Welcome To Backroom Lilliput

20260217

Written for Bradley Ramsey’s “Flash Fiction February Day 17”.

I come around in a strangely shaped puffy… bed? The ceiling above me is so poorly lit it looks like cardboard.
“I think they’re awake!”
Before I can sit up I’m surrounded by a huddle of people. One’s wearing the standard boilersuit that all dome inhabitants are issued, but the rest are draped in various poorly-fitting tunics and… togas?
Where am I?? The aches across my body leaves me sure this isn’t a dream. Perhaps I’m suffering from some delirium?
“How much do you remember?” Gently asks the person who looks like they’re wearing an enormous duster cloth.
“Uhh…” Deciding that this is probably actually a doctor trying to help me, and that if they are a figment of delirium humouring that should be harmless, I cast my mind back, fighting through the fog and the pounding behind my eyes. “My name’s Georgina Price. I live in Habitat Dome 3708, in what was the southeast of England. I’m head hyper-quantumating researcher, work on solving the over-crowding issue-”
That causes uneasy exclamations. The group exchanges looks I can’t read and don’t like.
“Oh. Shit.” Duster-man says. “They must be really getting desperate if a head researcher like you got caught in a misfire.”
“Mis…?”
“Do you remember what you were working on?” Boilersuit-man asks.
“Yes, we…” I trail off as horrified comprehension dawns. I look up at the cardboard ceiling. I look at the strange, cobbled-together garments people are wearing. I lever myself upright to look at what I’m lying in.
A slipper. One of the standard white bath slippers issued to every dome inhabitant. It’s considerably longer than I am tall.
“The good news is, the shrinking works.” Duster-man deadpans. “The bad news is… welcome to Lilliputia.”
“Wh-what??” I gawp around the group. “But, but we’ve only done tests on objects, the technology isn’t ready for-”
“No kidding!” Scoffs a woman whose toga, I now realise, is a handkerchief. “The damn thing leaks all over the place!”
“We were all technicians.” Duster-man folds his arms and grimaces. “Every time something goes wrong and someone gets leaked on, they shove us back here and cover the whole thing up.”
“But-” I falter. I had heard a lot of comments about technicians ‘transferring to other domes’ because they’d decided they’d rather work on crackpot solutions like ‘colonising the stars’. At the time I’d just shook my head and tutted and thought nothing of it.
I take a deep, slow breath. Trying to get my thoughts in order. “Where are we?”
“One of the storage rooms behind the lab.” Boilersuit-man says confidently. “I think number six. But it’s a little hard to tell.”
“We’re working on breaking into the vents.” Hanky-woman says, her mouth set in a determined scowl. “We can’t let them keep doing this! Goodness knows how many people are going to end up trapped here. And we have no idea what side effects there might be.”
“No.” I mumble, feeling sick to my stomach. “We haven’t got anywhere near… at least, I didn’t think we’d be starting human testing for…”
Duster-man snorts. “Yes, well, they’re keeping a close eye on us. I guess you could call us alpha testers.”
I pat myself down and find, to my great relief, that everything appears to have correctly shrunk with me. But my pager and ID badge are gone.
“We think the pagers must still work.” Hanky-woman apparently realised what I was looking for. “Or maybe they’re just worried we might get one working. But they take all equipment away before dropping someone off in here.”
“Rats.”
“Oh yes.” Duster-man drawls. “And we’re only going to run into more of them once we break into the vents.”
“What?” It takes me a moment to realise what he means, then I cringe. “Oh no. Don’t tell me…”
“Yeah.” Hanky-woman pats my back. “Don’t worry, they’re pretty easy to scare off. Just, um, it takes getting used to, them being the size of draft horses. And you don’t want to get caught unawares on your own.”
“Ugh!”
“Pete’s trying to tame them, and he seems to be making progress.” Boilersuit man says optimistically. “They might be very useful! Or at least, not a danger anymore.”
“Speaking of…” Duster-man beckons me towards the door-sized hole where the light is coming from. “Let’s give you the tour now, before curfew hits. All the critters get a lot braver in the dark.”
“R-right.” I take a deep breath and square my shoulders. “You said something about breaking into the vents? If there’s anything I can do to help with that…”
“Goodness knows we’re only going to make it together.”

Prompt was “In the near future, Earth’s population has exploded and space on the planet is running out. Colonizing new planets isn’t in the cards, so scientists start working on a new idea: Shrinking everyone and everything to a smaller size. After a routine test goes haywire, you find yourself trapped in a prototype neighborhood, and you soon discover you’re not the first person this has happened to…”