Shrink Wrapped

"It's gone, Professor."

Grove was disappointed. "I would have thought they'd make contact, or try to. But then again, you are the size of small planet. Anything human-size would be completely invisible to you at your scale. Perhaps they'll revisit when you've become a bit smaller. Wait and see, I guess. In the meantime, what do you make of the planets?"

Kellie described what she saw. Only the 4th planet with its single, oddly colored moon seemed hospitable. The planet was mostly land-mass, with reflective white poles and a number of huge, inland seas. No body of water could be called an ocean. She estimated the ratio of land to water at 75/25.

"How odd," Grove mused. "That doesn't seem possible, does it? Maybe the planet sustained some kind of catastrophic event in the distant past, which vaporized most of the water, blowing it off into space. Maybe the surface is overly porous and the bulk of the water seeped underground, into huge subterranean lakes. Maybe the surface actually floats atop the lakes, like our own surface floats atop molten rock. Maybe-"

"Professor?" Kellie interrupted his musing.

"What is it, Kellie?"

"The moon. I don't know how its possible, but I think the moon is made of metal."

It was hard to discern any detail at her size and relative distance, but Kelly thought other spaceships, some identical to the one that had paid her a visit, many smaller and a few substantially larger, nested in tight orbits around the moon. As the planet and its companion swung closer, Kellie could fathom more detail. It didn't ease her discomfort.

She whispered, almost under her breath, "It looks like a planetary fortress." Indeed, the entire surface of the moon was peppered with thousands of rectangular emplacements, each miles across and miles high, jammed full of structures Kellie could not identify but were almost certainly weapons. Realizing that more than a few tracked her apparent movement across their sky sent shivers down her spine.

What kind of civilization armored an entire moon? And what of the planet the moon orbited?

With butterflies in her stomach, Kellie eyed the slowly retreating globe, trying to determine if armoring had taken place there as well. There was the glint of vast, glistening cites, huge structures she couldn't begin to guess the purpose of, and a highway system that interlinked the various metropolitan areas, encircling many cities as they did at home. What furrowed her brow and made her squint in confusion were the vast clouds forming an almost continuous front, roughly north/south through both hemispheres, nearly pole to pole. To the west of the front was the complex landscape of glittering, expansive cities Kellie had described to Grove. Behind it...well the cities looked different there, just as large maybe, just as sprawling, but a dull uniform gray instead of jewel-like and glittering. It made the butterflies in Kellie's stomach develop wings of lead.

"Professor...something really bad is happening down on that planet. Those huge clouds I told you about? I don't think they're just clouds. I think they're smoke and dust and debris. Someone is systematically demolishing the existing civilization on a north/south line, going east to west, and erecting new, replacement cities in their place." It occurred to Kellie that no substitute road systems had been constructed to replace the ones destroyed. Each city west of the front was joined to every other via the vast spidery web of super highways; the replacement cities, probably of the same shape and size as the old ones, were conspicuously isolated, more like city-states than cities.

More like huge scabs, she thought tensely, where the flesh of the planet had been scraped bare, leaving a wound. And into this horror she planned to descend? Not on you life!

She Informed Grove of her revised plans-he agreed with her, wholeheartedly-and followed behind the planet and its metal moon, letting herself diminish to an appropriate size. She knew it was a shell, of course, a defensive casing erected above the moon's surface for protection, and wondered if the alien beings would allow her inside or deny entrance. She was convinced the population of the planet had recently fled the horrible destruction she'd witnessed, had taken refuge on the moon, and were even now preparing to flee again--hence the tremendous size of the orbiting spaceships. They planned to migrate en masse to a new star and a new planet, away from this danger. Where would they go, she wondered?

"Professor?"

"Yes, Kellie?"

"I really should try to help these poor creatures."

Grove was disturbed by the idea. "Kellie, we don't really know what's going on here. All we have are assumptions. An observation from space that might, or might not be correct. For all we know, you could be aiding an invading army. What you saw on the surface could be desperate preparation, a huge effort to fortify the planet, an attempt to isolate and protect the individual cities. An expansive highway system could be more advantageous to an invading army than to a defending population. Do you really want to jump blind into the conflict? We have no idea of their capabilities, on either side. And the technology of their spaceships alone proves they are light years ahead of us."

