Thorg and Berna followed Dan and Steve with their STMs pointed at them to closed to wooded area outside the airport. Suddenly Thorg said, “Alright, that's far enough!”

Steve turned around defiantly and asked. “What are you going to do with us?”

“I'm going to send you back to the planet you came from”, Thorg responded.

“Why can't you just leave us here...this is our home”, Dan queried with an equal amount of defiance.

“Because that's not our primary concern,” Thorg answered in stoic manner.

“We are to do nothing and let no one else doing anything to change the past while we are traveling through time.”, he explained.

Berna looked at Dan and Steve with quiet confidence and continued. “You see, if something like that were to happen...it could cause untold damage to the universe.”

As Thong pointed the STM toward Dan and Steve, he asked them rhetorically, “Do you understand why it is we have to send you back?”

As they braced to be transported back, Steve heard a funny click from the STM as nothing happened. A shocked Thorg looked at his device while Steve remarked to Dan in a hushed but surprised voice “It didn't work”.

Thorg looked at the settings in a mild state of confusion as an equally perplexed Berna asked him, “What's wrong?”

“We should have remembered,” Thorg responded as he snapped his fingers. “We can't send them back like this...they have to go back in the plane and crash the way it originally happened.”

Looking a little shocked, both Dan and Steve recognized that there was a shift in power and Steve said to Dan with a little bit of cockiness, “Let's go”.

They turned their backs to their captors and started walking away as Thorg asked in an almost confused manner, “Where do you think your going?”

With some bravado, Steve responded sarcastically, “Well, what are going to do...switch us back in time or what?”

Sensing that he was losing control of the situation, Thorg said, “I just told you I can't do that”.

Fighting to keep from laughing Dan interjected, “Well maybe you'd like to kill us with that gadget of yours”.

“Well, no...we're not allowed to do that either”, Thorg said.

Well, it looks like you can't do anything...that's too bad!”, Steve said as he snickered.

As Steve and Dan turned around to leave, Thorg said mysteriously, “I hope you don't think I just gonna let you go!”

“You must make that flight out of here.”, Berna added sternly.

“Well nobody can make us do that, right?”, Dan said as he and Steve snickered at each other.

As Steve and Dan turned away, Thorg suddenly said, “Sorry, my friends I could still do this.”

Thorg pointed his STM as Steve and Dan attempted to walk away and in a flash they were reduced in size to six inches tall. Thorg and Berna walked over to them and laid down on their stomachs so that their relatively giant heads were only a few inches from their disorientated prisoners.

Berna looked a little surprised as she leaned down as if she didn't know the STM was capable of shrinking people and objects. Both her and Thorg expressed delight in their faces as they took a few second to savor the new shift in power.

Thorg looked at his tiny prisoners smugly and stated, “Either you take that flight or you're going to remain this size the rest of your lives...tiny creatures on your own planet.”

“You don't leave us much room for argument, do you?”, Steve responded, but with a hint of sarcasm.

Not picking up Steve's sarcastic tone, Thorg continued with a touch of arrogance, “That was my intention...you see gained absolutely nothing by coming back here.”

Steve looked over at Dan in mock defeat and said, “Dan, I have no right to tell you how to play this.”

Thorg and Berna looked at each other smiling believing they were successful in their quest to get their tiny prisoners to cooperate. Of course, they could not appreciate the fact that Steve and Dan were old comrades and had faced death many times before and could almost read each others minds.

They also probably didn't realize that their tiny prisoners have outwitted giants more than a few times.

In response to Steve, Dan cryptically said, “Yeah...I think I know what you're going to do.”

Steve looked up at his giant captors and confirmed, “Thorg, if we don't take out that flight the others will have never have reached the plant of the giants.”

“Perhaps”, Thorg responded smugly, “but my little friends you will always remain exactly that size”.

Berna looked over in shock at the tiny prisoners realizing where Steve was going with this.

“Well,” Steve said, “we'll take our chances.”

“You're out of your minds,”, Thorg countered.

“That may be...but at least the others will safe”, Dan said.

In a sudden flash of anger, Thorg pointed his finger almost hitting his tiny prisoners and yelled, “Look I'm gonna make you change your minds!”

Berna turned around and noticed someone approaching and whispered to Thorg, “Someone's coming.”

Thorg got up and Berna quickly grasped Steve and Dan and got up holding them behind her back as the the stranger approached.

The stranger asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Yes”, Thorg responded. “We just dropped a contact lens.”

Thorg looked over at Berna who was now standing next to them. “Did you find it, honey”.

“Yes, dear,” she responded as she tightened her grip on her tiny prisoners behind her back.

“Where is the main passenger terminal?” the stranger asked.

“Right over there”, Thorg said as he pointed.

As the stranger walked away Berna took her tiny prisoners from behind her back and said to Thorg, “Well, we have about an hour to convince our tiny friends to take the flight.”

While Berna was holding Steve and Dan, she was a little aroused at the new feeling of power she had over them. She looked down at them and smiled strangely causing Steve and Dan to looked a little perplexed....and a little scared.

“Well first things first Berna,” Thorg said, “let's get our little friends to a place where it will be easier to talk to them.”

End of Chapter 1