Size doesn’t matter until it is all that you have. Saving the smallest city in the universe is right up Lena’s alley.

Lena was created for one purpose, to rescue a race that is commonly thought of as extinct. Her body has been shaped to carry out her task, but when she has completed her assignment it is up to her creators to determine her fate. Life as a full sized being, or a minute woman in the tiniest city in the Coalition. (Thumbelina could never have imagined this.)

Excerpt:

She stood at ease in front of his desk. “You asked to see me, Captain?”

“I ordered you to my office, yes. Do you know why?” His hair was greying at the temples and the wear lines fanned from his eyes.

“No, Captain.” Lena fought the urge to fidget.

He leaned back and sighed. “I can see that you have been accessing the Nyvil archives regularly. Do you know where they went?”

She blinked. “No, Captain. I simply wanted to learn about my other people.”

He tented his fingers and scowled. “Many people believe that they ripped a hole in another dimension and stepped through, but I and many folk in a secret society know where the Nyvil went.”

He pressed a button on his desk and typed in a code. Half the desk moved and a pillar rose from the floor until it was even with the desk, beneath Lena’s field of view. A domed diorama filled the top of the pillar.

“What is that? It is a model but I am not sure that I recognize the city.” She tried to view it from other angles and then sudden recognition seared her. “It’s the Nyvil city of Cina.”

The captain raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Precisely. You really did memorize the layouts of the cities, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“It isn’t a model.” His dark eyed gaze was boring into her.

She blinked, “What?”

“This is the actual city. This is where the Nyvil went. They used their reduction technologies to shrink until they disappeared from view. The Feshlin faithful were first on the ground and preserved the cities as instructed.”

“So, with the threat over, why didn’t they return to size?” She leaned over and looked more closely at the city. If she wasn’t mistaken, there were tiny folk living within it. Amazing, the city was still functioning and operating though it had been a very long time indeed since they were part of the Coalition.

The frown deepened on the captain’s face. “There was a…technical problem.”

She raised her head to focus on him. “What was it?”

“They didn’t move the reversal mechanism far enough out of their reach when they shrank the city. They can’t get back to size without someone coming in, removing the mechanism and then resurrecting the city.”

Understanding washed over her. “That is why I am here.”