diaper dimension Hermit Crab’s Dilemma

[InkuHime]

Hermit Crab’s Dilemma
by Inku Hime

This story is only Tangentially adjacent to 'Chasing Emily'

 

    Ponderously, the colossal arm swung through air above their heads, the manipulator on the end turning through a set of programmed sequences. Then, just short of the cargo containers that were the target entire assembly shuddered with a sound of metal grinding on metal. There was a ringing sound as something snapped and the arm came to a halt.
    Something sparked and something smoked and the arm fell.
    It was pulled to a stop, just above the heads of the technicians, by the safety cables. There was gasps of shock and horror was one of the cables snapped and whipped down, just missing a woman who stood on the floor, looking up at the mechanical arm. She did not start, did not even so much as twitch.
    After a few seconds she turned away from the assembly and looked at a particular pair of technicians. Two men who stood near the computers that controlled the arm.
    “Miss Carroll…” one of them said nervously.
    The woman held up her hand.
    The man closed this mouth.
    Everyone in the room was starting at the woman now, except for a handful of techs who were putting out the fires.
    The giant arm no longer seemed like the most dangerous thing in the room.
    Miss Carroll was the tallest person in the room, even among the giant Amazons she was large. It was not just her height, she was also, well, no one would call her fat. The proverbial steel hand in a velvet glove, where the steel was muscle and the velvet the layer of flab that rounded her limbs and gave one a false impression of softness.
    That impression never lasted contact with the woman.
    She walked towards the men, sway of round hips and bottom, her breasts barely constrained by her clothing.
    Miss Carroll came to stop by the men.
    She looked down at them.
    Both men were giants, each over eight feet tall, but Miss Carrol had them beat.
    “Move gentlemen,” she said, her voice deep and rumbly, an alto that almost dropped into a tenor.
    The two men moved.
    She leaned over the computers.
    The men and woman watching imagined they could hear her bra straps creak.
    Precise in her typing, she did not fat finger the commands and a moment later information was flashing across multiple screens.
    “This is interesting,” she said, taking hold of the mouse and selecting chunks of the data. “Because it looks like someone did not follow my notes but tried something else. Reduced insulation, low tensile strength materials and there are two levels of surge protection missing.
    The last of the fires had been put out, the hum of the generators shut down. The lab was silent but for her voice. Everyone was looking at her.
    Miss Carroll looked up from the controls, straightened and turned her head to look at the men.
    Everyone there had the sense she was an adult looking down at a pair of naughty children.
    The two men looked at each other, then the taller of the two shifted half a step forward. “We thought that we cold realize significant savings,” he said, the tiniest quaver in his voice.
    “I see,” she said.
    Two simple words, voice not raised, flat in fact, lacking in any emotion.
    The man ducked his head as if she were yelling.
    When he did not say anything she asked, “And how did your cost saving plan go?”
    As the arm hung above them, the smell of smoke and ozone still in the room, the question was obviously rhetorical.
    “Please keep in mind that it is my money, and if I chose to waste it on silly things like effective design and safety that is my choice, is it not?” Her voice was still flat, which made the sarcasm all that more biting.
    This time it was obvious she expected an answer and both men chimed, again, like naughty children, “Yes Miss Carroll.”
    Miss Carroll looked away from the men, towards the other techs. “Mrs Roberts, Mr Grand, congratulations, you are now in charge of this project.”
    The two men looked, for the tiniest fraction of a second, that they wanted to object.
    They did not.
    “How long will it take you to undue these cost cutting designs and put everything to my specs?”
    Mrs Roberts and Mr Grand had a quick discussion, Mr Grand holding his smart phone as they looked over the data there.
    In less than a minute Mrs Roberts said, “Three days Miss Carroll.”
    “Counting today?”
    Mrs Roberts looked at Mr Grand.
    He nodded.
    “Yes.”
    “Very well, we will try this once again four days from now.”
    With that said she walked towards the room’s exit, her low heeled ankle boots thumping against the floor.
    When she had left everyone in the room visibly relaxed.
    Mr Grand walked over to the two men who had up until a few minutes ago been in charge. “Sorry about this,” he said. “But she didn’t fire you.”
    The taller of the two, the one had had put himself forward, shook his head. “She never fucking blinks when she looks at you, have you noticed that? I never know what she is thinking.”
    Mrs Roberts came over, looked up at the arm and then to the men.
    “She’s on the spectrum, probably part of why she has her focus. She’s a genius, if she does not want to blink, that’s her business, isn’t it?”

