RR Lori Warren - Chapter 26 (Patreon)

For a quick recap, take a quick look through Chapter 25 

Chapter 26 is dense with lore.  You've been warned!

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RR Lori Warren - Chapter 26

Chapter 26 - A Brief History of Reduction Therapy

[September 5th, 2005]

When he was much younger, Michael embarked on a remarkable journey to Italy, courtesy of an organization called Future Minds of America. At the tender age of 14, he found himself standing in awe before the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa,. The sheer magnitude of the structure left an remarkable impression on him, even at that young age. Gazing upon its majestic form, Michael could feel the experience etching vividly in his wells of his permanent memory.

As he stood beneath the towering structure, craning his neck to take in its full height, Michael experienced a profound sense of wonder. The sheer scale of the tower, stretching 183 feet into the sky, seemed almost surreal. Up close, the enormity of the structure dwarfed him, instilling a sense of humility in his young heart. Standing at a modest 6 feet tall, Michael couldn't help but marvel at the fact that this architectural marvel stood a staggering 30.5 times taller than him.

A decade and change (and a few dubious choices) later, Michael returned to those profound feelings of diminutiveness in the Reduction Therapy room of RR Labs, but with an added mix of vulnerability and uncertainty.  Half-standing and half-lying there clumsily in Dr. Bexley’s immense palm, Michael could feel the cushiony warmth radiating through the aqua material.  She cradled him against her enormous and soft chest, her grip protective and possessive, as she stepped out of the clear enclosure.  Dr. Bexley was now back on the outside of the enclosure with Jane, the very enclosure that Michael had willingly stepped into as a full-sized man moments before.  Michael tried to make sense of what the twists and knots throughout his stomach...the scent of citrus surrounding him...the ringing in his ears....  It was all so foreign and overwhelming.  Thin rays of light found their way in through the small gaps in the Doctor’s gloved hand.   His mind was frantically trying to find a way to cope with what was happening.  Even sandwiched between the raven-haired doctor’s breasts and palm, Michael immediately felt a difference in temperature.  Somehow it had become so much colder!

He thought back to those weird metal extrusions coming up out of the chair upon which he’d sat as a normal sized man.  They looked to be about 3” high.  Before the impossibly large doctor entered his enclosure to retrieve him, he noticed that he was unable to see over the extrusions. Based on this, Michael concluded that he had to be around 2” tall.  Probably closer to 1.5” considering he looked to be about eye level with the halfway point of the massive metal walls.  Prior to entering that god-awful machine, Michael stood 6’6” in height.

He had noticed earlier when standing across from Dr. Bexley’s that her eyeline was nearly at his nipples; ironic considering his current proximity to her chest.  His last girlfriend, who was 5’2”, her eye line naturally fell in a very similar spot.

So Dr. Bexley was around 5’2”.

But if he was now around 2” tall, that meant Dr. Bexley was 31 times larger than him.  This tiny girl who couldn’t even wrap her short, cute fingers all the way around his stiff cock just a few moments ago was quite literally larger than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Those short, stubby, cute digits had absolutely no trouble completely consuming him.  Jane was even larger.

“Okay, I’m sorry Jane…you were saying?’ Dr. Bexley said.

Dr. Bexley set Michael down gently on an empty surgical tray atop the table at which he’d placed his clothing.   Michael trembled in fear, his uncertain legs quivering as he stared up at the tremendous, raven-haired doctor and intern from the center of the massive steel tray.  One angelic face in the heavens left his view and then a sudden metal screeching vibrated his tiny bones. Dr. Bexley pulled an empty chair out from under the table and took a seat directly in front of him.

“Oh, before the reduction process finished? What was I saying?” Jane asked. Her eyes left the shivering subject atop the stainless steel surgical tray and looked up into her memory.

“You were telling me that you observed an RT session with Dr. Walker but according to her, it ‘did not count’.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Jane snapped her fingers.  “Yes, Dr. Walker said it didn’t count but didn’t really go too far into detail why. I would guess it had something to do with how small the subject got.  He came out of the session ‘nV’.” Jane said, using air quotes. “I’m pretty sure that’s how Dr. Walker put it.”

“Yes, that would be the term.” Dr. Bexley said.  With fingers several times larger than he, Dr. Bexley gently nudged little Michael to the center of the tray and then turned to look at Jane. “Would you mind grabbing  a V-kit from the shelf over there?  It would be the Post-RT Prep kit for today.”

