Kenya checked the GPS on her phone once more.

“The middle of the ocean…” she said to herself in a low voice, checking the pin on her screen. “Well, I guess it is a ship….”

She grabbed her pack and made her way through the entry gates. She was heading to Dock Twenty, which meant she had a bit of a walk in front of her. Eight minutes later, she turned the corner around another building and spied the massive cruise ship docked in the distance.

“Wow,” she said as she continued her trek, the ship getting larger with every step. It was massive: it had to be hundreds of feet long and well over a hundred feet tall. She stared up at it in awe, not paying attention to where she was going as she walked right into another person.

“Oof!” she said as she literally bounced off of the huge man she collided with, flying back a few feet and falling on her bottom. The man turned around, staring down at her, a grin coming to his face.

“Dimitri apologies!” the man said in an incredibly thick accent, holding out his hand. Kenya took it and in a single heave he pulled her up into the air and back onto her feet.

“Th-thank you,” she said, a little embarrassed from walking directly into the man. His only response was to chuckle.

“Not a problem! Where is beautiful girl going today?”

She raised an eyebrow as the words came out of her mouth, unsure if he was hitting on her or trying to be nice in an odd sort of way.

“I’m…ah…trying to find the employee entrance for this ship?” she said, pointing at the ocean liner behind the man. He roared with laughter.

“A coworker! Yes yes, excellent! Let Dimitri guess….” He eyed her closely and she couldn’t help but feel a little weirded out.

“Dancer, yes?” he said after a moment.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Yes, actually!” She had to admit that she was impressed.

“Yes Yes…excellent! More dancers is more better!” he chuckled to himself, pointing farther down the pier.

“Entrance three for crew! Goodbye for now…pleased to meet!”

The man walked away laughing heartily. Kenya couldn’t help but smirk.

“What an odd man…nice though,” she said as she made her way down the pier. It didn’t take long before she found herself standing in front of entrance three, staring up at the long boarding ramp. She took a deep breath and started to ascend.

“Hold on!” shouted a voice from behind her. She turned just in time to see a short man wearing a white uniform running toward her.

“Have you already checked in?” the man said as he finally reached her, panting in an effort to regain his breath.

“Checked in?” Kenya replied, repeating the man’s words. “Uh…no?”

He nodded his head, pulling the radio receiver off his waist.

“What’s your name?”

Kenya told him her name and he clicked the radio button, asking for ‘Sal.’ After a few moments a deep, gruff voice responded. The two exchanged a few short messages before the man nodded.

“Over and out,” he said, placing the radio back on his hip. “Report to deck five…room five hundred eleven.”

“O-okay,” Kenya said, waving a good-bye to the man as she turned and completed her ascent into the ship. The first thing that amazed her upon entering was how busy everything was: there were people rushing back and forth down the hall dressed in a colorful panoply of outfits, pushing carts filled with all sorts of different things, from boxes of food to hampers full of linens.

“Oh!” she yelped as a woman pushed by her, bumping her slightly and not even bothering to apologize. She was about to say something when-

“Meep meep!” came a voice from directly behind. She jumped as a man sailed right by her and disappeared down another corridor. She began to get the feeling that she was very much in the way and tried to find a corner she could hide in but almost every available space was filled with a crewmate going about their pre-passenger-boarding rush. She almost jumped again when a hand touched her on the shoulder.

“Hey, are you lost?”

Kenya spun around, coming face to face with a blue-eyed, light-skinned woman. The woman smiled at her, her blonde hair reflecting the overhead light.

“I asked if you are lost.”

“Oh!” Kenya said, shaking her head. “Sorry…it’s intense in here! I’m trying to find deck five…?”

The woman’s smile broadened. “What a coincidence…I’m headed down there now! I can show you if you like.”

“Oh, thank you!” Kenya responded, following the woman as she turned to lead the way. She weaved her way down the hall, avoiding people along the way as she led them into an elevator half-filled with bins on wheels.

“Going down,” she said with a smile as the elevator began to descend. Kenya watched the numbers count higher as they sunk down into the bowels of the ship.

“I’m Nicole by the way…you can call me Nikki for short,” the blonde said, holding out her hand.