 

    The hood of the car was open.
    A clicking sound came from within, not the rumble the high-school students around it expected.
    “It’s not going to turn over,” the young man, a sixteen year old, nearly nine feet tall, said from the driver’s seat.
    “It’s the alternator,” another giant said.
    “We pulled the alternator and rebuilt it. It works fine,” an inbetweener girl with short hair said.
    “Maybe we broke it when we put it back in.”
    “I bet it the fuel line.”
    “We’re not getting spark, does not matter if there is fuel or not.”
    They argued.
    “…alternator….”
    “…battery…”
    “…fuel…”
    “…cracked…”
    Their teacher, an inbetweener, leaned against his desk, watching as his auto shop students tried to get the engine working.
    The single little in the room had been standing on one of the work tables, using the extra height to do her best to look into the engine.
    She jumped down from the table and went to the tool cabinet, looking through it until she found what she was looking for.
    None of her fellow students were watching her, but the teacher was.
    She walked to the car, moving among the legs of the taller students. None of them noticed her until she climbed up on the bumper and leaned into the engine.
    “Are you still here diaper duty?” one of the giants asked.
    “Shut it Ryan,” the teacher called out.
    “Sir, it’s not like she can figure it out,” Ryan said.
    “I said shut it.”
    The teacher was not as tall as many of his students, but like many inbetweeners who worked among the giants he had cultivated and attitude that often meant more than height.
    The little used a wrench to remove the battery cables from the poles. Then, with a rasp, she cleaned out the inside the clamps before putting them back.
    She gave the bolts a twist, the tools almost too big for her. After tugging each cable to make sure they were tight, she called out, “Try it now.”
    Behind the wheel the giant rolled his eyes and turned the key.
    The engine turned over and rumbled to life.
    “Good job Alice,” the teacher said as he pushed away from his desk and walked towards the car. “Shut it down.”
    A turn of the key silenced the engine.
    “That’s if for today,” the teacher said, “get out of here, don’t be late for your next class.”
    “Amazed that you know something about cars other than how to sit in a car seat,” a tall inbetweener named John said to Alice.
    There were a few laughs.
    Alice said nothing, just went and grabbed her school bag.
    “Hold up Alice,” the teacher called.
    Alice paused.
    When all the other students were gone he said, “Good work there, you pay attention.”
    “Thanks,” Alice said, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
    “Just wondering, you aren’t thinking of going into this line of business, are you?”
    “Car repair?”
    “Yeah.”
    “No, I want to go into engineering.”
    “Good, that’s good. I mean, not that you wouldn’t be a great mechanic, it’s just that, well…”
    “My size would make it hard,” she said for him.
    She almost managed not to sound bitter.
    “Yeah, well yeah.” He nodded. “You better get going. You don’t want to be late for your next class.”
    Not when for a little being late resulted in immature punishments for ‘lack of maturity’.
    Alice left.

