Megan and Her Shrink Ray Gun

Chapter 2: Friday, June 13th, 2008 3pm

Chapter 2: Friday, June 13th, 2008, 3:00 P.M.

Megan Weiss was walking home from school with her friend Shelly Krieger, who was carrying a large present with her to Megan's house. Both girls were carrying their 7th grade yearbooks.

"You're so lucky!" said Shelly. "Your birthday fell on the last day of school this year, and it's Friday the thirteenth! That's so cool!"

"I wonder how many people have celebrated their thirteenth birthday on Friday the thirteenth?" said Megan. "Maybe there should be a club for that at Yahoo or something."

Megan had dark blonde hair just past her shoulders, and gray eyes. Shelly had long blonde hair tied into twin braids. Shelly was Megan's best friend, and they had known each other since grade school.

"Two different boys wrote in my yearbook that you and me are the cutest girls at our junior high school!" said Shelly.

"Were they cute?" Megan asked.

"Yeah," Shelly replied.

"One guy wrote that I should end up becoming a famous actress in my yearbook," Megan replied. "But I think I want to join the military, like my Dad."

"That's cool," said Shelly. My older sister is in ROTC at UCLA."

"So what did you get me?" Megan asked as they turned up the walkway leading to Megan's front door.

"It's a surprise!" Shelly replied.

Once inside, the girls were greeted by Megan's mother. "Just put that present over there," Mrs. Weiss instructed. "So, who wants pizza?"

Both girls said "I do!"

Mrs. Weiss pulled out the phone book, and asked the girls, "What kind of pizza do you want?"

"Order from Vito's, mom!" Megan said. "The pizza sauce is from an old family recipe, and Shelly’s older brother Chris works there!"

"So I see!" Mrs. Weiss said with a smile on her face, "Is Chris cute?"

"Mom, it's not like that," Megan said, "Chris is gay! He's cute, but he wouldn't be interested in me even if I was the hottest girl on the planet!"

After Mrs. Weiss ordered the pizzas, she looked toward Shelly and said, "Let's sing 'Happy Birthday' to Megan!"

"Mom, that song is copyrighted!" said Megan.

"I'm sure whoever owns the copyright won't mind," said Mrs. Weiss.

"Mom, I'm totally serious, I don't want you guys singing 'Happy Birthday' to me this year! It's a childish ritual, and it would totally embarrass me!"

"Okay," said Mrs. Weiss, "you're the birthday girl, so it's your decision. I guess that means it's time to open your presents, then we can cut the cake."

When Megan opened her first present, the one from Shelly, it was a microscope.

"Thanks, Shelly!" Megan said.

"Shelly,” Mrs. Weiss said, "that looks like an expensive gift! I don't think we can reciprocate something like that!"

"Oh, don't worry, Mrs. Weiss!" Shelly said. "My dad works for a company that manufactures medical equipment, and he got it dirt cheap!"

Mrs. Weiss got up and got a small present from a shelf in the living room, and brought it to the table. She handed it to Megan, who unwrapped it to find a silver dollar from the turn of the century. It was in excellent condition.

"Wow, mom! It's from 1903! That's the year the Wright brothers made their historic flight at Kittyhawk!"

"It's also the year Harley Davidson was founded! It belonged to my grandmother, and she handed it down to me. She instructed me to hand it down to my granddaughter, but I'm giving it to you, instead. It supposedly brought her good luck!"

Megan turned to look at Shelly. "I was named after my mom's grandmother, that's who she's talking about. She was from Wales. On her deathbed she made me promise never to let anyone call me Meg, to always go by Megan, because it's a proud Welsh name. I swore to her that I would always honor that." Megan turned to at her mother. "Mom, if this coin is good luck, and great-grandma Megan told you to give it to your granddaughter, maybe you should hold onto it until I have kids!"

"What if you only have boys? She was senile in her later years, and I see it as an irrational demand. If you want, you can make up for it by giving it to your great-granddaughter, because that's who would've ended up with it anyway if the coin kept skipping a generation."

"I guess I could do that," said Megan.

Megan opened her next present, it was a laminated Megadeth concert ticket from 1987.

