slow 360, biting her lip tightly the whole time, and I saw that she had a pair of tattoos on her shoulder blades too - angel wings, I guessed they once were. She must have had an adventurous youth. She hardly seemed angelic now, though... as she came back around to face me, her expression seemed daunted and confused.

"Something is wrong... I'm off-balance, and the room seems to be getting further away... you should probably take me a hospital."

"No, silly. You're only just now noticing? I thought you were a genius PhD and all, and I'm the dropout. There's nothing wrong with you. You're just shrinking, that's all." I shrugged.

"I'm... what?" She paled further, if that was possible with her shade of skin.

"The same machine that's zapping your brain is also making you shorter and smaller! Isn't that neat?" I beamed. "Anyway - you've got the goods... enough to work with, I guess. Come with me and I'll show you what Dad left me. Leave your clothes, you won't need them anymore." I took her hand, and she automatically fell into step behind me, even as I sensed her tremulous breaths behind me. I went over toward the spare bedroom, and opened the door.

I guided her inside, ensuring she didn't trip over any cables.

The new machine room - a converted spare bedroom - was far better than Dad's old garage. I'd taken the time and done it right - emptying the room completely, then calling in an electrician to add extra power circuits in the room, and a breaker box. I'd then set up the machine, carefully, thinking about the position of each piece and when I needed to be where - all to make girls shrink down into toys forever, as smoothly and safely as possible.

The emitter dominated the middle of the room, still. Its wheeled platform dug into the carpet but it could still be turned and moved. An old bed - a double with a cheap wooden headboard - sat on the far side of the room between two windows, both cracked open to help with heat exchange. It was covered in a basic white sheet, no blankets or pillows. Light steel cables, wrapped in flexible plastic and with adjustable straps for wrists and ankles, sat on the carpet around the bed itself where I'd sunk hoops into floorboards - to hold down my subjects until they'd accepted their loving fate.

I didn't think I'd need them today, but whatever. I'd wanted to have the extra preparation ready rather than fuck around with a trip to the hardware store when I was already totally fixated on shrinking whoever the next girl would be. Well, I knew who it would be now...

An actual desk sat on the other side of the room by the door, with a halfway comfortable office chair this time, along with the same old PC as before. The accumulator rested underneath the desk again, silently making these incredible wonders possible. The walls were otherwise bare; a white ceiling fan spun lazily above, also to help with the heat. A dozen twelve-gallon water tanks meant for office coolers rested along the empty wall to the left, meant to be poured into the coolant tanks below the emitter if necessary. I had plans for the machine.