"The world is not controlled by those who invent, but by those who decide who gets to use the inventions."
2000 – Leiden University, Netherlands
Leiden University was one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions in Europe. Its halls had seen the minds of Rembrandt, Einstein, and Heisenberg pass through them. But to Elias Voss, it was more than just a university—it was a battlefield.
He had come here to study Applied Chemistry and Ethics, but he quickly realized that science wasn't just about discovery. It was about politics.
Funding. Patents. Corporate interests.
There were invisible chains wrapped around research, dictating which ideas were allowed to grow and which were quietly buried.
And Elias hated it.
The Introduction to Power
It started with a guest lecture.
A high-ranking executive from a major pharmaceutical company had come to speak about "The Future of Medicine." Elias had sat in the back, arms crossed, listening to the polished words.
The man spoke about innovation, about pushing boundaries—about how science could change lives.
Then, during the Q&A session, Elias raised his hand.
"If life-saving drugs are meant to help people, why do companies patent them into unaffordability?"
The room went silent. The executive smiled, as if amused.
"Because," he said, "we don't fund science for charity, Mr. Voss. We fund it for progress. And progress isn't cheap."
Elias clenched his jaw. "So people suffer because the cure isn't profitable enough?"
"People suffer anyway," the executive replied. "The real question is—who decides who gets saved?"
The words echoed in Elias's mind for weeks. It was the same lesson his father had tried to teach him in their basement.
Only now, he understood it wasn't just about patents or stolen ideas.
It was about control.
The Professor Who Saw Through Him
One evening, after class, Professor Anika Van Doren called him into her office. She was one of the few people Elias respected—an old scientist who had spent decades fighting corporate influence over medicine.
"You think you're the first to see the problem?" she asked, lighting a cigarette despite the university's ban. "You're not. But you might be one of the few to do something about it."
Elias frowned. "And how do I do that?"
"By learning their game before you try to break it." She exhaled a stream of smoke. "And by deciding what kind of scientist you want to be."
"What does that mean?"
Van Doren tapped the side of her desk. A thick folder lay there, full of research proposals.
"Some people become the kind of scientist who takes the funding, plays by the rules, and gets published in Nature. They change the world—but only in ways they're allowed to."
She pulled out another, smaller folder. It was old, yellowed, barely held together.
"Then there are the others. The ones who work in the shadows. The ones who don't get invited to conferences, who don't make millions, but who actually change things."
Elias reached for the folder. But Van Doren placed her hand over it, stopping him.
"Once you open this path, you don't get to walk away from it."
Elias looked into her sharp, calculating eyes. And then, without hesitation, he took the folder.
The First Step into the War
Inside, he found reports on suppressed medical discoveries. Drugs that could have saved millions but were buried because they weren't profitable. Research on cheap cancer treatments that had mysteriously disappeared. Whistleblower testimonies that had never seen the light of day.
It was the first time Elias saw the full scope of the problem.
And it was the first time he realized that fighting it wouldn't just be about science.
It would be about war.
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