 

    Louise Carroll was the founder, chief researcher and CEO of Wonderland Solutions. The names were not coincidence.
    She clomped loudly through the hallways of the building she owned, towering over everyone. Her laser like focus made people get out of her way, as if they were not quite certain she would stop.
    When the boss could crush you both figuratively and literally people tended to act on the side of caution.
    She stopped at the elevator and pressed the call button.
    A short time later the doors opened.
    The people within looked at her and then got out.
    She stepped in once they had vacated it.
    It did not pay to be in the elevator with Miss Carroll if the overload buzzer sounded.
    The door closed and the elevator rose, from the basement testing labs up to the twenty-third floor. Along the way the doors opened a few times on other floors.
    The people waiting the elevator took one look in and did not enter.
    The twenty-third floor was given over the conference rooms and meeting rooms of all sizes.
    “Good afternoon Miss Carroll.”
    “Can I make a meeting to talk with you about project 2C?”
    “You are looking well Miss Carroll.”
    “How did the demonstration go?”
    Carroll looked at the man, who was almost as tall as her. “Disappointing,” she said, answering him where she had more or less ignored the others.
    “How disappointing?”
    “Let’s just say Frenz and Smith are lucky I only took the project away from them.”
    “That disappointing? Too bad.”
    “It should be back on track by the end of the week,” she told him. “My two o'clock here?”
    “Saw a bunch of uniforms with fruit salad on their shoulders go into conference room F. Benny was with them.”
    “That would be them. God, I hate dealing with the military.”
    “Do you trust anyone else to deal with them?” He winked at her.
    “Not in the slightest.” Something that was almost a smile appeared on her face.
    “Can I meet with you tomorrow? I’ll have the numbers on the Henderson job.”
    “Check with my secretary.”
    “Will do boss, talk to you later.”
    Louise watched as her CFO walked off. She then stomped her way to Conference room F and pushed the doors opened.
    Too hard as it turned out for they bounced off the stops with a soft ‘bang’ and everyone in the room looked at her.
    Two bird colonels, a major, and a pair of young lieutenants who looked like they did not want to be in the room. Benny was seated between the two colonels, showing them something on his tablet.
    He jumped up when she came in, looked around guiltily. Everyone seemed uncertain as Louise walked to the head of the table and then took a seat.
    The chair creaked under her weight.
    “I’m busy,” she said, tone flat, face expressionless.
    Benny sat. “Right Louise, right.” Benny was a giant, on the small side, but definitely a giant. Shortest person in the room, except for maybe one of the lieutenants.
    She looked at the people in the room, gaze settling on one of the Colonels. Marine, almost as tall as her, almost as broad, but he was all muscle. “Well Colonel Iro, you’ve once more come to try my patience. Let’s get it over with.”
    Colonel Iro smiled in a good natured fashion. “Louise, you know that one day we are going to come to an agreement.”
    “Doubtful,” she said in her expressionless way.
    “We want you to consult, not build anything, not design anything. We’ll pay you two million to put you on retainer for our project.”
    “This how you getting your foot in the door?”
    He shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
    “What is it?”
    “Details are confidential, until you sign an NDA,” the Major said.
    Louise turned her attention to him. She held his gaze until he looked away. “Sorry,” he muttered.
    “It is a pacification system,” Colonel Iro said. “Non lethal weapons systems, capture and not kill, for troublesome populations.”
    “Who do you have building it?”
    “Can’t go into details, until we get the NDA,” Colonel Iro told her, “but I can say we got some big tech players working on this. You’ll be in select company.”
    She looked around the room, at all the people, her hard stare seemed to be judging them, and finding them all wanting.
    Louise stood.
    The springs in the chair relaxed with an audible creak. “Benny.”
    “Yes Miss Carroll?” he asked, jumping to his feet.
    “Look over the NDA and then send it down to legal. If I sign we’ll talk again,” she told everyone in the room, and then stomped her way out.
    She paused in the door, looked back at the people. She might have smiled, or it could have been a sneer.
    Then she left, closing the doors behind her.
    Benny sat down. “Well, that went better than I expected.”
    “I thought for a moment she was going to come across the table at me,” the Major said.
    “I had drill sergeants back in basic who seemed warmer than that woman,” Colonel Iro said. “Still, I felt it went well. What do you think Benny?”
    “As long as you don’t have anything stupid in your NDA she will probably sign it. That she’s giving you the opportunity to make your case is promising.”
    Colonel Iro nodded. “Like the woman said, we get our foot in the door, maybe we convince her to work with us, and you Benny, get to start bidding on military contracts.”
    “I do like money,” Benny said with a smile.