"That was the ticket to the concert where I met your father in Pismo Beach, in 1987!" said Mrs. Weiss. "I had it laminated. I figured you're old enough to take care of it."

Megan turned to Shelly and said, "My Mom and dad met at a Megadeth concert in 1987, and my mom's parents met at a Jimi Hendrix concert at Devonshire Downs in 1969!"

The next gift was a digital stopwatch. "Cool!" said Megan. "I can practice my mile. I'm already under six minutes!"

The next gift was a pair of loaded dice from Megan's Uncle Sam.

"I already have a pair of dice like these, Mom," said Megan.

Margaret took the dice from her daughter and looked at them. "Not like these ones, Megan, your other ones are regular dice. These are loaded dice, they always come up either 7 or 11. I wish my brother wouldn't buy you stuff like this!"

Megan took the dice out of the package and rolled them. One landed on five, and the other on two.

"How do they work?" Megan asked, turning the dice over in her hands. "One of these dice only has 5's on all six sides, and the other has three 6's and three 2's!"

"Just remember, it's dangerous to cheat people at gambling," said Margaret. "Only use these if you're taking turns at something and you want to go first, never bet people money or anything valuable with these, okay?"

"Okay, Mom!" said Megan.

There was a card with a $100 dollar bill inside from Megan's mother, as well as some other gift cards from other relatives who had mailed them to Megan.

After Megan opened up her other presents, Shelly’s brother Chris drove toward Megan's house, to deliver the pizzas. Chris worked for Vito, an immigrant from Sicily who had opened his own pizza parlor in Bullet Bay, the small central coast town Megan and her two friends lived in. In spite of making pizzas in the American style, Vito prided himself on his homemade pizza sauce, which was an old Sicilian family recipe.

Chris rang the doorbell, and Mrs. Weiss let him in. He set the pizzas on the dining room table and said, "That'll be thirty-three dollars and twenty-one cents, Mrs. Weiss."

Mrs. Weiss wrote him a check and gave it to him, then handed him a five dollar bill. "Here's your tip!"

"Thanks!" said Chris, pocketing the money. "It's too bad Vito's gonna end up with this money!"

"What do you mean?" said Mrs. Weiss.

"Vito repays me for my gas money out of my tips, and he pockets the rest."

"You're kidding me! I gave you that tip, and that's your money! It's not for Vito! Can't you just tell him that I didn't tip you?"

"I tried that once when a guy tipped me twenty bucks. Vito got suspicious and actually called the guy and asked him how much he tipped me. Vito made me cough up the money. He'll probably call you later tonight and ask you how much you tipped me. He does that to most of his customers. Whatever you do, don't tell him I told you that!"

"That's a unique dilemma you've found yourself in." said Mrs. Weiss.

"It's a living, I know people who have harder jobs than mine. I like the routine." Chris replied.

"Would you like to stay and have a couple of slices with us?" Mrs. Weiss asked.

"Sure!" said Chris, and he sat down at the table and took a slice.

"Chris," said Megan, "what would Vito say if he knew you were eating pizza with a customer?"

"Vito always charges me for any pizza I eat at the pizza parlor, but if someone offers me some for free, and it was paid for, there's nothing he can do about it."

"I just didn't want you to get in trouble," said Megan.

As Megan and Chris tore into their pizza, Shelly said, "My brother's going out for football this year. In the Fall, he's going to be a junior!"

"Oh really?" Mrs. Weiss said, as she took a slice of pizza.

"Guess what, you guys?" said Megan. "I got up to get a drink of water in the middle of the night, and I saw a meteorite crash into the hills close to my house!"

"It probably looked like it crashed nearby," Chris said, "but it could've crashed in Arizona or some place!"

"No, I heard it!" Megan said. "It sounded like a Volkswagen engine exploding!"

"Well if you heard it land," Chris replied, "then it's probably close. You should go look for it!"

"Do you guys want to come help me find it?" Megan asked. "We could go look for it as soon as we finish our pizza!"

About an hour later, Chris drove Megan and Shelly to the woods.

"Can you tell if we're hot or not?" Megan asked.

"What?" Chris asked.

