Hasty Decision
by Ace Corona
A man in the 22nd century is convicted and sentenced to be miniaturized


"So what's the score?" said Gary.

Gary was in a room in the county courthouse. Seated across from him was his
public defender, Silas Hayes.

"It doesn't look good," said Hayes. "You were driving drunk, and someone got
killed. That makes you eligible for the Stature Statute!"

"The Stature Statute?" said Gary. "I thought they only shrunk people serving
life sentences!"

"You don't watch the news much, do you? Last November they modified the
Stature Statute to include anyone who committed a crime that resulted in
someone's death, regardless of the defendant's intentions! It went into effect
in January."

Gary was visibly frightened. He had heard horror stories about teenagers
putting shrunken captives in blenders, or lighting them on fire at parties.
When the eighth amendment had been modified in 2136 through a bill called "The
Stature Statute," criminals serving life sentences were miniaturized and sold
at auctions as toys. Now that the law had been modified, even Gary could end
up on the auction block.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Gary asked.

"I can give you some advice. When the amendment was modified last year, they
made it legal for you to pick your captor. The county fair is going on right
now, so why don't you drive up there and watch some of the captor clubs in
action. Some of those girls are pretty cute, and if you agree to sign yourself
over to one of them, you'd be better off than if you were sent to an auction
house!"

"You mean, just agree to be some girl's captive?"

"Yes!" said Hayes. "There must be half a dozen captor clubs that have
exclusively female membership!"

Gary was still unconvinced. He felt sure that Silas Hayes could offer him an
alternative. Gary's parents were poor, so there was no way they could buy him
at an auction. They had spent their life savings bailing Gary out of jail.

"There's got to be something you can do to help me!" said Gary.

Hayes slammed his fist down hard on the table three times, accentuating each
syllable as he said, "You're getting shrunk!" Hayes was visibly upset, his
cheeks grew pink as his breath grew deeper. "The best lawyer on Earth couldn't
get you off! You committed the crime after the amendment was modified, so it's
too late for me to use that strategy, and that would've been my only rational
approach if you had committed the crime before January, when the law went into
effect. But all the cards are on the table, and you'll be miniaturized as soon
as the jury finds you guilty! This isn't the 21st century, when you could
murder someone and get away with it by hiring a slick lawyer!"

"So that's it?" said Gary. "I'm getting shrunk?"

"Yes! Now do yourself a favor, and go to the fair, and track down a girls only
captor club, and sign yourself over to some cute teenager! Pull out your cell
phone, and I'll transmit the paperwork to you."

On the drive up to the Paso Robles mid-state fair, Gary was frustrated. He
knew Hayes had told him the truth, but he felt that what was happening to him
was unfair. He found a parking space, and bought a ticket and went into the
fair. It wasn't hard to find the captor club demonstrations; a crowd of people
were gathered around watching a girl of about thirteen commanding ant-size
captives to march astride her arm and return to her hand. Her demonstration
ended, and another girl got up on the podium.

She was thirteen or fourteen, with blonde hair and gray eyes. She was a portly
girl, not fat, but with massive arms. She introduced herself as Melissa
Schroeder, and began explaining the theory of miniaturization before starting
her demonstration.

"A lot of people know about miniaturization, but few people understand the
theory behind it. Atoms are made up of protons and neutrons that form the
nucleus, with electrons orbiting around them. Protons, neutrons, and electrons
are made up of quarks, which are held together by gluon particles. Neutrino
dissimilation causes quarks and gluons to discharge matter in the form of
neutrino particles, resulting in the protons, neutrons, and electrons
decreasing in size, weight, volume, and mass!"

"Get on with the demonstration!" said Gary. He was growing impatient. He had
already decided to sign himself over to Melissa, and wanted her to hurry and
complete her demonstration so he could talk to her about it.

Undeterred, Melissa continued: "Some people think neutrino dissimilation
requires a powerful computer to keep track of the positions of each sub-atomic
particle as they shrink. This isn't true. Neutrino dissimilation is a chain
reaction! As electrons shrink, their repulsive effect on one another
diminishes, forcing atoms to move closer together, causing them to maintain
the same proportionate distance from one another in comparison to their
distance apart at normal size."

When her explanation was over, Melissa stuck her left arm straight out in the
air, and with her right hand, opened a container attached to a leather
wristband on her left wrist.

"To my palm, I command you!" said Melissa to her ant-sized captives. Gary
could see the tiny prisoners march onto the palm of their mistress, and
decided that a life under Melissa's command couldn't be too bad.

"I belong to the Morro Bay chapter of the Thunder Girls captor club! If you
want to find out more about the Thunder Girls, just go online to any search
engine and type up 'captor clubs' and you'll find us." Melissa turned her
attention back to her captives and said, "I command you to march astride my
arm!"

Gary figured he would have the rest of his life to get to know Melissa, so he
didn't watch the rest of her demonstration. He went to a snack bar and bought
a drink. By the time he waited in line and purchased his drink, Melissa was
done with her demonstration, and Gary approached her.