 

    The dorm nanny did not let Alice undress herself. She was not allowed the dubious dignity of that. The nanny took off Alice’s blazer and then skirt of the university little uniform. She then pulled Alice up across her knees. She placed her broad hand across Alice’s bottom, patting the seat of the pullup.
    “You know why you are being punished,” the Nanny said.
    “Yes ma’am,” Alice said, lying across the amazon’s knees, bottom up. On her first day at University she and the other littles matriculating had all signed a contract of academic behaviour. It covered how they would be treated, and how they might be punished.
    It had been degrading, but if a little wanted a higher education they often had to agree to such things. 
    The nanny started to list off all the rules that Alice had broken. Not keeping her dorm room clean, tardy for classes, not eating all her vegetables at the cafeteria. It was that standard bullshit list of rules often tossed at littles when someone decided that it was time to punish them.
    Not that Alice argued.
    That would make things worse.
    She heard some laughter.
    The nanny had decided to mete out her punishment in the dorm’s common room.
    So there was an audience.
    Specifically a few first year engineering students who were of the opinion that Alice Rydel grades were too high.
    Specifically she was getting higher marks than all of them.
    The dorm nanny owed her employment to Alice and the other littles who were attending the University.
    She was not properly thankful to the littles who lived there.
    Grasping the waistband of Alice’s pullup, the nanny pulled the disposable from Alice’s bottom. Officially the nanny was not to give any little a bare bottom spanking.
    Alice could complain, but nothing would come of it.
    More laughter from the audience as her small bottom came on display.
    “Remember, this is for your own good,” the nanny said, and then brought her open hand down hard on Alice’s bum.
    A ‘crack’ off flesh on flesh, stinging pain as that big hand encompassed her whole bottom, Alice gasped, tears prickled her eyes.
    Ever since she had turned thirteen, any time she had been spanked, she had always told herself she would not cry.
    Every time she was proven wrong.
    It was not just the stinging, burning pain as her tush was spanked to a bright red. That was mostly it, of course. But it was also the feeling of helpless humiliation. Even before it really started to hurt Alice was sniffing with tears in her eyes.
    It was so unfair.
    She was not a baby.
    She was a big girl, no, an adult.
    No one else got spanked.
    She had not even done anything wrong.
    She had done things right. She had studied and learned and done well on tests.
    It was not fair.
    It was not fair.
    It was not fair.
    The laughter stung as well.
    She was sobbing and begging nanny to stop, saying she would be a good girl. Sobbing and tears gave her voice a particularly infantile tone and lisp.
    It was a feedback loop of humiliation.
    Nanny did not stop, just told her it was for her own good.
    The spanking took forever, a constant barrage of unending smacks to her ass.
    It probably was just two minutes, evenly spaced slaps. Nanny’s hand would also hurt a little, she was not allowed to use a paddle or other implement, thankfully. Alice would think about that later, when the sting had faded, but in the moment, it was just the never ending punishment.
    Finally it ended, and Nanny rubbed her hand across Alice’s bright red bottom. “Now, are you going to be a good little girl?”
    “Yes, yes,” Alice sobbed.
    “Well, let’s hope so little miss, or we’ll be back here for another bottom warming.”
    Nanny stood, picking up Alice as she did so, holding Alice in her arms, craddling the little against her large bosom. “Now, seeing as you have no more classes today I think a thick nighttime diaper and a nap are in order.”
    Alice did not want either, but she said nothing.
    The last thing she wanted at that moment was to make Nanny decide some more spanks were required.
    Behind her she heard Thomas Fairre say, “I would give that spanking an A+.”
    Laughter greeted his statement.
    Alice hated him, hated them all.
    Promised herself she would get back at them.
    Was not sure how, but she would.
    Maybe?

