Plot
The story takes place in the mid to late 21st century: the Cold War has ended, yet the Soviet regime remains strong and proud. The Eastern and Western blocs enjoy peace, but without fully accepting each other's ways, and with each always struggling for technological superiority and the prestige that accompanies it.
Under conditions of absolute secrecy, the Soviets have developed a miniaturization technology that can reduce a man to the dimensions of a molecule, or smaller. Although successful, the process requires an enormous input of energy to accomplish the task. So, although miniaturization has been shown to be scientifically possible, it also appears to be economically impracticable - a hollow triumph.
One Soviet scientist, Pyotor Leonovich Shapirov, a pioneer of the miniaturization process, had spoken vaguely of a way to make it affordable. Unfortunately, he now lies in a coma, with his secrets apparently locked away forever.
But Shapirov had been acquainted with an American scientist, Albert Jonas Morrison, who has his own peculiar theories regarding the brain's processing and storage of creative thought. Shapirov had been greatly intrigued by Morrison's ideas, and it's this interest that led the Soviets to turn to Morrison for help.
After a great deal of coercion, Morrison agrees to be miniaturized along with four Soviet scientists, enter Shapirov's dying brain, and attempt to use his computer program to retrieve the thoughts contained therein.
Later, having returned safely to normal size, but without any usable information from Shapirov, Morrison has made a new, startling discovery, which may help the Americans beat the Soviets at their own game.
Read more about this topic: Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)