"You're gay, but can you tell when girls are hot?" Megan asked.

"Yes, but I feel no attraction, like I do with guys," Chris replied.

In the woods not far from Megan's house, Captain Vargas and his crew were raising the miniaturization weapon above the cargo bay so Sergeant Diego and Corporal Lopez could work on it. Each of them were about the same height; about nine-sixteenths of an inch tall.

"It took us all last night and all day to cut through the cargo bay door to get to the shrink-ray," Captain Vargas told Sergeant Diego. "How long will it take you to get the neutrino assimilator online so we can return to normal size?"

"It doesn't look good," Sergeant Diego replied. "I'd say it should probably take me about eight to ten hours."

"Commander Cruz says we landed near a residential area," Captain Vargas said. "I hope nobody snoops through these woods and finds us!"

Meanwhile, Chris had met up with Megan and Shelly and had given them a ride to the woods, then returned to making his deliveries. Megan and Shelly were making their way into the outer perimeter of the woods where the miniaturized time travelers were.

"Do you think you can narrow it down where you saw the meteorite crash?" Shelly asked Megan.

"I think I can take us to within a couple of hundred yards of where it is," Megan said.

Back at the wrecked starship, Diego was putting the finishing touches on a lever connected to the miniaturization device.

"What's the point of that lever?" Vargas asked. "It's as tall as we are!"

"I designed it so when the first of us is normal-sized, he can use the lever to un-shrink the rest of us. Right now, all it does is activate the shrink-ray. I also programmed the display screen of the sizing scope to be big enough so it's convenient for a normal-sized person to read."

"So you'll have the neutrino assimilator online some time after midnight tonight?" Captain Vargas asked.

"That's the plan!" replied Sergeant Diego.

"Look!" Commander Cruz shouted, and Captain Vargas turned to see a two normal-sized girls in their early teens entering the small clearing where the crash-site was.

The two girls stopped, and as they surveyed the situation, Vargas and his crew split up and ran off in different directions. Their quick movements caught the eyes of the girls, and Megan said, "Little people!"

"Let's get 'em!" Shelly said.

"Yeah!" Megan agreed.

Megan was drawn to the black ray-gun that was propped up above the cargo bay of the shrunken starship. She drew closer, and picked it up.

"No!" Diego shouted, but he was quickly engulfed in Shelly’s fist.

Megan turned over the device in her hands, and noticed the small lever on one side. Megan instinctively knew the device was a weapon, so she pointed it at a boulder and threw the lever. The boulder was swiftly reduced to the size of a small pebble, and Megan returned the lever to the 'OFF' position.

"Its a shrink-ray!" Megan said, and she knelt down and picked up the miniaturized rock. Shelly had captured all five of the miniaturized astronauts, and they now drew their attention to Megan.

"Are you serious?" Shelly asked.

"Yes," Megan replied, "I just shrunk a boulder the size of a basketball down to the size of a marble! How many little people did you catch?"

"I caught five," Shelly answered.

"Are there any more out here?" Megan asked.

"I don't see any more," Shelly replied. "But even if there are, I doubt our captives would tell us."

"Let's get them and this shrink-ray back to my bedroom!" said Megan.

"Should we take this space-ship with us?" Shelly asked.

"It's too heavy," Megan replied. "Let's just leave it here, and we can come back and get it some other time. Your brother can help us retrieve it with his car."

"You could shrink it!" Shelly said.

"I don't want to," Megan replied. "I don't even know if this shrink-ray has a reverse on it, and I don't want to risk damaging something valuable that might be inside the space-ship."

The two of them started off back toward Megan's house; Shelly had the captives cupped gently within her closed hands.

"This is starting out to be the coolest summer vacation ever!" Megan said.

"The only bad thing for me is I have to go to summer school!" Shelly said. "And it starts this Monday! They don't even cut us a break!"

"I was supposed to go to summer school, too!" Megan said. "But I threw away the notice that came in the mail, and my mom never found out I was supposed to go!"

"Typical Megan!" Shelly said. "You're always getting away with something!"

"My English teacher was supposed to be Mr. Sorenson," said Megan.

"Hey, I have him too!" said Shelly.