 

    Louise Carrol was a presence in Wonderland Solutions.
    She walked every space on every floor at least once a week. From the physical plant deep within the bowels of the thirty story structure to the roof top. Any employee, from the mailroom sorter to the CFO might find her suddenly in their workspace, watching them.
    The big woman could move quietly when she chose.
    However there was one place in the building that she did not often go.
    The employee daycare centre, where small children and adopted littles were cared for while there parents worked.
    But that she did not often go there was not the same as not at all.
    Some people thought it was to make her visits even more of a surprise, to keep the child care and early educator staff on their toes.
    And others thought she was an emotionless, cold woman who just did not like children.
    If you asked the children they would tell you it was the later. Perhaps lack of vocabulary might mean they would say, ‘Big, fat, scary woman’.
    Louise came into the brightly lit daycare, stopping in the foyer beyond the entrance doors and looked around. There were windows that looked into the various rooms in which the children (and littles) slept, played, ate and were otherwise cared for.
    She watched for a few minutes, somehow managing to go unnoticed. In one room a group of three and four year olds, and some littles, were taught their ABCs and numbers. In another room one and two year olds, and some littles, were playing a game that seemed to involve plushies and brightly coloured cubes. And then the children not yet a year old and some littles, were in their cribs for a naps.
    Things seemed to be going well enough.
    “Miss Carroll, what a pleasant surprise.”
    Louise turned.
    A woman had come in through the doors, pushing a baby carriage.
    “Kaitlyn,” Louise said levelly in way of greeting. Her deadpan expression did not reveal if she thought it was a surprise, pleasant or otherwise.
    “I was hoping we could meet, I would like to discuss the reconstruction project in old town.”
    Louise did not answer immediately. “You know my feelings on that project,” she finally said.
    Kaitlyn made what amounted to a throw away gesture. “I know, the bad PR angle, but I’ve been talking with Izzy up in Communications and he thinks we can spin it positively. It is mostly inbetweeners and littles living there now. It could be argued that we are doing them a favour. I was down there just a few days ago and saw how the littles especially need a guiding hand.”
    The baby carriage rocked slightly as its occupant moved around.
    Kaitlyn smiled. “Case in point. My sweet Prissy thought she was an adult who could run a bicycle repair shop. It did not take me long to show her the error of her ways.”
    The little in the carriage was tightly swaddled and a pacifier was held in her mouth by a strap. Her head had been shaved, only a single tuft of red hair left on her the crown of her head.
    It made her look very much like a newborn.
    “Prissy is joining all the other tiny ones today. I think she is going to be very happy there, for a very long time.” She smiled down at the once woman in the carriage. Her smile was mixed with maternal warmth, captor cruelty and hit of contempt.
    Tears ran from Prissy’s eyes.
    Louise looked on with her usual cold expressions.
    “Would you like to hold her?” Kaitlyn asked.
    “No.”
    “I’m surprised you don’t like children. You have such a maternal figure.” She was calling her boss fat.
    However Louise expression suggested she either did not understand the insult or did not care.
    “I like them fine, I just don’t have time.”
    “Well, maybe one day you will, or you will find just the right little who will melt you heart, like little Prissy did for me.” She used the handle to rock the carriage back and forth on its springs, softly bouncing he little within.
    The look on the little’s face and the sounds she managed to make behind her pacifier gag suggested her heart had not been melted.
    “Perhaps,” Louise said, diplomatically. “Talk to my secretary to arrange the meeting. We’ll talk.”
    With that Louise turned and walked from the daycare.
    Kaitlyn pushed the carriage through the foyer into the reception area. A woman came out of the nursery. “What that Miss Carroll?” she asked.
    “Just coming by to scare all the children with her icebox exterior,” Kaitlyn said.
    “Oh, Mrs Dynes, you can’t talk about her like that.”
    “To be honest I think I could insult her right to her face and she would not realize what happened. But I am not here to talk about our boss. I want to enrol little Prissy here into the nursery section.”
    The daycare worker leaned over the carriage and looked at the girl within. “Adorable. She’s to be kept with the precrawlers?”
    “Yes, the little dear may eventually earn a first birthday, but I do find the newborns to be charming.”
    “Of course,” the worker said.
    In the carriage the girl sobbed.