Jane nodded and walked toward the shelves. She found the equipment kit to which Dr. Bexley was referring.  The label underneath read:

Post-RT Prep - V

In fact, there were several kits on the shelves with this label, all seemingly identical.  All had the same label except for one. It looked much simpler and had far less equipment.  The associated label for this unique kit read:

Post-RT Prep - nV

Jane was about to ask Dr. Bexley which V-kit she should grab when she noticed the kit on the farthest side of the shelf.  It was also labeled as a “V-kit”, but underneath it was today’s date and a time, handwritten with dry-erase marker on clear tape. Jane checked her watch, seeing that the time on the label was from only about an hour ago.  There was also something else different about the kit.  This kit had one additional screw-cap container, and where all the other containers were plain, this one looked like there was some kind of sticker on the side. Jane picked up the kit with today’s date.

“So I guess it has something to do with how little he was after the RT session, but what is nV?” Jane asked herself, carefully lifting the correct equipment kit.

Dr. Bexley explained, “nV stands for non-Viable. Viability is one of many attributes we observe in our Post-RT subjects.”

Jane returned with the equipment kit, careful not to spill the collection of mixing flasks, pipettes, and other containers. Some were empty, some were full.  Some were clear and some were sealed with labels depicting complex molecular diagrams. Among other things, the kit contained an assorted set of silver mixing tools

“Let’s look at Subject-298m here as an example,” Dr. Bexley said.

The raven-haired doctor lightly pinched little Michael between her gloved thumb and forefinger, lifting his naked, squirming body up toward her face so that the two women could take a closer look.  Jane leaned in over Dr. Bexley’s shoulder to get a better look at the quivering, naked subject.

“As you can see, he is quite miniature, but large enough that our sensors will function properly. This will allow our equipment to accurately monitor him over time.  If he passes this initial Post-RT physical screening as most subjects do, we will categorize him as Viable.  That will mean he is approved for installation.”

Dr. Bexley set Michael back down on the center of the tray. His bare knees knocked together as he clumsily took over supporting his own weight.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Jane said as she placed the large equipment kit down next to the surgical tray.   Michael cowered away from the enormous, structure-sized equipment kit. Dr. Bexley, unphased by Michael’s fear, removed two of the mixing flasks.  Each had about 2 ounces of clear liquid inside. When Dr. Bexley combined them into a single flask, the clear color slowly changed to a pale blue.

Dr. Bexley continued. “A status of non-Viability, or ‘nV’ as you’ve heard it called, is how we describe a subject that has underwent such considerable reduction that our strongest and most precise instruments cannot monitor the subject–not their location and certainly not their biological metrics.  In other words, confirming the presence of a non-Viable subject is an unreliable approximation at best, and monitoring them is next to impossible.”

“Okay that does make sense.” Jane said, retrieving a tiny pastel green notebook from her breast pocket and scribbling some notes in a handwriting so rushed and horrendous that even she’d surely have trouble reading it later. “Dr. Walker kind of explained this to me after the session but it makes more sense now. And non-Viability is sort of always a risk in Reduction Therapy because we can’t set the reduction size on the machine, right?” Jane asked.

“Not quite.” Dr. Bexley said.  Michael attempted to run off the tray, perhaps thinking that the raven-haired doctor was distracted instructing her junior intern but he would have been wrong.  Dr. Bexley blocked him with her hand and gently guided him back to the center of the tray as Jane watched with fascinated green eyes.

Dr. Bexley continued, gesturing toward the behemoth of a machine that had just shrunk Michael. “The RTD, or Reduction Therapy Device allows us to program the desired subject size into the machine’s code sequence. In perfectly ideal conditions, the machine would reduce subjects to the argument parameter 100% of the time.” Dr. Bexley let out a hearty chuckle. “But as I’m sure your professors are probably telling you during lecture, ‘ideal’ is for homeworks and final exams–nothing in the real world is ideal.”

“We have been through several RTD prototype versions  over the years...all with their own tradeoffs. Our current model, despite initially having a significant margin of error, is seeing great improvements.”

Dr. Bexley’s gaze fell down toward Michael and she laughed.  “Oh, nearly forgot about this one!  The reason we’re here. Please gather 3 miligrams of Phosphorus.” Dr. Bexley motioning toward the various capped powder containers in the Post-RT equipment kit.

“Anyway, as I was saying…Our first method of reduction was carried out with a handheld device we called ‘The Sizer’.  After we received funding for this lab, we set out to formalize our Reduction Therapy processes with permanent, floor-standing equipment.  It was a necessary step in standardizing reduction, but the technology was primitive.