“I’m Kenya,” Kenya replied, taking the hand and giving it a shake. “What do you do here, Nikki?”

“I’m one of the dancers!” she said, beaming as the words came out of her mouth.

“Really?” Kenya responded, laughing. “Me too! Though it’s my first day on the job.”

“Oh yea? Yay! It’s super long days and grueling work but so much fun!” she said with a laugh. “By the way, what room are you in? I can help you find your bunk-mate.”

“Oh…I’m in five eleven,” Kenya answered. An even larger smile immediately plastered itself on Nicole’s face.

“No…way…five eleven? That’s my room! We’re bunk mates!” she cheered, jumping up and down and clapping rapidly. Kenya smiled back at the incredibly excited woman.

“Oh we’re going to have so much fun…and I can help you with the crazy schedule! It’s super hard to get used to on your first trip…so this is perfect!”

The elevator halted and the door opened up.

“Deck five!” Nikki said triumphantly. “Let’s go, roomie!” Kenya couldn’t help but chuckle as the other woman practically jumped off the lift, skipping her way down the hall. She was a little bit overly energetic, which made Kenya worry if she would make a good roommate or not for the next several weeks…but she seemed nice enough, so she decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. Kenya followed Nikki down the hall until they reached a short row of doors.

“Here it is. Ready?” Nikki said with a smile, holding the door like she was about to reveal the grand prize at a game show. She pushed open the door.

“Ta da!”

Kenya looked inside the room. It was small…it couldn’t have been more than twelve feet deep and barely eight feet wide. On one side was a pair of bunk beds and on the other a small sink was embedded in the wall. Kenya wrinkled her nose.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Nicole asked, a look of concern spreading over her face.

“It’s…ah…kinda’ cramped, don’t you think?” Kenya said, searching for the most diplomatic words that she could.

“Hmm? Yea…maybe a little…but we have our own bathroom!” Nikka exclaimed, pulling a lever on the wall. The wall opened up, revealing a toilet and shower head that were so close to each other that Kenya figured that anyone doing their business while the water was on was sure to get at least half soaked.

“Yea…I guess there’s that,” Kenya said, still eyeing the cramped conditions. Nicole frowned again.

“You still don’t like it, huh? I know I know…it’s a little cramped…but it’s really not so bad. Especially since you’ve got the best roommate on the whole ship who knows exactly how to handle the claustrophobic feeling that comes with these rooms!”

“Oh?” Kenya asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. “How so?”

Nicole grinned. “Come on in and close the door.”

Kenya sighed, stepping inside and closing the door behind her. There was enough room for both of them to move around the cabin, it was just cramped. Kenya pulled off her backpack and set it on the bottom bunk.

“So…how?” she asked, turning back to Nikki, but her roommate was already digging through a small, carry-on luggage container. Moments later, Nikki stood up, a look of triumph on her face as she cradled a small device in her hand. It was metallic and gray in color, with a thin screen embedded into one side. Nikki smiled as she showed the object off to her roommate.

“Like this. This thing will solve all our problems,” she exclaimed, beaming proudly.

“Ahh…okay,” Kenya said, raising her eyebrow again. “Soooo…how?”

Nikki giggled.

“Well, the problem is that the area is too small for the two of us to really get comfortable, right?”

“Yes…that is certainly the problem,” Kenya answered with a nod.

“So, if there were more room…then everything would be better then, right?”

“Yes,” Kenya answered again, curious as to where the excitable blonde was going with this.

“Well, the room isn’t going to get any bigger…so the best way to really stretch out and relax in the space that we have…” Nikki paused for dramatic effect, staring into Kenya’s eyes as she completed her statement.

“...would be to make ourselves smaller.”

Kenya burst out laughing. “Alright Nikki…very funny…but really, the room isn’t bad…you don’t have to try and make me feel better.”

Nikki pursed her lips. “I’m not joking…this thing can make us smaller.”

Kenya crossed her arms. “Oh really?” she said with an air of solid disbelief.

Nikki nodded. “Uh huh…you see how hard it is just to walk past each other…and these are twin beds…not an awful lot of room. Well just use this device here to shrink yourself down to, say, half your size…and all of a sudden the beds and the room are twice their size! Plenty of room to spread out and relax after a hard day of practice and performance!”