 

    “Holy shit!” Thomas Fairre said as he jumped back from the swinging manipulator arm.
    “Be careful please,” Alice said from where she sat at a lab bench, “still working out some of the fine control.”
    Alice had an armature around her right arm and hand. Movements she made with that arm the larger manipulator arm matched.
    “You stupid little, you could have killed me.”
    Alice said something softly under her breath, but then in a louder voice, “That is why I locked the lab door and put up the danger sign.”
    “I need the lab,” he said.
    “I’ve got it booked for the next six hours,” Alice told him.
    Thomas stared at her, eyes wide.
    “Well I need it.”
    Whining in the larger members of the population was not a favourable image on them.
    “Then you should have booked it.”
    He took a few steps towards her, “Listen you little, I won’t be…”
    What he would not be was not made clear for her suddenly jumped back again as the arm apparently went wildly flailing.
    “What the hell?”
    “Danger sign, the floors marked with hazard tape,” Alice said as with her left hand she typed some commands into her laptop.
    He looked down and took one more step back, beyond the black and yellow line of tape. “Shut this down and get out. I need to work on my senior project.”
    “So do I,” Alice told him, not looking away from her laptop.
    Thomas looked as if he was about to take a step forward, but the arm swung by and made him rethink his plan.
    “Get out!” he yelled.
    “What is all this noise?”
    Both Alice and Thomas looked towards the sound.
    One of the lab doors was opened and a giant was looking in.
    “Professor Jameson,” Thomas said, “I’m sorry, but this little refuses to leave the lab.”
    He looked between them, then asked, “Do you have the lab booked?”
    Thomas’ eyes narrowed, his mouth open for a moment. He said, “Well, no, but she’s a little.”
    Professor Jameson shifted his attention to Alice. “Did you book the lab?”
    “Three weeks ago.”
    “Well then, she has use of the lab Tom. You should have booked it.”
    “But she’s a little!”
    “Yes, I am aware. But the money she uses to pay her tuition is just as big as your money.”
    Thomas stared at the professor in open mouthed shock. Then with a curse he turned and left.
    “You should have bolted the doors from the inside,” Professor Jameson told Alice once Thomas had stormed out.
    “I assumed the danger sign and the locked door would have been enough.”
    “I’ll lock it for you.”
    “No, I got it,” Alice said as she entered a few more commands on the laptop. She then turned and reached out. The manipulator arm stretched out, longer than before, reaching for the door. The eight fingered hand turned the deadbolt and then set the manual bolts.
    “Remarkable,” the professor said as he watched the arm retract back to its earlier length. “How did you manage to make the hydraulics so small?”
    “I don’t use them. I use ferromagnetic semisolids.”
    Professor Jameson stated at her open mouthed. “Surely you’re joking.”
    Alice shook her head. “It’s something I’ve been working on since my first year. I’ve almost got all the kinks worked out.”
    “It’s unfortunate.”
    “Pardon?” Alice asked, frowning.
    “You won’t be able to go on to further your education, and really, it is not as if you’ll find work as an engineer in any sort of reputable firm.”
    Alice said nothing, just stared, wide eyed.
    “Surely you must already know this. It is not as if littles are taken seriously.”
    “I’ll manage, I’m sure,” Alice told him.
    He shook his head. “And you’ve made something of an enemy of Thomas.”
    “I’ll deal with him,” Alice muttered. “I’ve been dealing with him since my first year.”
    “You should come and live with me,” Professor Jameson said.
    “What?”
    “My wife would be delighted to have you.”
    “I am sure she would,” Alice said cooly.
    He did not seem to recognize the tone, or dismissed it. “And you would be protected from any of Thomas’ retribution.”
    “I’ll be fine. But thank you for your concern.”
    He shook his head. “You littles, you never really understand, but I won’t force you, not while you are a student.” He smiled.
    Alice felt a little sick to her stomach.
    “I look forward to seeing your senior project presentation. Good luck. Call me if you need anything.”
    He left her, returning to the room he had come out of.
    Alice turned back to her laptop, entering another set of commands.
    Later that evening when Alice returned to her dorm room she found her bed replaced by a locking crib.
    The dorm nanny was there, smiling. “Alice dear,” she said, “I’ve heard that you’ve been falling out of your bed.”
    Alice turned to look at her roommates, other littles. They looked guilty, and would not meet her gaze. They did not speak up for her.
    “We want you to be safe, so you’ll be sleeping in a crib from now on. Now, I know you littles are want to be naughty, so we’ll be locking you in, but don’t worry, nanny will put you in extra thick nighttime diapers. Isn’t that wonderful?”
    Alice choked out, “Thank you nanny.”
    Thanking the woman for what was a bedwetting sentence made her feel sick, but Alice had no choice.
    One day she would get back at Thomas and the others who had tried to break her.
    One day.
    Alice squeaked in surprise as the dorm nanny grabbed her up in her arms and carried her over to the room’s changing table. “Let’s get you ready for bed-bye sweety.”
    One day.

