When Jin opened his eyes, he was lying on a couch in a large office. He didn’t know where he was and couldn’t remember what had just happened. The office lights were bright, and the screens displaying an ocean and mountain landscape were even brighter.
As he sat up and began to wake fully, it all started to come back. He remembered going down to the Plain with Theo, a massive city built 5,000 meters below sea level in the Abyss. In his memories, he had met Nathan Jackson, a member of Omni’s Board of Directors.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. Still a bit groggy, Jin answered: “Come in.”
Theo entered the office smiling: “That was quite the nap you took!
- Why? What time is it? Jin asked.
- 8 o’clock, Theo replied.
- In the evening? Jin said, surprised.
- Morning, Theo replied with a grin.
Jin couldn’t believe he had slept that long.
- I remember seeing Nathan. We started talking, and he asked me to name my price to make him immortal, like it was a sure thing I could pull it off.
- He has faith in you.
- Or he’s desperate. Did you know he’s dying?
- Huh? Who? Nathan? No.
- Apparently, he still has lingering effects from the Dark Plague.
- Oh, that would explain his behavior these past three months.
- Maybe.
- Did he say anything else?
- No, after that, I remember nothing.
- That’s common with people who come down here for the first time.
- You’re saying it’s the pressure? We’re pretty well insulated down here, aren’t we?
- Yes, but it’s the meds you took, they have some side effects. In your case, just fatigue.
- Hmm, okay. How did you know I was awake?
- I didn’t. Yesterday afternoon, Julios stopped by to tell me you’d probably be awake in an hour.
The name Julios suddenly sounded familiar to Jin, snapping him out of his daze. But he didn’t remember it was that same Julios who had injected a liquid tracer into the upper part of his back, leaving no trace and putting him into a long sleep.
Theo continued: “So I stopped by last night, but Sleeping Beauty was still out cold, so I let you sleep and figured you’d call. But this morning, still nothing, so I thought I’d come check.
- Okay, thanks, but I’d still like to know how I got here.
- Well, Julios probably carried you here. He wasn’t about to drop you off at your apartment.
- I have an apartment here?
- Yes, I’ll take you there later. But right now, you’ve got five minutes to freshen up, we’re going to tour the labs.
- Stupid question, so this is my office?
- Yes, yes, see how much Omni wants you to feel at home? This is one of the nicest offices in the building, almost an apartment. You’ve got a bathroom and a kitchen down that hallway. Alright, see you at the entrance in ten minutes.
- Okay, sounds good.
Theo left, and Jin quickly went to splash water on his face in the bathroom before joining Theo outside the building.
A shuttle took them nearby, to a two-story center. Theo and Jin walked through the center’s atrium, a glass tower showcasing all the innovations that highlighted Omni’s contributions to human well-being.
There were all the biotech remedies that had eradicated diseases and disabilities of the past, as well as inventions in cybernetic limbs and organs, improving daily life and human life expectancy. There were also all the solutions developed to enable the creation of the Plain itself, from pressure and oxygen management at these depths.
Jin, though he himself had authored many tech patents, was impressed by the presentation.
- This is impressive, Jin said.
- It’s our showcase”, Theo replied proudly. “We’re getting to the technical stuff, you’ll like this.”
The two men arrived in the central courtyard. In front of them stood five other buildings. Theo stopped and pointed them out one by one:
- There, on the left near us, that building houses all the Brain-Machine Interface R&D. That’s where you’ll find our offices with the labs for memory architecture, and rooms for mapping emotions and consciousness.
- In the far back left, that’s the bio-integration building, where experiments are done on stem cells and synthetic brains.
- To the right, near us, you’ll find the drug production facility, everything extracted from the nearby abyss is processed and packaged there.
- And finally, on the right in the back, you’ll find the ethics and compliance unit, the administrative section imposed by UbiRight that we have to follow. But as you know, the UbiRight Board is made up of members from Omni’s Board, so that makes things easier, Theo concluded with a smile.
- I’m not going to comment”, Jin said, without smiling. “And that last building over there, what is it?”
- In the middle, all the way in the back, that’s the data center where all data is stored. There’s also a basement division. You need special clearance to access it.
- But what’s down there?
- I can’t talk about it. You’ll have to ask Nathan or Mila. Some researchers like conducting their work in underground labs, away from all eyes”, Theo said smoothly, trying to see if Jin would react to the reference, hinting at the space beneath Jin’s clinic that Theo had scanned without knowing what it contained. But Jin didn’t react.
- Come on, let’s check out your lab, Theo said.
The two men entered the building to their left. As they stepped into the lab, Theo said: “We each have our own workspace. And over there in the back, you’ve got the common area for experiments with the big machines, and across from it, the kitchen and restrooms.
- How many researchers are here?
- Here we’re a small team, about twenty I think. Your space is between mine and Professor Andrea Olsson’s. Come on, I’ll introduce you.
As Theo knocked on Andrea’s office door, no one answered.
- Well, she must not be here. We’ll catch her later.
- The lab I’m going to use, has it always been empty?
- Uh, no, there was another researcher before you, but he left”, Theo said, quickly continuing so Jin wouldn’t ask more questions: “I’ll let you settle in. We’ll catch up a bit later.”
- Sounds good. Thanks, Theo.
The two men went off to their respective spaces.

Next: find out how Nathan plans to convince Jin to stay with Omni...
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