Kelly didn't immediately answer. Her attention was focused on one of those very spaceships, approaching from the moon and winking slowly against the velvet backdrop. She was no more than a hundred miles long now, the size of her original visitor. The approaching spacecraft was maybe a hundredth her size, but still huge by earthly proportions. She guessed its length at roughly a mile, and it too, was rice-grain shaped. Through the surrounding cocoon, she could discern variations in its surface: instruments, portholes, airlocks; other things she couldn't identify, although she was pretty sure the familiar looking clusters at the nose were some kind of weapon. Her field glowed and pulsed and seemed almost to make crackling noises, like pent-up static electricity. She cautioned Shrinx not to go off half-cocked.

"These beings haven't done anything but politely come to visit us, Shrinx. Don't get trigger-happy. Wait to see what they do."

What they did was approach to arms length, circle as the larger ship had done before, and then move off to a distance they thought was safe. Kellie knew better. Though maybe a hundred miles, it was not even half the relative distance from which Shrinx had roasted the octopus. The spaceship would disappear in a single, small puff of smoke, Kellie worried. Then she blinked in surprise.

"Professor? They dispatched another ship. It just opened up and a shuttle of some kind is on its way over. I can barely see it, but it appears to be the size of an airplane, a big jet liner, though it looks nothing like a jet liner. It's sorta shaped like a UFO, something you'd see on TV."

Indeed, the craft looked right out of a sci-fi movie, wide and not especially tall, blocky, tapered toward the rear with a row of pin-sized holes along the front of each wing. It reminded Kellie of a fighter plane with machine guns. She hoped it didn't start shooting at her. Shrinx watched with mistrust as it circled her equatorially, though only once, and only around her chest. On the return, the craft slowly dropped toward the edge of Kellie's field. Shrinx reacted by forming a small area of calm for it to enter through. The vessel evidenced none of the difficulty the larger ship had experienced and she mentally thanked Shrinx for being circumspect instead of hostile. The shuttle settled onto Kellie's shirt, atop the pleated pocket over her left breast, and sank onto what Kellie guessed were huge landing gear extended beneath the wings. The spaceship looked eerily like a common backyard bug. After a few moments, a wide section atop the fuselage levered open and a number of beings appeared. Kellie caught her breath.

Oh, my God, she thought. If I breathe, I could blow them right down the length of my body. They were large, moth-shaped creatures with gossamer, colorless wings and short stubby bodies. Each in turn tested its wings as the creatures exited the hatch, and one by one they rose to create a formation that eventually stretched wingtip to wingtip across the top of the ship. Kellie was breathless now with awe. The creatures floated, buoyed by unfelt air currents inside her field. Kellie realized her breathing raised and lowered the formation along with her chest, and she prayed she'd not have to cough suddenly, or worse, sneeze. Did the creatures realize she was alive? How dangerous it was, being in such close proximity to her? Any movement on her part, no matter how slight, could result in disaster. She began to shiver involuntarily.

"What's going on, Kellie?"

"Not now," she muttered.

"Are the creatures inside your field? Tap your teeth together if they are. I should be able to hear that."

Kellie obediently tapped her teeth together three times.

"What do they look like? No, never mind. Tell me after they leave. They must be very tiny. Are they humanoid?"

Kelly tapped twice.

"That's a no?"

Kelly tapped three times.

"Okay. Lizard-like? Insectoid? Winged?"

Kelly tapped twice, and then three times twice. Grove was ecstatic.

"Insectoid and winged? Like a dragonfly or a moth?"

Kelly confirmed the latter with three clicks.

"Oh, my God!" Grove exclaimed. "Winged creatures! Immense winged creatures, if you can see them with your bare eyes. Are they out of the ship?"

Kellie tapped three times.

"How many? No, wait. Just one?"

Kellie involuntarily shook her head, and then tapped twice.

"More than one. Less than ten?"

Kellie counted a dozen mentally.

"Less than fifteen?" Grove enquired excitedly. Kelly confirmed less than fifteen.