The doctor began counting off fingers, “It was not efficient, it was prone to breaking, and it required several sessions to get the subject to the targeted size.  Still, despite its flaws, its margin of error was incredibly small.  Research & Development improved the energy efficiency and reliability but at other costs.  When the permanently installed RTD became operational, the Subject Reduction Probability Rate (the chance that a subject would even begin to reduce) was very close to 100%, and we were satisfied with that.  The degree of reduction, however, varied greatly from session to session.  The difference between the expected reduction size and actual reduction size was often staggeringly large.  These weren’t just isolated outliers either; you’d have gasped if you saw the how high the standard deviation was!”

Michael tried running off the edge of the tray again, only to be stopped again by Dr. Bexley. She slid him a little more forcefully toward the center of the tray.

“Let’s assume we conduct a very standard RT-session for a 6’ 0” subject: reduction percentage set to...let’s say 4.2%. This would mean that following RT, the subject should reduce to 3 inches in height. However, with the unpredictability factors, the actual reduction percentage could range from as high as 46.5% of the subject’s original size to as low as 0.00006%.  Those lower and upper limits indicate that the post-RT subject could be as large as a toddler or small enough to require a microscope to be seen.

Michael had attempted to jump off the tray several times by now, and Dr. Bexley moved him back to the center each time, not missing a beat during her period of instruction.  His pathetic attempt was once again thwarted effortlessly by Dr. Bexley with a fraction of her attention. Her patience up to that point was commendable but this time, she folded her gloved hands over top of Michael, enveloping him entirely.

“Dealing with the subjects who fell into the category of only reducing around half their size was inconvenient but manageable.  This meant we had to physically compel the subject to undergo a second RT-session, which was not much more difficult than...say...a mother trying to get their child into a highchair.  Still, we required at least two women present for each RT-session just to make sure the subject could be physically controlled if necessary. Since there appears to be no limit to how many RT-sessions a subject can undergo, we just conducted as many sessions as needed until the subject reached the desired size.”

Jane set the 3 milligrams of Phosphorus next to the surgical tray. Dr. Bexley lifted her cupped hands from Michael and waited a moment to see if he would run away.  He did not.  Dr. Bexley introduced the Phosphorus to the pale blue solution and it began to bubble like a carbonated beverage.

“I don’t think I’ve seen any toddler-sized subjects in our inventory.” Jane said thoughtfully.

“No, you wouldn’t see them.” Dr. Bexley said, lightly mixing the solution as the bubbling started to calm down. It fizzed noisily before slowly sinking back into the container.  “Not since our improvements to the reduction therapy process.  We managed to entirely eliminate the upper limits of reduction percentage inaccuracy. The only post-RT subjects who come out toddler-sized are sized that way deliberately.”

“So we do make toddler-sized subjects then?  What for?”

The corners of the young doctor’s lips slightly curled.  “You’d have to ask Dr. Becotte about that one…after getting clearance to talk about ‘The Third R’.  They do not remain with RR Laboratories very long. Shortly after their custody stint with Dr. Becotte, they are shipped elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere? To who?  Where do they go?” Jane asked.

Dr. Bexley answered, “Oh, that’s a story for another day, Jane.  Let’s just say RR Laboratories gets a lot of different help paying the bills...and that is just one of them.”

The raven-haired doctor removed from the equipment kit a pipette pre-loaded with a bright pink liquid. Dr. Bexley held the spout directly over Michael’s head.  Jane couldn’t help but lean in closer as Michael lifted his hands to protect himself.  Dr. Bexley unceremoniously pinched the pipette, emptying its contents onto him and soaking him in the fluid.

“Does that hurt him?” Jane asked as she watched Michael.

Dr. Bexley replied, motioning toward the concoction of blue liquid and phosphorus mixture that had since stopped bubbling.  “No, quite the opposite.  It helps strengthen his body for the next part. It's one cog in a complicated machine of post-RT procedures.  Sort of like inoculations to protect from diseases.”

Both Dr. Bexley and Jane stared intently at the tiny subject covered from head to toe in the pink liquid.

“How about you pick him up?” Dr. Bexley said to Jane. “Have you handled subjects before?”

“A few times during inventory watch.” Jane said as she reached out for the cowering and squeaking Michael.

“Okay, great.  We need to make sure that the solute is generously applied to the subject’s entire body.  You’ll notice it is grainy and abrasive so it may cause him some discomfort, but that is much better than what would happen to him without its protection.”

