"…It's a little boy!" the woman said, her mouth fallen open. She looked down at the readout on the screen at her control panel. "But… wait, Arthur… Look at this!" she exclaimed, pointing down to the monitor.
The man walked to her and looked over her shoulder. "What is it, Claire?"
"The biostats say that he's eight years old. But he's only four feet tall!" She looked at Arthur with a skeptical but excited look on her face.
"What? Really?" Arthur said, checking the numbers again. "Why, no eight year old on Earth has been anywhere near that short for the past twenty years!"
"Is this it? Do you think we've done it?" Claire asked, walking to another control panel on the far wall. "Do you think we've found the one we're looking for?"
"Maybe the scanners are off…" Arthur typed something into the keyboard. "I'll have the systems do a calibration check and rescan. We need to be sure."
As you overheard this conversation from inside your smoky glass box, you coughed, trying not to inhale the fumes and debris cloud that filled your cage, while in your head you were trying to make sense of what the two adults were saying. Eight years old? You knew you were small for your age, but a computer scan should hopefully show you were older than that. And ONLY four feet tall? Sure, there were eight-year-olds taller than you, but it wasn't uncommon to see ones around your height or even shorter. Something about this seemed way too weird.
It didn't help that from what you could see of the laboratory, it was substantially different from your parents'. The same type of machinery and lights filled the room, but the ceilings seemed to stretch much, much higher, and the windows on the opposite sides of the wall had been boarded up. For their own part, Claire and Arthur at least had a very similar look to your mom and dad, with the same eyes, skin tone, hair color, height and build, but the clothes they were wearing looked like something out of a bad sci-fi comic book. They both had on some sort of robes with really wide shoulders that tapered to a point on the ends, and long flowing tails. Looking closely at the robe, you saw that it had some sort of inscription on it, but the strange squiggles looked like no alphabet you had ever seen before.
"No," Arthur confirmed as he looked up from the control panel, his voice getting more and more excited, "the scanners are fully in calibration, and the biostats haven't changed. We've really found a four-foot-tall eight-year-old boy!"
"Thank heavens," Claire said, "then maybe it's not too late!"
You looked down at your body, and saw that, even though you were the same height as before, you did have a more youthful appearance, with slightly smoother skin and smaller hands and feet. You weren't quite as slender as before, and your clothes had changed from the white tank top and cargo shorts you had been wearing to a red t-shirt and pair of jean shorts. Trying to make sense of it all, and afraid of what kind of world you're in, you began to hyperventilate, taking in more of the smoky air surrounding you. This caused you to cough even harder, and you fell to your knees, gasping for air.
"Gracious!" Claire exclaimed when she saw you. "He's choking in there! Arthur, quick! Turn on the ventilation!"
Arthur rushed to the side of the cage where a control panel was affixed and flipped a large switch, and the smoke and dust in your chamber suddenly rushed to the top with a loud WOOOOSH, disappearing out of sight. After a few seconds, the air had cleared up and it became easier to breath. You sat down, making sure you breathed as deeply as you needed without overdoing it.
Arthur put his hand on the glass wall near you and looked down at your face, smiling. "Hello, child," he said, "I know you're probably frightened, but don't worry. We don't mean you any harm. We're here in peace."
"Arthur," Claire muttered, "quit with the alien visitor crap and get him out of there!"
Nodding, Arthur pressed two buttons on the cage's control panel, and one of the walls slid down. Thankful for your freedom, you quickly sprung to your feet and stepped out. You felt a lot more light-headed than you expected, however, and nearly fell flat on your face. Arthur, though, caught you and helped you regain your balance before you did.
"Whoa, easy there, guy," he said. "You need to be careful. Transporting between different dimensions can be a little disorientating."
"Not that you would know," Claire said as she walked over to join the two of you, "or anyone else, for that matter."
"What do you mean, transporting between dimensions?" you asked, rubbing the bruises on your arm gingerly. "And why did you say I'm eight years old when I'm thirteen? And either way, since when is four feet tall not normal?"
Claire and Arthur exchanged troubled looks with each other. "Um, listen," Claire said as she placed a hand on your back, gently guiding you towards the stairs at the other end of the laboratory. "Maybe we should have a bit of a talk…"
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