Above the tiny ship, the even tinier creatures spread out and explored the terrain of her cotton shirt in every direction. Two of the creatures approached her face, but withdrew after encountering turbulence and wind shears beneath her nostrils. They quickly flapped backwards to a safe distance, and hovered side by side, apparently discussing their next move. Kellie prayed they would not attempt to land on her face. She wasn't sure what her reaction would be, but feared it would be an involuntary spasm. Instead, the pair took off in opposite directions, drifting above her collarbones. She looked back and forth between them, feeling a little frantic. And then a horn, barely audible to Kellie's ears, barely within her hearing range, sounded from the shuttle and the entire group of explorers turned lazily and headed back to the ship. Within a minute all had gathered and reformed their original formation above the wings. Kellie relaxed, feeling both her heartbeat and breathing drift back toward normal.

"This is so aggravating," Grove complained. "I wish now I had pursued a video component to this rig." Kellie wished he had, also. It would be easier, knowing she didn't face every new experience alone. It chilled her blood to think if Grove wasn't there at all.

One by one the creatures furled their wings and descended into the craft. Kellie wished there were some way to communicate with them, but couldn't think of a way to do so without out endangering the creatures or their tiny craft. She settled on a series of slow blinks, which caught the attention of the remaining three explorers. They bobbed up and down and faced each other in what Kellie took to be excited conversation. Then all three faced her and flapped their delicate wings in unison, a farewell, as it turned out. A moment later they were gone and the access hatch closed flushed with the surface again. The craft lifted off and after hovering a moment, proceeded back toward the mother ship at the same, sedate speed at which it had arrived. Once clearing the periphery of Kellie's now transparent shield, the ship accelerated and disappeared within the large craft in less than a minute. Kellie relaxed and stretched her cramped muscles. She waved her right fingers shyly as the craft moved away and returned to the distant moon. She had drifted aimlessly during the rendezvous. Now she powered up and followed after the spaceship at a more sedate speed.

"I'm landing on that planet," she told Grove. "I plan to find out what's going on down there and right it if I can."

"That could be very dangerous," Grove warned.

"I don't care. I'm doing it anyway." She described in detail the encounter, and Grove admitted unwillingly that it sounded like the refugees only chance.

"They could have very advanced weapons down there. Take nothing for granted, not even Shrinx's ability to protect you. These creatures start lobbing nuclear weapons at you...the best thing to do," Grove advised, "is go in there big and be ready to run at a moment's notice."

Kellie thought that a very good idea.

"Take me in near the front," she directed Shrinx. "The west side of that lake, where the front is just approaching. I want to be the biggest thing on the planet, and like the professor said, be ready to run." She wondered how effective Shrinx would be against an atomic-tipped missile, and how well the nanos would be should it get through. Kellie imagined herself going up in smoke in a mushroom cloud and shivered. Why was she doing this?

Shrinx sat her down on the west side of the lake, in what appeared to be a huge park bordering the shoreline. The opposite shore was perhaps 20 miles away, and strewn with huge and twisted piles of debris, where once a city had stood. Towering columns of smoke fed the pall overhead and Kellie could smell the destruction. And there was no missing the sound; it came from everywhere. Her view from five miles high revealed everything.

"What are they doing?" she demanded in horror.

Behind her, the city stood intact but deserted. She found no sign of life, anywhere, not even a bird. Everything had fled ahead of the approaching destruction. The city was truly amazing, beautiful glass spires and gleaming buildings of decorated metals and sculptured, polished stone. Everywhere was artwork and greenery-most now run wild in the absence of cultivating hands (did the winged refugees have hands?)-with graceful, soaring highways and connecting bridges between buildings. Many of the structures were well over a mile tall, Kellie guessed. One impressive grouping surrounded an immense structure half her own height and probably a mile wide at the base. Its architectural underpinnings defied Kellie's imagination. It seemed constructed of half a dozen individual, but integrally linked buildings. On every setback or outcropping were stone or metal artworks; marble, granite, brass, bronze, and steel. The abandoned city stretched away for hundreds of miles, highways everywhere. Again she wondered what winged creatures needed with highways. Maybe they were something else, she considered, extravagant artwork in their own right. Grove reminded her that building materials and consumer goods could not move efficiently through the air: a vast highway system was necessary. Kellie admitted the logic in this.

"I'm headed around the lake, now. I want to see exactly what's going on."

"Be careful, Kellie. Although..."

Kellie stopped in her tracks. "Although what?"