"Hey, I killed someone while I was drunk driving, and I'm going to get shrunk.
I'd like to sign myself over to you. I've got the paperwork downloaded onto my
cell phone."

"Are you sure you want to be a captive of a Thunder Girl? Do you know the
rules of our charter?"

"Sure, I know all about it!" Gary lied. He didn't know anything about the
Thunder Girls, but figured that since they gave public demonstrations, they
must be safe. Melissa agreed to take him on as a captive, and he e-mailed her
the paperwork from his cell phone. In less than five minutes, the transaction
was complete. Gary said goodbye to Melissa, and left.

Several months later, Gary was found guilty by a jury. It was really an
open-and-shut case; over the past fifty years, California had developed a zero
tolerance policy for drunk drivers, and Gary's case was no different than any
other. He was led out of the courtroom, and put in shackles.

Over the next several days, he lived in the county jail until he was
transferred to the state prison. The day he was to be miniaturized, he sat in
the dayroom playing cards with some other inmates. The discussion turned to
captor clubs.

"I hope I don't end up being owned by some kid in a captor club!" said one
inmate. "Most of them are vore clubs!"

"What are the worst captor clubs?" Gary asked.

"The Aryan Sisterhood, the Vore Girls, the Thunder Girls,"

Gary didn't listen to the rest of the inmate's sentence. He thrust his cards
down, and asked, "What about the Thunder Girls?"

"They shrink you down to ant-size and force you to perform public spectacles.
At the end of about a year, they swallow you and the other captives! They have
to buy a new set of captives every year to replace the old ones!"

"I signed myself over to a Thunder Girl!" said Gary, as he stood up to get the
attention of a guard. Just then, an announcement came over a loudspeaker
informing them that it was now time to report to the miniaturization chamber.

Gary walked with the other inmates toward a vehicle where the prisoners would
be contained during the miniaturization process. Just before he boarded, a
guard approached him and called out his name. When Gary responded, the guard
said, "We have acquisition paperwork for you. You're going to be miniaturized
individually."

As Gary was led toward a separate miniaturization chamber, Gary pleaded his
case. "I signed myself over to some girl, and I'd like to back out of the
agreement."

"Too late!" said the guard. "If you wanted to do that, you would've had to
have a lawyer process the paperwork weeks ago! Can you step into that chamber,
please?"

Gary stepped into a chamber about four feet square. A minute later, he was
instantly reduced to two inches tall. The chamber he was in shrank with him. A
communication console built into a wall of the chamber sprang to life. The
face of a guard appeared, and informed him he would be shipped that afternoon
to San Luis Obispo, where Melissa Schroeder was happily waiting for him.
Twenty minutes later, his chamber was loaded into a hovercar, and in less than
ten minutes, they arrived on the coast.

Melissa was waiting for him at the facility in San Luis Obispo where his
chamber was shipped. A guard unlocked the chamber, and Melissa collected Gary,
but the chamber remained with the deputy. Gary found himself sitting on the
left palm of Melissa's hand.

"I don't know why anyone would choose a Thunder Girl for a captor, but you got
your wish!"

Melissa carried Gary as she walked with her parents to their hovercar.

"That's what I meant to talk to you about," said Gary. "I didn't know Thunder
Girls was a vore club!"

"Well, now you know!" said Melissa, giggling.

"I agreed to be your captive under false pretenses! Doesn't it mean anything
to you that I don't want to get swallowed?"

"Let me give you a clue," said Melissa, "I belong to a club where we swallow
miniaturized captives. That's how we have a good time. Do you really think I
care how you feel?"

Gary took this to mean the discussion was closed. Although he couldn't accept
his final destiny, he did accept that he couldn't anger his new mistress. She
was like an avenging goddess to him now. Gary felt fear when he considered
that appeasing her would be something he would have to do not by choice, but
by necessity.

When they got home, Melissa took Gary to her room, and set him on her desk.
She went to a safe and unlocked it, then pulled out a Portasizer. Gary's heart
beat more rapidly when he realized he was about to be re-sized. Melissa didn't
have to type in a ratio into the sizing scope, because her Portasizer was
already locked on a setting that would reduce a two-inch tall man down to
ant-size. Gary wondered how many men had been shrunk down to ant-size by
Melissa's Portasizer. Dozens? Scores?

Melissa pulled the trigger, and Gary was instantly shrunk down to a height
that was equivalent to the length of a small ant. Knowing Gary wasn't going
anywhere, Melissa turned her back to him and returned her Portasizer to the
safe, and locked it. Melissa walked to the desk, and looked over her new
captive.

"From this day forward, you will address me as thunder girl! Is that
understood?"

Melissa's fist slammed down near Gary when he failed to respond in a timely
manner, sending vibrations through his tiny body.

"I said, is that understood?"

"Yes, thunder girl!" said Gary.

"Now, we might as well get to work straight-away. I want you trained in time
for the fair this summer, so let's get to work!"

Melissa lowered her arm until her left palm was on the desk. "I command you to
surrender to my hand!"

