Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 35: A Step Towards The Unknown

Tim stood in the elevator looking at a light, rapidly jumping downwards from one button to another in a vertical line.  Every next button that lit up brought Tim closer and closer to the unknown

The elevator stopped, when the light reached the lowest button, labeled ‘B-10’. Tim exited into a long room with many identical closed doors. He walked slowly, inspecting them. The numbers on every door seemed to be totally random. Tim attempted find sense in them, figure their pattern, but quickly gave up. The keypads granting access to the rooms looked sophisticated, a camera stuck out of the ceiling every ten steps. After noticing an object floating towards him, Tim stepped to the side. A shiny combat drone stopped in front of him, beeped once and passed by, as if Tim’s presence was irrelevant.

Tim stopped in front of the door with a number ‘15’ he breathed in and opened it up. Inside, five people in white uniforms were going about their business. A man in his fifties was sitting in front of a console, analyzing chemical formulas on the holo-screen. A little further a young woman was checking tubes with liquids of different colors. Other three were standing in the far side of the room in a circle, having a discussion behind an immense large “U” shaped table that lay in the middle of the room. It was covered by equipment Tim had never seen before. The first to notice him from the three was the oldest man in the room. He wore small glasses and had a kind face.

“Excuse me,” the man with the glasses told to the colleagues and approached Tim.

“Thank you for coming, young man. Let me introduce myself.” The man bowed slightly and extended his hand.  “My name is Julian Shaw.”

“My name is Tim.” The boy shook the soft and gentle arm of the scientist.

“You will be working with these people.” The man turned and pointed his hand towards one of the colleagues he was chatting with. The scientist  was in his thirties, had dark skin, blunt nose and a bold head, polished so much, it reflected light coming from the  illuminator above. “His name is Jason, he’s our neurosurgeon – he knows everything about human nervous system and different chemical reactions occurring there. The man standing close to him is Xin.” Julian pointed at the man beside Jason. “He is our analyst. He has great skills to find patterns and relations in different data.” Both scientists nodded slightly.

Julian turned to the young lady. “Scarlet is our talented chemist. She can synthesize anything.” The girl smiled and humbly shook her head, attempting to disprove the statement. “And this old geezer, who is our mathematician—“Julian extended his hand towards the man sitting by the computer“—has a name which is too good and beautiful for him - Julian. “ The man with small glasses made a short laugh. “Don’t worry, to make it less confusing I allow you to call him Geel.” The mathematician was immersed in his work so much, that he had not heard a thing. After the introduction the two men continued their conversation and the girl got continued working with the flasks.

“What has Tom told you about us? Do you know what we are doing here?” The scientist extended his head closer to Tim’s face, a bit too close for Tim’s taste.

“The First Citizen told me that I was going to find adventure of my life in here.”

Julian held his mouth shut for a few seconds and exploded in laughter “A good sense of humor, haha… I am beginning to like you!” After the scientist calmed down, he turned to the far right side of the room, where the two men were chatting. “The bunk you can see there.” He pointed at a bunk assembled on the top of the large table, connected by many tangled tubes and wires. “Is the travel device Tom must have mentioned you.” Tim listened attentively. “The five of us are here to help you explore a mysterious place and learn its secrets. We all had a glimpse of that place and it was a magnificent experience. Now tell me.” The man paused. “Are you afraid?”