Most of the pink solute covered Michael’s head and shoulders, and Jane rubbed and redistributed the solute all over Michael’s body.

“You can go harder than that.  Let’s add some more.” Dr. Bexley said, lifting a second pipette from the kit.  “Better to have too much than not enough.”

Jane nodded and held Michael still for the doctor. Dr. Bexley squeezed the second pipette of the pink solvent onto Michael’s chest, unloading its contents all over him.

“So you said you eliminated the upper limit of inaccuracy...but I guess not the lower limit?” Jane asked as she gently parted Michael’s legs and tenderly rubbed her fingertip up and down between them. Michael did not seem to enjoy it.

“Hm?”

“You said you fixed it so that subjects don’t come out of Reduction Therapy bigger than expected–most of the time, anyway.  But what about the ones that come out smaller than expected?”

“Well, ensuring that subjects didn’t come out oversized was our top priority, and we achieved that goal.  And the standard deviation became much smaller as well, indicating much more accurate and precise RT-sessions overall.  Indirectly, lower limit inaccuracies were much less frequent, but there was an interesting consequence: the lower limit changed.  It became much, MUCH lower.”

“As in…they came out way smaller than expected instead of just a little smaller?”

“Exactly! Before the corrections, a 6’ 0” subject might occasionally reduce to around a micrometer, that’s a reduction factor of roughly 1.8 million...or to put it simply, the subject would be made 1.8 million times smaller.

With the most recent corrections, inaccurate reductions rarely happen. However, when they do, theory suggests subjects can reduce by factors of 5 billion or more.

“Five billion times smaller?! That’s insane!” Jane exclaimed. Michael’s squeaking told her that she’d been abrasively rubbing the same spot on his body for far too long as she listened, enthralled in Dr. Bexley’s history lesson.  She turned Micheal over in her fingers and rubbed the solute into his back and down his legs.

“An understatement if there ever was one! Don’t forget the bottoms of his feet.” Dr. Bexley said. Michael was now covered completely head to toe in the abrasive pink liquid.

“Once you cross into reductions of that magnitude, philosophy and physics begin to converge and overlap. Those conversations are quite fascinating and they’re opening up doors to some other projects we’re considering.  But at the end of the day, we primarily receive our funding for rear housing and these efforts are not contributing to that experiment.  While it is not ideal for our subjects to be reduced to such an extent, it is acceptable considering the rarity. This is especially true since the new lower limit does not result in an increasingly non-Viable subject.  Viability is not a spectrum. They are either Viable or non-Viable. There is no such thing as “too non-Viable”.

Dr. Bexley smirked as she watched Jane take it all in; she had a nervous tick of pushing her chin-length black hair behind her left ear when deep in thought.  Jane Ellen was a recent hire, a former ballet dancer out of Minneapolis with an interest in biological medicine.  She was getting along well enough with the staff and always eager to learn, and she seemed to be making great friends with Brandi Thompson, the Assistant Acclimation Therapist.

“So when you observed with Dr. Walker, was there an nV-recovery attempt on the over-reduced subject?” Dr. Bexley asked

“Well, we did use something called an nV-Retriever from that other kit on the shelf...and based off what you’ve told me, I guess that’s a non-Viable Retriever?” Jane asked.  The solute was now covering every square inch of Michael’s naked body, but Jane continued to mindlessly rub him as her focus was on the doctor.

“Correct.” Dr. Bexley said with a light chuckle, “Katie can get a bit carried away with her acronyms at times.”  The bubbling solution had now foamed up again, this time several inches near the top of the container, spitting out tiny droplets of the solution onto the table.

“So Dr. Walker performed the recovery then?” Dr. Bexley said.

“No, she let me do the recovery.  It wasn’t that hard to use it. I held it over the enclosure seat, I mounted the device to the metal square coming out of the seat and I pressed the buttons. I’m pretty sure I pressed the right ones and Dr. Walker said all the right lights came on, but I definitely couldn’t tell for sure if I sucked him up or not.” Jane said.

“That’s alright, Jane.” Dr. Bexley replied.  “We have made leaps and bounds in improving the reduction therapy process but there will always be anomalies and some degree of uncertainty inherent both in reduction therapy and nV recovery.  That is why the Pre-RT screening is so important.”

Dr. Bexley held out her hand and Jane placed Michael in Dr. Bexley’s palm.  The doctor picked him up and gently lowered his bright pink, squirming body into the pale blue solution.

~