Gary walked toward her fingers, and climbed up onto her pinky, then walked to
the center of Melissa's palm. Melissa lifted her left arm up until it was
straight, then opened the container attached to her left wrist where the other
captives were kept. Twenty captives the same size as Gary spilled out onto her
palm.

"You have a new member!" Melissa informed the others. "He actually volunteered
to be my slave!"

One of the men looked at Gary like he was crazy. Gary tried to explain his
situation, but he was interrupted by Melissa.

"Silence, pawn! My strictest commandment is that you remain silent when you're
astride my palm! You can only speak when you are in your containment chamber!
Is that understood?"

"Yes, thunder girl!" said Gary, as he noticed a sinister smile form on
Melissa's face. She appeared to be drunk with power, as if the control she had
over her "pawns" gave her some sort of a natural high. She hadn't had this
maniacal look in her eyes when she was at the fair several months earlier;
apparently, she was better able to control herself in public than when she was
in the privacy of her bedroom.

Melissa commanded them to march to her forearm. Once there, Gary felt it was
ridiculous to obey her orders. At first, they marched around in circles, but
then Melissa's orders became more elaborate. They were ordered to march in
complicated maneuvers, forming star patterns that broke and reformed. Gary had
a hard time keeping in position, because it was his first time.

"As punishment for failing me, you're going to spend some time in my mouth, to
learn some discipline!"

An instant later, Melissa's massive tongue slammed down onto her forearm, and
every single one of them got lapped up. Gary found himself sliding around on
Melissa's tongue, within her massive mouth. After closing her lips, the
captives were swished around in the darkness. Gary was covered with saliva,
and found the heat overbearing. There were twenty-one of them, and it would be
child's play for Melissa to swallow all of them in one gulp.

When Melissa spit them onto her palm, there were only nineteen of them left.
After counting them, Melissa laughed when she realized she had accidentally
swallowed two of them. Gary shuddered to think that it could've easily been
him. How many more times would he find himself in the mouth of this sadistic
teen? Gary promised himself that he would memorize the maneuvers, so this form
of discipline would be administered as infrequently as possible.

When it was time to enter the containment chamber attached to Melissa's
wristband, Gary was relieved. All nineteen of them piled in, and Gary found it
habitable. He had seen containment units like this advertised when he was
normal sized, but he had never paid much attention. There were bunk beds with
straps to hold them in place while their mistress moved around, and there were
toilets and sinks to get water to drink. All of the water they used had to be
supplied by a cartridge that Melissa re-enlarged every day and refilled before
shrinking it back down again. The same was true of the miniaturized air they
breathed; if Melissa didn't replace their air cartridge once a day, they would
run out of air. This was why kids who owned shrunken captives usually came
from wealthy families; taking care of shrunken captives was a high maintenance
hobby.

Gary got to know the other captives, and they taught him the moves he needed
to learn to please Melissa. Over the months leading up to the fair, Gary tried
to enjoy his new life, because he knew the day of the fair was Doomsday. If he
had stayed longer on the day he had met Melissa, he would've saw that at the
end of the demonstrations, all of the members of the Thunder Girls captor club
lined up and swallowed their captives; it was an annual tradition. When Gary
had agreed to sign himself over to Melissa, she was amazed, because he was
agreeing to allow her to swallow him. It would've been just as easy for Gary
to have signed himself over to a girl belonging to a club that practiced
non-violence, and Gary would've been guaranteed a long life. His haste had
been his undoing.

Gary quickly learned that Melissa's discipline technique was the rule rather
than the exception. They practiced seven days a week, but five or six days a
week they were trust into Melissa's mouth for punishment. As the months
dragged on, Gary estimated that one out of every ten times they were stuck in
Melissa's mouth, somebody accidentally got swallowed. New acquisitions always
showed up to replace the vanquished captives. Shrunken captives were an
expensive luxury, but they were an indulgence Melissa's family could easily
afford. That just made it harder for Gary and the other captives; if a new
captive arrived and he wasn't trained quickly, they would be punished by
Melissa again, which could result in more experienced captives getting
swallowed, which started the vicious cycle all over again.

The day of the fair finally arrived, and Melissa waited her turn to step onto
the podium. When it was her turn, she gave a speech about neutrino
dissimilation just as she had done the year before, then it was time to show
off how well she had trained her captives. It was really more like a contest
for Melissa and her club members; they wanted to see who had the most
well-trained captives. Gary and the other captives did their routine, marching
across her massive forearm in elaborate patterns.

As the spectators clapped, Gary hoped he had helped his mistress to win out
over the applause of her other club members. It wouldn't do him any good, and
it wouldn't extend his life one minute longer. Later that day, at the
appointed time, he and the rest of Melissa's tiny captives would be thrust to
the back of her mouth and swallowed, then sent crashing to the depths of her
belly. Knowing this was his destiny no longer scared him; he had accepted his
fate. For now, he was happy that his last day on Earth was spent serving his
mistress, and knowing that he had pleased her. In this small way, his life had
purpose; when he had been normal-sized, he had lived only for himself. Now, it
gave him a sense of victory to know he was bringing happiness to the heart of
a teenage girl.

The End