Main Laboratory of Cyclops Intelligence
District 13, Mazsea, Hatemoor
January 24, 2157
06.17 NAM
Rachel came in as the laboratory door opened, welcoming her earlier this morning. The group of orangutans in the isolation room even looked at her walking super fast in surprise. Unfortunately, Rachel was reluctant to greet them. Her destination was further inside the laboratory: the neurosurgery room.
Rachel stopped in front of the hologram table. She needs to make sure that she knows all the surgical procedures Lars will perform on her this afternoon. Complex surgical procedures are not her specialty, but as an object of an experiment, she must thoroughly understand them. Because if something goes wrong, she can determine who she will sue.
The eighteen surgical procedure units that Lars had designed appeared in a wide-interactive hologram, explaining the surgical simulation in three dimensions to Rachel. The animation explained the linking pathways where hundreds of nerve cells would connect to the hundreds of circuits on the microchip.
There are 202 nerve cells in total. Almost all of the linking procedures will be carried out with the help of AI robots, not by Lars with his limited vision and accuracy. The surgeon would only perform general anesthesia, open an incision in her brainstem, and make sure her vitals were normal. For the rest, Lars would go to the control room, sit down, and manage the surgical robot behind the monitor. So there is no doubt that Lars said he was confident in the experiment because the accuracy of his work had been measured and standardized.
Rachel sighed. The half-hour simulation was effortlessly understandable, and Rachel should not have to worry anymore. However, the remnants of panic from last night seemed to still be a mist that filled her head this morning.
DING!
DING!
Her cell phone in her pocket clinked, and Rachel quickly checked it.
Oh, it was from someone who saved him a bit last night.
[Electronic Message]
(Niels Geyer)
Hi, Rachel.
I hope you are well.
If you have any reservations, you should postpone or cancel the trials.
Many people are willing to be the paid object of your trial. I can even find it for you if you want.
"Receiving a message this early?"
Rachel gasped, and turned her phone off, putting it back in her pocket without having time to reply to the messages from Niels.
Lore, the assistant, really likes to come in the morning. "Are you ready, Rachel?" she asked then. She gave her usual thin smile, cheering as a fellow co-worker.
"Yes, of course, I am," Rachel replied, already holding her head back in confidence. Questions like that always sparked her interest, no matter how panicked and insecure she felt.
Lore nodded, "I wish you all the best for today's experiment since lots of people are waiting for you to come back as a human who has successfully modified herself," she said. The girl seemed to mean it sincerely, but Rachel heard it differently this time.
Not to belittle Lore's concern for her, but what Niels said last night affected her a bit. What was wrong with Lore that Niels asked Rachel to stay away from her for the next week of experimentation? Do they know each other? But as to what? Why did Niels seem so cynical about Lore? These questions popped up in her mind until she did not realize that she had been daydreaming for tens of seconds.
"Call me if you need anything. I'll be in the lab until your experiments are done in a week." Lore said, briefly touching Rachel's arm before walking away.
"Lore..."
"Yes?"
Rachel turned, taking a deep breath after deep thought, "I'm giving you permission to take a week off. You don't have to handle the experiment at this stage, just let Lars do it."
"Oh, but I..."
"This is an order from me as your superior. Access to this laboratory will be completely closed to anyone except for me and Lars."
****
Cohlin University
District 15, Rostorphe
24th of January, 2157
10.15 NAM
Five people have been sitting in the university meeting room since two hours ago. One of them took the lead at the front, arranging the slide show on the hologram screen. Niels, Chair of the Expert Archaeological Group at Cohlin University. He was explaining plans for excavation and mineral extraction in the Malarpon Forest.
"We need to involve mining and agriculture experts in excavation and extraction in the field going forward..."
"If hisicocite is true, and found in large quantities beneath the soil surface and on rocky hills where thin moss appears suddenly, we can confirm that the mineral plays a role in soil fertility."
"In the meantime, we can guess that the mineral is a combination of other minerals in the soil that is already dry and barren, through a slow reaction process over the years during this severe drought."
His four research colleagues nodded, understanding his clear words.
"This is definitely a new type of mineral, which is conserved on a large scale and can restore barren forest lands everywhere, including the remaining forests in the north," said Niels. He then continued to open the discussion session.
Someone who was his colleague and a doctoral student raised her hand, so Niels gave her permission to speak.
"Go ahead, Rene. How do you feel?"
"Professor, if the mineral is found in large quantities and can be conserved, does that mean we still have hope of making this earth green again?" He asked.
As usual, Rene didn't ask any technical questions. The girl prefers imaginative managerial-level questions that invite everyone to think hard, even Niels.
"Surely, we always have hope, Rene. But every research and development decision you make will always have its advantages and disadvantages. In this case, the conservation of new minerals will take time. Besides, we will have to compete with increasingly complex environmental problems. Those would be multipliable, complex, and fast-changing…"
Rene and the others nodded, strongly agreeing that no research is perfect and that all of that has a process, at least to provide input to the federation government and companies engaged in related fields.
The research preparatory meeting then ended, leaving only Niels in the room. It is always like that because Niels has an additional mandatory agenda that his other colleagues don't. He needs to write down in detail what he discussed in the meeting and everything the man remembers at that time that he considered important in a daily journal.
Without a device or other note-taking technology, the movement of the hand on the pen and paper slightly helped him remember better.
DRRT!
DRRT!
His phone vibrated, distracting him from writing. He was just about to ignore it, thinking that the phone screen showing a reminder instead of a message or call caught his attention.
[System Alarm]
(Rachel Richmann's biohacking experiment will be conducted an hour from now. What are you going to do?)
DRRT!
[Electronic Message]
(Rachel Richmann)
I have followed your words.
As a token of gratitude, you helped me last night.
I will still do it today.
If you please, please pray for me.
Because I still need to hear what your reasons are for forbidding Lore from being around me during this experiment.