"LIFE Industries"
—
Jason wasn't quite sure he had heard his uncle properly the night before. Perhaps his fatigue had gotten to him, and he had imagined him saying they were gonna get a full tour of the most prestigious tech company in New York. Though that doubt vanished completely, as he now stood before the large white skyscraper, which had a vague resemblance in shape to a strand of DNA.
"So, what do ya' think?"
Jason was taken aback by his uncle's question.
"...Its big..."
The man chuckled.
"Pretty lackluster first impression, but it fits this place. Come on, let's head inside."
The two entered the large building, and walked up to the front desk. There they were met with a man in a white suit sitting behind the glass.
"Good morning, what business do you have at LIFE Industries today?"
"We're here on special invitation."
His uncle handed the man a card with the logo like Jason had seen the night before, though the boy failed to catch the end of the interaction. His attention was drawn to his surroundings—the extended hall of the building was quite interesting. Besides the countless people walking around in black or white suits, he also noticed many service drones rhythmically navigating the room, like ants in a file. It was quite impressive to witness actually.
'So this is the working world. Super professional.'
"Jay."
His uncle brought him back to the matter at hand, allowing the boy to notice the new arrival. A man—quite tall—with curly shoulder length brown hair. He had a few freckles on his cheeks and a lax smile on his face. The man reached out a hand to Max—which the middle aged man shook—then did the same to Jason.
"Nice to meet you two. The name's Michael Soyers. I'm the vice-director of Biological & Evolutionary Research here at LIFE Industries. I'll be guiding you along your tour today."
'He seems friendly enough.'
Jason watched for a moment as his uncle exchanged pleasantries with the man, before he started the tour.
"Come on, let's get started."
Soyers led the two to a nearby elevator, and after a brief press of a button, it started moving upwards through the building. The elevator wasn't sealed, instead it was more like a large floating pad, allowing Jason to get a full view of the building and its different floors as they went up.
"Those are all floors for the basic stuff. Y'know, like product manufacturing, marketing, all that boring field trip stuff."
That caught Jason's interest.
"So...shouldn't we be touring those places?"
Soyers chuckled.
"Well, since you two are special guests. You get to see the special stuff."
The elevator pad finally stopped, and all three got off on a new floor—though it looked completely identical to the others.
"I personally find the special stuff much cooler."
Soyers walked ahead. Jason looked at his uncle in mild confusion but the man only smirked back, causing the two to continue following the taller man. As they walked through the corridor, Jason took the chance to look into many of the opened rooms. In some he saw scientists over microscopes or holding clipboards, and in others he saw more interesting stuff like shelves of different vials and screens with schematics. In one room he even saw some caged mice—possibly for testing.
"That's Experimental Medicine Testing. That's-"
Mr. Soyers listed the rooms as they went by, but the more he heard the more Jason's curiosity grew. Eventually they were done with that floor, and after another quick trip on the elevator pad they were on to the next.
"Woah."
Jason couldn't help but voice his amazement.
"Cool huh?"
Soyers chuckled at the boy. This new floor was immediately different from the others—it was bustling with far more scientists and far more technology. There were small drones flying everywhere, people working on what looked like mechanical suits of armor, and some stuff that the boy couldn't even comprehend.
'This is amazing! Wait, calm down Reeves. Don't go full tech fanboy in public.'
"I see you've been enjoying the tour."
A new but familiar voice caught Jason's attention. Soon he noticed a scientist walking up to them—it was the man from last night, the man from the picture.
"Ah, Doctor Octavious!"
The man nodded, but remained stone faced behind his tinted, round glasses. He briefly glanced at Max who was looking elsewhere, before he turned his attention to Jason.
"Are you impressed by my work?"
Jason struggled to find the right words for a moment. He almost lost composure and devolved into full on rambling about the impressive lab.
"Um, yeah. It's amazing."
Dr. Octavious' expression didn't change, as he simply turned around and began walking off.
"Follow me."
The three did so. Octavious led them through the floor, pointing out all of the interesting and innovative inventions under his supervision. Jason was finding it harder and harder to stay composed—he almost found himself asking the doctor if he could examine a mechanical arm he displayed. Though his uncle seemed less impressed, simply going through the motions without a single question or a compliment.
"Here. This one's a bit of a personal project. Something I did to kill my boredom a while back."
Octavious walked over to another glass case, and after punching in a pass code he removed a palm sized black...cube? Helix? Jason wasn't quite sure. However it had many moving and movable pieces, which were constantly shifting around themselves.
"Is that a rubix cube?"
Jason wanted to cut out his own tongue in the moment. He had reduced the work of a great scientist and engineer to a child's toy. However Octavious rose an eyebrow at the boy.
"It's a dynamically interlinked biometric polycarbon helix. Or in far less exciting terms...yes, a fancy rubix cube."
Jason blinked.
"Thats, um...a mouthful."
"I like mouthfuls. The more syllables, the more funding you get."
Octavious gave the boy a bemused smirk.
"Matter of fact, why don't you give it a try."
"Really?"
"There's no harm in that. However please refrain from getting frustrated and breaking it."
He handed the boy the helix and turned to Max, the two sharing a brief moment of silence.
"I see you're not enjoying the tour. Is it my hospitality or do you simply find my work unimpressive?"
Max chuckled, raising an eyebrow.
"I didn't know you'd be the type to take a survey Otto. Don't worry I'm having a great time."
Octavious pushed up his glasses and snorted.
"Oh really, then my apologies. I mistakenly took your blatant disinterest for blatant disinterest."
"You're forgiven."
"Yes because I value your forgiveness so highly. I surely couldn't live without it. I definitely haven't all this time."
