Atoms -- Fiction; Chemists -- Fiction; Love stories; Science fiction
The girl had no answer but a quiet nod of agreement. Her face was
serious, but there was on it no sign of panic. The Very Young Man
hesitated a moment; then he started off down the room towards one of the
doors, with Aura close at his side.
They could not get out in their present size, he knew. Nor would they
dare make themselves sufficiently large to open the door, or climb
through one of the windows, even if the room had been nearer the ground
than it actually was. Long before they could escape they would be
discovered and seized.
The Very Young Man tried to think it out clearly. He knew, except for a
possible accident, or a miscalculation on his part, that they were in no
real danger. But he did not want to make a false move, and now for the
first time he realized his responsibility to Aura, and began to regret
the rashness of his undertaking.
They could wait, of course, until the conference was over, and then slip
out unnoticed. But the Very Young Man felt that the chances of their
rescuing Loto were greater now than they would be probably at any time
in the future. They must get out now, he was convinced of that. But how?
They were at the door in a moment more. Standing so close it seemed,
now, a tremendous shaggy walling of shining metal. They walked its
length, and then suddenly the Very Young Man had an idea. He threw
himself face down upon the floor. Underneath the door's lower edge there
was a tiny crack. To one of normal Oroid size it would have been
unnoticeable--a space hardly so great as the thickness of a thin sheet
of paper. But the Very Young Man could see it plainly; he gauged its
size by slipping the edge of his robe into it.
This crack was formed by the bottom of the door and the level surface of
the floor; there was no sill. The door was perfectly hung, for the crack
seemed to be of uniform size. The Very Young Man showed it to Aura.
"There's the way out," he whispered. "Through there and then large again
on the other side."
He made his calculation of size carefully, and then, crushing one of the
pills into powder, divided a portion of it between himself and the girl.
Aura seemed tired and the drug made her very dizzy. They both sat upon
the stone floor, close up to the door, and closed their eyes. When, by
the feeling of the floor beneath them, they knew the action of the drug
was over, they stood up unsteadily and looked around them.
They now found themselves standing upon a great stone plain. The ground
beneath their feet was rough, but as far away as they could see, out up
to the horizon, it was mathematically level. This great expanse was
empty except in one place; over to the right there appeared a huge,
irregular, blurred mass that might have been, by its look, a range of
mountains. But the mass moved as they stared at it, and the Very Young
Man knew it was the nearest one of Targo's men, sitting beside the
table.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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