Twilight of the Surreal

 French Resistance sent a bizarre tale to Allied Intelligence. A French doctor, a Vichy traitor, was collaborating with the Third Reich. Doctor Le F. had spent some years out of the. country after several scandals. On returning law enforcement was about to take him in for questioning in several disappearances when Germany began their invasion. Dr. Le F. had conducted amazing experiments in the reduction of living things. Under the occupation he was sent to a secure facility near Vichy and set up with a well equipped and guarded lab. Spies in the Resistance reported he had a two stage process. The first stage would reduce a human being to 1-2 feet in height. The second stage could reduce them to six to 12 inches. At great risk one of Le F's assistants escaped with lab notes, serum samples, and amazingly, a foot tall female subject designated Mini-Marie. In the course of their experiments the Nazis determined that the first stage of reduction often resulted in emotional issues and ps

The Earth Defense force’s first attempt to build a battleship was classic Dunning-Kruiger effect. They had never built a battleship before. They had built a fine series of cruisers, typified by the Luna. The Terrans though building a battle ship was simply a matter of scaling it up. Of course several bureaus submitted designs. The design the Terrans chose initially was a monster, over four times the size of the Luna series. Engines delivered double the thrust. Four outrigger style secondary hulls to hold huge stores of ordinance for long duration battles.  Megan Detwiler had registered strong doubts about the feasibility of the battleship design, the Electorates decision making powers, and the future of the human species. Soon after a succession of disasters involving gun turrets, field emitters, airlocks and the self esteem of a number of engineers, the Electorate ordered the designers to start from scratch.  In a quandry, they turned to Admiral Buckner for advice. In the