When the girls got back to Megan's, Mrs. Weiss was busy in the kitchen, so Megan and Shelly snuck into Megan's room without showing her what they'd found. Megan set the shrink-ray on the shelf of her desk, and instructed Shelly to set the captives on the desk.

"Now," Megan said, addressing the five miniaturized captives, "who are you, and where did you come from?"

Captain Vargas stepped forward. "I am Captain Lobo Vargas, and I and my crew are from the 34th century. This is Commander Cruz, Sergeant Diego, Corporal Lopez, and Corporal Hangchow."

"We were attacked by space pirates," Vargas explained, "and we were caught in a temporal flux pattern that simultaneously catapulted us back in time to your century, and we had to shrink down to a fraction of our size to return to normal space!"

"What's a temporal flux pattern?” Megan asked.

"I can explain that later," Vargas said, "right now I need one of my engineers to reprogram that shrink ray-gun you found so it'll only work when it detects your unique chromosome pattern!"

"I don't want to let you near that shrink-ray," Megan replied, "because you might use it to re-enlarge yourselves!"

"The assimilation function doesn't even work right now, so we can't return to normal size! But right now, there are space pirates after that shrink ray-gun, and they won't hesitate to kill you in order to get it!"

"I think you should listen to him, Megan!" Shelly said. "It's worth the risk! You should let them fix the shrink-ray so you'll be the only one who can use it!"

"Okay," Megan said, "I'll let you do it. Just tell me what you need me to do!"

Somewhere in deep space, Scrapper’s warship emerged from temporal space. The onboard mainframe computer awakened the three space pirates from cryo-sleep.

“Status?” Scrapper asked.

“We’re in the 21st century,” said Gator. “But we’re really far from Earth.”

“If you lock onto a trajectory that will take us to Earth at relativistic velocity, how long will it take us to get there?” Scrapper asked.

“I had the navigation computer take us further back in time than when Vargas arrived, so at close to light speed, we should arrive not long after he did, and according to our subjective time, we should arrive in Earth orbit in a few minutes!”

“That’s why your name is Gator, you’re the best astro-navigator this side of Proxima Centauri! Let’s do it!”

Back on Earth, Diego was finishing up with Vargas's plan to reprogram the shrink-ray so only Megan could use it. "And that's it!" Diego said.

"You are now the only one who can operate the shrink-ray device!" Vargas said.

"Here, Shelly,” Megan said, handing her the shrink ray-gun. "Try to use it on something!"

Holly aimed it at Megan's trash can and flipped the lever, but nothing happened.

"Now give it to me," Megan said.

Megan pointed it at the trash can and fired, and the trash can was reduced to less than an inch high. Megan returned the lever to the 'OFF' position.

"Cool!" Megan said.

At that exact moment, in Earth orbit, the Warhawk emerged in Earth orbit.

"We are within 24 hours of the time Captain Vargas and his crew emerged into normal space," Slackjaw informed Scrapper. "According to the positions of the planets and constellations, we've arrived on June 13th, 2008.”

"Excellent," Scrapper replied. "Do a quick orbit, and keep the scanners on the look-out for a nuclear fusion reactor. That technology did not exist in this era, so it could only be coming from Vargas's ship!"

After a quick orbit, Slackjaw said: "Neutrino emissions coming from a coastal area in central California."

"Take us down and land about a hundred yards away."

The Warhawk landed in the woods where Captain Vargas and his crew had crashed. Scrapper, Slackjaw, and Gator disembarked and headed to the crash-site. Slackjaw held a scanning device in his hand that directed them to what was left of the miniaturized starship.

"No life signs," Slackjaw reported.

Scrapper knelt down and examined the damaged cargo bay. "The weapon isn't here!"

"There's footprints!" Gator said as he pointed at the ground. "There's more than one pair! Someone must've found Vargas and captured him!"

Scrapper stood up and said, "Then that means they have the shrink-ray! This complicates things! Gator, when we get back to the ship, launch a cloaked satellite into geosynchronous orbit above this position. If and when this person activates the shrink-ray, we'll be able to pinpoint their position by detecting neutrino emissions the first time they use it!"

To Be Continued!