Kenya just nodded politely, waiting to see when Nikki would admit the joke and try to pull a ‘Got Ya’ on her. But the blonde only frowned.

“You still don’t believe me, do you?” she said, her face sad.

“Nikki I…it’s just really hard to believe.”

“Okay,” the blonde said, determination creeping over her features. She turned the device over in her hand and swiped her finger across the screen, activating various options and adjusting settings.

“I’ll show you then.”

“Look…Nikki,” Kenya said in a low, soothing voice, “I’m sorry if I offended you in any way…really, the room is fine…”  She watched as her roommate pointed one end of the device against her own body. The screen displayed a single green button which read START.

“I’m a big girl, so no worries, I’ll get over it-”

Kenya didn’t have time to finish before a blinding flash lit up the room. Kenya cried out, covering her aching eyes. She rubbed them, seeing red spots against the darkness of her eyelids as she slowly became aware of a high pitched giggling coming from directly in front of her. She opened her eyes slowly, squinting at first but soon was able to focus on the person standing before her. It was just Nikki…pale and blonde and smiley as ever…but…

“Told you!” Nikki yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Kenya. Nikki’s voice was much higher than usual…almost the same pitch as a child. And that made sense…because Nikki now stood no higher than Kenya’s waist.

“Holy…Nikki?!” Kenya gasped in astonishment as she stared down at her roommate. Every aspect of her was exactly the same, her clothes, her hair, her eyes…even those little wrinkles that formed on her face when she giggled. The only difference was that all these things were now in miniature as the tiny, half-sized woman put her hands on her hips.

“I told you!” the tiny woman repeated with a high pitched laugh. “Look how little I am! See how much room I have!” To emphasize the point, Nikki sprinted over to the bottom bunk. She jumped up, hoisting herself up with a little grunt before turning around in triumph, her tiny legs dangling as she beamed up at Kenya.

“This is…I…wow,” was all Kenya could say as her mind struggled to take in the impossible. She had never seen anything like it before in her entire life. How was it even possible for a person to…shrink?

“I told you! Plenty of room to stretch out and relax! Now it’s your turn!” the tiny Nikki giggled.

“Oh no,” Kenya said, waving a finger at the miniature woman. “Not me…this is…this is crazy.”

Nikki frowned. “Aww…what’s wrong? Are you afraid of getting a little bit smaller for a while?”

Kenya thought for a moment before nodding.

“I understand,” Nikki continued, looking down at her tiny legs and feet. “But I promise you it’s completely safe…I’ve shrunk myself like this almost every night for the past dozen tours. I get small to relax in my room then get big again when it’s time for work.”

Kenya nodded. She had to admit…she was a little curious. The idea of having more space on the trip was definitely an appealing one.

“Plus, our first practice isn’t for a few hours…plenty of time to grab a nap or snuggle up under the covers…being little is so much fun!” the tiny woman giggled, kicking her legs excitedly. Kenya couldn’t help but smile…Nikki certainly did seem like she was having a good time. And she was so adorable too.

“Well…” Kenya said, scratching her head as she tried to think of a good reason to stop herself. Nikki started to bounce up and down in anticipation.

“Come on come on! You know you wanna’! At least try it!”

“Okay fine,” Kenya finally said, eliciting squeaks of joy from the half-sized woman. Kenya put out her finger.

“But,” she continued, “I just want to try it out…I’m not going as small as you.”

“Okay! Sure! Fine! Set it to whatever you like! Maybe just shrink a foot…that’s a pretty fun height too, and not too scary!”

Kenya took the device into her hand and swiped the screen like she’d seen Nicole do earlier. A display appeared.

ENTER TARGET REDUCTION

Kenya pursed her lips.

“Not too small,” she said quietly as she set the indicator to ‘6 inches.’ She figured that would be enough to test if the device was really as safe as Nikki had said. She locked in her selection and the screen changed to the same, green button that she’d seen on the screen before. She took a deep breath, turning the device and pressing it against her chest just as Nikki had done minutes earlier.

“See you on the small side!” Nikki giggled, beaming up at her soon to be reduced roommate.

“Yea…see you on the smaller side,” Kenya said, cracking a smile as touched the button on the display.

FLASH!!!