"I don't want to downplay the danger, but I have an idea you are in no explicit danger there. The truth is, I think you may be ignored."

Kellie was astounded. "How can that be?"

Grove sighed. "If I'm right about what's going on, I don't think your presence will immediately be acknowledged, or even discerned. Still, keep a sharp lookout and don't let your guard down. Shrinx needs to be on constant alert."

"He is," Kellie confirmed, noting the flicker of her field, and the continued thrumming in her bones.

She bent low to stay beneath the overcast, estimated her height as now four miles high, which put the pall at about three miles. In some places the columns of roiling smoke formed unbroken walls, miles wide. The closer she drew to the battle line, the louder the sound of destruction grew. She halted a few miles distant.

"What do you see, Kellie?"

"Besides a demolished city and its destroyers? Nothing." Devastation stretched halfway to the horizon. Kellie made out a barren, no-man's land between the last of the debris-it diminished gradually from huge piles at the battle-front, to a fine, even ground covering of shredded metal and pulverized stone and glass at the edge of the wide, desolate open area-and the front-line of a new, nightmare version of the lost city. In the demolition zone were a legion of bustling machines, some almost too small to see, others huge, dump-truck-like monstrosities capable of hauling away a city block worth of debris at a time. Kellie guessed the monster trucks to be the size of a mega-stadium back home. The wheels the beasts rode on were a quarter mile in diameter each and studded with protruding tangs that assured traction in the dense wreckage. Where they encountered bare earth, huge rectangular depression were left behind. Cranes a dozen times the size of anything on her own planet filled the truck beds in only a few moments. Kellie felt on the verge of throwing up.

"You're right," she croaked. "The machines don't notice me at all."

Grove sighed. "I thought as much. It was pretty obvious from the start this was not a war."

"I don't understand," Kellie said, shaking her head. "How did you know this?"

"The inhabitants were allowed to leave. En masse. The whole civilization, I would venture, or a very sizable portion of it. Most likely the machines weren't aware of the inhabitants at all. No more than a car is aware of the driver or a TV is aware of the viewer."

Kellie listened as a semi-circular fleet of bulldozers on caterpillar tracks pushed debris toward the base of paired cranes lifting and dumping million pound loads of scrap onto the huge movers. Thousands of smaller machines, many the size of passenger vehicles with a dozen arms protruding around their perimeter, gathered missed debris and carried it manually to the edge of the pick-up area, before darting back for more. What struck Kellie was how the machines moved with such purpose and coordination; wherever she looked, the machine-army worked together like ants, or termites, purposeful, and guided. Guided by what, she wondered? Not once did she see a smaller machine ground to pulp beneath the wheels of the huge movers, or swept up by the dozers, even though some were no bigger than a man or woman. But what really appalled her were the machines busily at work on the unfelled buildings at the battle-line. Or demo-line, as she now had to admit. There was no battle going on here.

"Professor? How old do you think this civilization is?"

"From what you've described, I'd say millions of years. It would take that long just to build their magnificent cities."

"How could a civilization that old and that advanced allow something like this to happen?"

"We don't really know what happened here, Kellie. For all we know, the re-builders-the destroyers-could be a star-borne race that just appeared here out of nowhere. The original inhabitants could be a totally non-violent race, and incapable of obliterating, or even making war on another intelligent species, even one mechanical and bent--no matter how matter-of-factly and unemotionally-on their destruction. Or the destruction of their civilization, at least."

"I think it's more like the machines got away from them and went berserk."

"That's entirely possible too," Grove agreed. "We just don't know. We might never know."

Kellie recoiled as a building half her height began to plummet straight down to the ground, collapsing within itself as it went, shuddering and shimmering and exploding plumes of dust and fragments just as she'd seen buildings do on television in controlled demolitions. Unlike those buildings, however, all at the end of their lives and mostly ugly and utilitarian, this building was an exquisite three hundred story marvel of engineering: glass, metal and stone. Huge clouds of dust and smoke roiled outward from the collapse site, looking almost alive and beautiful in their terribleness. Kellie cringed and looked away as several smaller buildings in the immediate vicinity collapsed from the resulting damage, only adding to the pall. Kellie coughed violently and protected her mouth and nose in the crook of her right arm. Moments to destroy what took years, decades probably to build.