"Victorian England..." Tess says, getting lost in thought. "I've always wanted to go. You know, I loved English literature in high school and college. How much I enjoyed reading Dickens and Austen and Shelley..."
"I don't think Austen was a Victorian writer, but that's ok. Your speciality is clearly science and engineering, not literature" you say, winking at your toy-sized assistant.
"Well, whatever. It's all the 19th century. Isn't that all Victorian?" she asks, exasperated.
"Hm, no. Maybe you ought to let me do all the talking once we arrive" you say, teasing her.
"Alright, fine, fine" she says. "But you have to buy me some era-appropriate dresses while we're there. And let me get some first editions of some books."
You roll your eyes. With your shrink ray, do you even need money? Probably not.
"Ok. Now, this is going to be a little... weird." you explain to Tess. "So, you know how the time machine only seats one?"
Tess nods. You can tell she doesn't like where this is going.
"Well, I'm going to put you in my pocket, shrink myself, and shrink the machine. So we'll all be shrunk to the size you are now, and you'll be shrunk even further in my pocket. Then, when we arrive, I'll take you out of my pocket, unshrink you, and we'll both be ready to see London from a smaller scale."
Tess's jaw hangs open. "Now wait just a second! You already shrunk me without asking, and I'm, like, six inches tall!"
"Seven, actually" you interject.
"So if I'm already, like, one-ninth my size, and you make me another one-ninth my size, I'll only be an inch tall! That sounds dangerous!" she exclaims.
"Now, don't worry, my little friend" you say, wagging your finger in her face. "It won't be for long. And I wouldn't do it if I thought it was going to be dangerous, of course. But I think it's better we travel... indiscreetly. It's not like we're going to the middle ages, where we can land unseen on some remote hill, away from a castle. Victorian England was a busy place. We wouldn't want to risk being seen and severely derailing the timeline."
"So" you continue, walking with Tess in your hand as you walk toward the machine, calibrating it. "I have a plan in mind. There's no way for us to land on or near any buildings without being seen. London was heavily industrialized at the time, you know." Tess looks up at you uncertainly, squirming uncomfortably in your hand.
"So, having a telephone box-looking time machine suddenly appear out of nowhere would be seen by too many people. But... what if the machine wasn't the size of a telephone box? What if it was... smaller? More easily concealed, perhaps?" you ask, a sly smile stretching across your face. "It's the only way. Trust me. I'm the head scientist here, after all".
You set Tess down on the floor in front of you again. "Now just sit tight for a second..." you mutter. You unholster your size ray. Tess gasps.
"Don't shrink me yet!"
You ignore her and turn toward the time machine. You let loose a big burst of green energy, which crackles and strikes the machine. In seconds, it's small - about Tess's size. Perfect. It almost looks like a toy, now.
You hold the size ray in your hand, pondering it for a moment, shut your eyes, and fire on yourself. When you open them, you're looking Tess in the eyes again.
"Thank god" she says. "I was tired of having to crane my neck up to look at you."
You turn the size ray back on her and zap her again. She squeals as she dwindles down smaller and smaller. You're about seven and a half inches tall, now, so she's only an inch or so.
"Oh, my god" she squeaks. "Everything is so huge..."
You bend down and pick her up again. It's funny. If you weren't able to look around the room to see how large everything is (or how small you've become), you wouldn't know you'd shrunk. Everything looks huge, and a little scary. You look up, staring up at a workbench with a chair Tess usually sits at. You imagine what it would be like to see her, gargantuan, working away as you walk short little steps on the floor. You turn. Tools clutter the ground next to the time machine. They're about your size. If you could grasp them easily in one hand...
No, no, no need to think about that. You don't think you want to stay tiny. The sooner you get traveling, the sooner you can unshrink yourself. But, you'll unshrink Tess first. You can tell how terrified she is, writing in your grasp. You like to tease her, but you don't want to terrify her like this. You slip her gently into your coat pocket, patting it to reassure her, and holster your size ray.
You then turn towards your time machine and march in.
You flip some switches and hear the sound of the engine firing up. It's loud - almost deafeningly. You hear Tess squeak something from your lab coat, but it's difficult to hear.
You toggle a few switches, confirming your desired time/place. London, approximately 1873 or so, give or take a few years. Since you want to be careful about where you land so you aren't seen, you attempt to calibrate a specific address and location. You'd hate to accidentally phase into a brick or right in front of an oncoming horse, or something like that. And you know London could be very rough at the time. You try to calibrate your machine to take you to a wealthier part of London. One, hopefully, where there won't be many people out and about to witness your arrival.
"22... Oxford Street..." you type in. An image of an old, ornate townhouse pops up on the screen. You aren't quite sure who lives there, but, based on the research you did ahead of time, it appears to have been owned by wealthy tenants for some time. Maybe you could find a spare dress the Lady of the house owned and shrink it for Tess. She'd like that.
You hit confirm. No going back.
The windows tint themselves darkly and become screens. You see a projection of the townhouse's interior on the screen in front of you come in to view.
CONFIRM DESTINATION? the screen asks you in a shrill voice.
You hit a red button in front of you. DESTINATION CONFIRMED.
The screen darkens and begins making loud whirring, beeping, and clicking sounds. The machine shakes, and feels like it's being lifted up off the ground. You grab on to the handlebars installed on the sides provided for your stability. "Next time, I should include seats! And seatbelts!" you say aloud as the machine begins shaking hard. You try to keep as still as possible so that Tess doesn't get shaken around too much. And you'd hate to hit the side of the machine and squash her.
You hang on for dear life as the machine begins to fly through time and space. You can't see through the windows, which, instead, have converted into television screens and are displaying a little bit of information about your destination. There isn't much - you probably should have had the foresight to program a historical database in the machine. Alas, that will have to be developed at a later date.
You continue holding on for dear life as the machine shakes and spins until suddenly... it seems to stop.
The door opens, slowly, with a loud hiss. You squint as light pours in to the machine.
Did you arrive at the right place?
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