 

    Louise’s office suite took up a quarter of the thirtieth floor. Her assistants had their own offices, there was a private bathroom, a public office, a private office, a kitchenette, and a conference room.
    It was in that conference room where she held most of her personal meetings.
    A professor from a prestigious university had requested an opportunity to meet with her to discuss the placement of some Masters program students.
    He was already there, drinking coffee, when she entered. Placing the cup down her stood. “Miss Carroll, thank you for taking the time for meeting me.”
    “The pleasure is mine Professor Jameson,” she told him, expression flat.
    She shook his hand and then sat.
    “These are some of the students I would ask that you consider. They all are in an honours Masters degree program and would benefit from a summer internship with Wonderland Solutions.”
    She fanned the folders out with her big hand, looking at the names on each of the folders. “I see,” she said “Your university is known for the quality of its graduates. It is why I was willing to see you.”
    “Thank you, we pride ourselves on the quality of our education.”
    She just nodded as she opened one of the folders and glanced at he transcript within.
    “There was another reason I came here Miss Carroll. I had a question I wanted to ask you.”
    She looked up from the folders to the professor. Her expression was flat as she asked, “What?”
    He broke their gaze and looked away as he asked, “Did you adopt Alice Rydel?”
    Her expression did not shift as she asked, “Who is Alice Rydel?”
    Professor Jameson looked at her again, trying to hold her gaze, as if he was trying to gauge her truthfulness. Again he looked away first and said, “She was a student, her work shares similarities to your company’s designs.”
    “This Alice, she’s a little correct? That’s why you asked if I adopted her.”
    “Yes.”
    “So you are accusing me of stealing her work?”
    “No, no,” he said with a shake of his head. “If you had adopted her then her work would in a way belong to you.”
    Louise said nothing, just pinned him with her stare.
    He started to sweat and wiped his brow. “It’s just that some people are interested in her work, and she disappeared right after graduating.”
    “I hope they find her then.”
    “Yes,” he said nervously. “Well, then, thank you for your time.”
    “Which ones?” she asked.
    “Pardon?”
    “Which of these student would you suggest I consider?”
    “Well, they are all skilled and bright. If you could take all of them the university would appreciate it. I can’t really say that any are better than the others.”
    She swept the folders back into a single pile and picked them up as she stood. “Very well. You’ll hear back from me in a month or so.”
    He stood as well. “Thank you very much Miss Carroll. And if you do hear anything about Alice Rydel there would be some people who would appreciate knowing.”
    “How long?”
    “Pardon?”
    “You said she disappeared after graduating. How long ago was that?”
    “Three years. About a year before you started Wonderland Solutions. Some people think you might have been in contact with her…”
    “Three years is a long time. If you find her she might not even be able to count to ten anymore, let alone give you whatever you hope for.”
    He again could not meet her gaze. “Yes, that’s true.”
    “Never put your trust in littles Professor. There is no future for them.”
    “Yes, I’m afraid of that.”
    “Please excuse me,” she said, and then turned and stomped from the room, holding the folders. “You can see yourself out.”
    He watched her go and once she had left he said, “What a cool customer she is.”
    Then he gathered up his things.
    Louise did not pause as she walked into the office of her chief assistant. She dropped the folders on his desk. “Internship candidates. I don’t see why we cannot take them all, I’ll leave that to you.”
