“Alex, I know I’m not five foot ten.  Five eight, maybe nine on a good day.” Jenny said as she bursted through the door.  Alex just shrugged.  “I know.  Intern joke.  There’s a couple of them around, you can gain or lose a few inches depending on which one you stand next to.”  Alex looked around, then her voice dropped to a whisper.  “You can’t print this, but the President of the school board came through here.  He freaked out that we had shrunk him at some point on the tour.  We had to call in Facilities to bring a tape measure that he would trust so he could measure himself.  After that, we had to paint over all the ones that made people think they’d gotten smaller.”

Jenny laughed.  “Ah, he’s a jerk.  I’m the SciTech editor, so I’m not supposed to publish trashy gossip, but man do I wish…” her voice trailed off as the concrete walls of the corridor gave way to giant, floor-to-ceiling plexiglass windows, giving a view of the laboratory below.

Alex beamed.  “Welcome to Lab 4, better known as the Shrink Lab.  Please leave your current understanding of the universe at the door; you can collect it when you leave.  Now… keep your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside and away from the science going on all around you.  Don’t touch anything.  Don’t move too quickly or speak too loudly.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask, although you may not get an answer.”

Jenny looked down at the myriad of separate rooms visible from the hallway.  “What are all these places?”

Alex started to walk down the hallway again.  “On the left side, we have both near- and far- wave research.  That corner specializes in ultra-dense lenses we use to focus the waves.  The right side, close to us, is the staging area for volunteers and human studies; the actual shrinking rooms are down another level.  Past that is…”

Jenny tuned Alex out as they walked along the right side of the raised hall, keenly aware of one of the red-headed volunteers staring at her.  Enjoying the view of a woman taller than you? Jenny thought as she walked along.  Her skirt ended just above her knees— from the red-head’s perspective, he was probably just barely unable to see her panties.  Their eyes met for an instant and Jenny flashed him a toothy grin.  His face turned as red as his hair, and he quickly looked back to the front of the oversized cubicle where a young woman in a lab coat was standing.

Alex stopped at a door.  Through the plexi, Jenny could see stairs leading down to the floor they had just seen from above.  “I thought I’d give you a quick tour of the labs up here, a run through of how this stuff works, and just before lunchtime those volunteers should be ready if you want to watch.  Doctor Barr should drop by at some point, too.”

Jenny kept her voice cool.  “That sounds like a good plan to me.  Can I talk to anyone?”

Alex nodded.  “The researches and techs won’t give you much.  The volunteers are just undergrads who want to make quick cash for beer money.”

Jenny opened the door.  “Maybe they don’t respond to your charming personality, but they might just open up to me…”