Someone had left a flyer at Beth's dorm's door. Apparently the offshore Labs were looking for volunteers and the school was offering six credit hours for people who signed up with them! There was apparently a boat at the Docks that would ferry the student volunteers over to N.I.C.E. Labs to participate, and when the experiment was over, they would be taken back to Shokushu.

Beth was almost drooling as she looked at the flyer six credit hours was like gold dust in this place. As Beth looked at the flyer all the other girls seem to ignore the flyer like the plague, but that suited her as she ripped it off the wall and took it back to her dorm room.

That night she went down to the docks to meet the ferry to this mysterious NICE labs. There had been rumors about it amongst the girls in the dorms, stories about girls going missing that have never been seen or heard from again but Beth didn't belive in such old wives tales. Instead as she stepped on the ferry she hoped to earn quite a few credit hours by the time the night was over.

The boat was at the docks as promised on the flyer. There was another student aboard already when Beth was admitted by the guard, who had a kind face, but a very powerful-looking body. The student was seated in a small area in the center of the little craft, where chairs had been set out. She was easily a year older than Beth, probably more. Her curly black hair was short about her head, and her soft blue eyes met Beth's once before returning to her book.

The guard looked at the boat captain, who nodded. He stepped onto the boat and retracted the ramp that had allowed access. The boat started off towards the platform that housed the Labs, the island disappearing fast behind them.

As Beth got on to the boat she saw that another student was there reading a boat. She inwardly swore she thought that she was the one who read the flyer. She forced a faked smile and sat down next to the student as the boat started up.

The Student next to Beth paid no attention to all and didn't even look up from her book as the island disappeared behind them and the boat docked swiftly with the Lab platform of Nice Labs.

When they finally arrived at the Labs, the man who had admitted Beth was told to take her and the other student, by name of Laurie, to see Mr. Keithley. He gave them a good-natured shrug and walked ahead of them in the right direction.

Keithley looked at the surveillance monitors, which currently displayed the pair of students who had responded to the flyer. He analytically looked at the two, and decided which testing room would be best for each.

As Beth and the other student lined up in the labs the guard who started to escort them through the maze that was nice labs read out a small register apparently the other girls name was Laurie. As Beth and Laurie were escorted through the labs they passed some working labs from which Beth swore she heard a girl scream. "What was that ," Beth asked the guard.

"We've discovered a new species of bird that mimics whatever it hears," said the man, smiling. "Unfortunately, our specimen startled one of our volunteers a few days ago, and we haven't been able to get it to stop screaming."

Finally, the two students were brought to Keithley. He was a tall, thin man, looking slight where the guard looked muscular. The scientist had ice-blue eyes, making his observing looks even colder than they were. His skin was slightly pale, but looked reasonably healthy. His hair was in a mullet that was somehow neat, despite the very nature of a mullet to be otherwise. He wore a white lab coat and a yellow shirt with black slacks and imitation-leather shoes.

"Hello Beth, hello Laurie. I am Keithley, and I will be supervising the experiments you are volunteering in."

Keithley pushed his glasses up his nose. "Beth, you will be working in room 77A. Laurie, the room we have set up for you is 88B. Horace can show you to your work area, Laurie."

He turned to Beth as the two departed. "Shall we?" he asked her.

Beth responded autmatically, "erm experients sure whatever," as she looked Keithley in the face there didn't seem to anything be afraid of, but
as she was escorted to her room she was was a little curious to what Laurie would be working on.

Horace led Laurie to the room in which her experiment would begin. Being only a lab grunt and not a real scientist, he was not allowed to enter after her. He didn't mind, of course, sitting outside the room, listening in on what went on inside.

Meanwhile, Keithley led Beth to her appointed room, opening the door with his keycard and then giving her a slight bow of the head to indicate that she go first.

The room was slightly dim, and lined with many lights that had been turned off. Along one wall was a set of glowing tubes, each tube about four feet in diameter and apparently filled with some sort of fluid. Each tube was about eight feet high.

There was a shiny metal table on the wall opposite from the tubes, with several devices on it. There was also a large jar, about a foot high and six inches wide, with some kind of jelly stuff in the bottom.

Beth was led to her lab room and when Keithley opened the door with his keycard Beth got a real shock with what was inside. The room was dim but not totally dark along one wall was a set of glowing tubes, each tube was filled with some sort of fluid.

Keithley nodded his head to indicating to Beth that she should step into the room first. As Beth stepped inside the room she spotted on the wall opposite from the tubes a shiny metal table. There was also something else that Beth didn't even want to describe but turned her stomach just looking at it.

So once inside the room and a little shake by it weird contents Beth gathered up her confidence and rounded on Keithley and with hands on her hips said in a determined voice, "what do you want me to do then."

"We have a small device to test out on you," he said, gesturing to an empty tble. "If you'll just lay down here, we can get this all started."

As he stepped in after Beth, the door closed behind him.

Keithley looked about in the dark in satisfaction. Dark was something he was used to, something he could see in. His eyes looked over the student, analyzing her.

Beth didn't feel right as she stepped into the room something was wrong but she couldn't put her finger on it. So she walked over to the table and lay slowly down on top of it. Keithley and his device somehow made her inside quake not with anticipation but instead with something else, they shaked with warning.

Keithley threw a largish switch on the wall. Suddenly Beth heard a humming sound coming from the table. It was then that she noticed that she was shrinking! Her body was getting smaller and smaller, but her clothes were not. They formed a giant tent around the girl, who was slowly but steadily dropping down to three feet tall, then to one foot.

Just as it seemed she might shrink down to nothing, Beth's body stopped shrinking, leaving her at a height of six inches.

Beth didn't notice it at first but then she realised that something was wrong the moment the lab guy flicked the switch on the wall. A large humming seemed to be coming from the table, suddlenly she noticed that the room seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, or was it something else was she shrinking. Her body was getting smaller and smaller, so small in fact that she was shrinking out of her clothes. Beth screamed and swore violently as the process took place until finally her screams couldn't be heard around the room as she shrunk to a height of six inches.

Beth was now hidden inside her clothes naked she crawled out of the neckline of her shirt and looked around the lab room now which now took on epic portions, especially Keithley who still stood by the switch staring at the table. With her near silent voice Beth screamed at the lab assistent, "what have you done to me you idiot."

Keithley made some notes on his clipboard. Though she did not know it, the effects were only temporary, lasting only a day. The scientist looked at her small body, noting the effects of the shrink platform.

Keithley walked over to the miniscule student, the effects of the shrink platform having stopped once she had reached her new height, and picked her up. Her nude body was easily contained in his closed hand as he held up an empty glass jar, about a foot high and eight inches wide. He put her into the jar gently and put the lid on it. The lid had a dozen air holes drilled into it.

Keithley set the jar down in a small indentation on the table. It fit perfectly, preventing the jar from being tipped over.