    He gathered the folders up and flipped through them. “We’ve got enough scut work to keep them busy. If they apply themselves they might actually learn something. When do you want my report Miss Carroll?”
    “Three weeks.”
    “I will get right on it,” he told her with a smile.
    “Good. I’ll be in my private office.”
    “I will make sure you are not disturbed.”
    “Good.”
    She left his office and passed through her public office, the place where she met people when the conference room would not suit. Where she worked with them on the minutiae and the mundane.
    Everyone knew that her private office was where she did her real work.
    There were whispers of lovers, or kidnapped littles kept in a hidden nursery.
    Because she never let anyone in the rumour mill churned along.
    Louise unlocked the door, entered and locked it behind her, sliding a manual bolt in place. The door was thick, the walls reinforced and soundproofed. The office had no windows.
    It was obvious she wanted her privacy.
    She took of her suit jacket, put it on a wooden hanger and then hung it on a coat rack by the door.
    She walked to her desk, stood in front of it and began to unbutton her blouse. After pulling the tails from her pants waistband she reached up and unclasped her front hooking bra. The garment released her pendulous breast, letting them hang free.
    Louise straightened, arms dropping to her sides, and she went perfectly still.
    A vertical seam appeared, running from the base of her neck to her navel. Two horizontal lines opened up, across her collar bones and belly, from hip to hip. The seams opened up, in a disturbing manner, her entire chest and abdomen swung open.
    Instead of revealing internal organs, the space within her torso was a small cockpit from which Alice Rydel stepped out.
    She was wearing a sweat stained t-shirt and a wet pull up.
    Walking to the edge of the desk she lowered herself down to the chair. Kneeling on it, she pulled out a drawer in which her laptop was kept.
    Reviewing notes and recording of camera feeds throughout he building she clicked her tongue with disappointment.
    “Unblinking, cold, getting the emotional range and expressions right is going to take forever.”
    She looked up at her amazon mecha suit. She had never met people in person for the first year she had been using it, always dressed her suit in long coats and hats and scarves to cover its face. Even now most people assumed Louise Carroll was autistic.
    Alice could accept that for the prototype, but if she was going to produce more she would have to fix it.
    Fortunately she was getting help.
    Another email had arrived, more files, improved algorithms for the mech’s facial actuators and the AI behind them.
    “Looks like you got the blinking error fixed, that will help Louise come across less lizard like,” Alice said as she read through the notes.
    She did not know who the mysterious programmer was. Probably another little as the price of her help was her own amazon mecha suit, when Alice was able to start building them.
    No one would notice one corpulent, autistic, genius amazon. They would notice several, so Alice was not making the tech available until she was sure she was safe.
    Again she looked at her suit and she smiled, thinking about some of the names on the folders that Professor Jameson and brought her. Thomas Fairre and a few others had better read their internship contracts well before the signed them. If they did not they were going to learn a valuable lesson.
    Well, valuable to Alice.

[Panther Cub]

OH! I'm hooked, BIG time! Gotta know what happens next!

[kerry]

Is this supposed to be in Completed Stories? It feels as if there might be more?

[diaperboymi]

AWESOME story!!!!!  There has to be more.... Please ?

[Sarah Penguin]

Go go mighty morphing mecha genius  alice

 

 

 

 

[littlepinkdargon]

Yass Alice!