Half Past Human

Deep in the Shaft-cities lived three trillion creatures, once human—and still calling themselves homo sapiens. But they were small, bred to size in fact, as they were bred for various kinds of 'work.—for even in their almost totally automated culture they had to be kept busy. Like ants.

But things were going wrong. The machines weren't getting it all right any more—they were even breaking down sometimes. While Outside, there were Others—who waited...