As Soyers awkwardly watched the two in their exchange of wits—which truly was just childish bickering—Jason got to work on the helix. It was definitely far more difficult than your average ten dollar rubix cube, but it functioned virtually the same. Except some pieces moved independently. Every time he slid a piece into place, another piece would fly out and take another position, making things just as jumbled as before. It took him a moment, but eventually he figured it out.
'Oh! It's not exactly independent. They move based on what I move, so if I'm smart about this I can script all of their movements and get them into their correct spots.'
He slid one piece across and another flew out and landed in another position.
'Which means all I have to do is figure out how to solve the pattern normally and move the other pieces appropriately.'
He moved much quicker now, his fingers rapidly adjusting the stationery pieces causing many others to fly around and reposition themselves at his command. The helix was now a mess of sliding and spinning pieces, making it look as if a small tornado of blocks was in his palm.
"Um, don't mean to interrupt, but we've got a tour to finish. So....can you two save this for later?"
After Soyers' brief interference, Octavious and Max stopped butting heads and thankfully saw reason.
"Apologies, we can resume the tour after he returns the dynami-"
"Done."
Jason cut off Octavious as he slid the final piece into its place. The helix chimed softly, as it quickly shifted in color from black to white. It now stood completed in the boy's hand, resembling a diamond. Jason soon noticed everyone staring at him, and immediately felt awkward.
"Um...did I interrupt something?"
Soyers looked quite shocked, whereas Octavious only rose his eyebrows in mild surprise.
"Hm."
He took the completed device from Jason and looked towards Max.
"I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree."
Max couldn't help the cocky smirk that stretched across his face, a smirk which irritated Octavious to no end.
"Let's continue."
Curtly—after locking up the helix—the man returned to his role as the new tour guide and continued leading the group. Max chuckled, and ruffled Jason's hair.
'Not the hair!'
"Good job."
"Thanks...I guess."
It was a bit uneventful after that. Sure the exhibits and remaining rooms were exciting to witness, but Jason wasn't allowed a hands-on experience like he had prior. Though the quiet tour was again disrupted when a group of scientists ran by, nearly bumping into the group.
"Sorry Dr. Octavious!"
One of them managed to shout before she returned to running with her peers.
"What was that about?"
"Prep for a high security demonstration planned for next week. It's got everyone a little hectic."
Jason nodded to Soyers' response as they continued their tour. Soon, they reached the end of the floor and Octavious addressed the vice director.
"I'd like to have a private chat with Max here. Soyers why don't you watch young Jason while we're gone."
"Aye aye captain."
The two men walked over leaving Jason behind with the tall vice director.
"So...want to see something cool?"
Jason perked up at the question, positively beaming at the implication.
"I'd love to!"
—
Max watched as Octavious pulled a cigarette out of his jacket pocket, lit it, then stuck it in his mouth.
"Still smoking?"
Octavious exhaled a plume of smoke, before he took a brief glance towards the middle aged man.
"Lung cancer is the least of my worries nowadays."
Max sighed and walked over to the railing next to Octavious. The two had split off from Jason and Soyers, now in a private wing of the building accessible by only those with the highest clearance. Max looked down down into the large room below, a blank expression on his face as he eyed the large piece of machinery in its center. It was an incomplete amalgamation of metal, with large wires and cables stretched everywhere. Scientists were scattered around like ants, but none too close to the machine.
"Pretty big for an arc reactor."
Octavious snorted, blowing out another plume of smoke.
"That would be true if it was just an arc reactor."
The lanky man sighed loudly, hanging his head lower. Max did the same, but eventually spoke up.
"I'm not doing it."
Octavious rose up, and removed the cigarette from his lips.
"Must you be so difficult?"
"Did you really think my answer would be anything different?"
Octavious removed his tinted classes, revealing his dark, bagged eyes which were now fixed in a glare. Max didn't react at all to that, his expression remained as uninterested as ever.
"I thought you'd be smart. This is a once in a life time opportunity. Most people don't get this offer, period. Let alone a second chance."
Max removed his glasses aswell, cleaning them with his thumb.
"I've got a good thing going for me already."
Another snort.
"Oh yes. A dinky old repair shop seeing too few customers for you to afford anything more than an even shittier apartment. Let alone provide for a child."
"Like I said, I've got a good thing going."
The conversation was getting no where, and Octavious was growing increasingly frustrated. It always went like this talking with Max. He was sure he'd find it easier convincing a wall to move out of his way. It was infuriating, but he felt a certain relief knowing the man hadn't changed—though he'd never admit it.
"Just..."
He paused, pinching the bridge of his nose, thinking really hard about what he could say.
"Just join us. You could give so much more to the world. We could be doing such great things. Just like old times."
That got Max to react however. The man's face twisted from his usual indifference into thinly veiled annoyance.
"Good things?"
He stepped forward.
"I guess endless controversy and cover-ups are good things."
Another step.
"I guess research littered with unethical practices and under the counter business relationships is a good thing."
Octavious sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose even harder.
"I guess what happened to my brother was a good thing."
A deep silence fell over the two—it was almost deafening. Octavious froze for a moment, even behind his tinted glasses his wide eyes could be seen—his agape mouth made his shock even more noticeable. However the doctor quickly cleared his throat, pushed up his glasses and turned to Max.
"Max. Repeating a foolish lie over and over will never make it true."
That was all it took. Max's annoyance turned to cold fury as he sent a burning glare towards Octavious.
"Fuck. You."
Then he walked off, leaving the pale man behind to continue his lonely smoke break, and stare blankly down at the incomplete machine.
——
——
"So just wave it like this?"
"Mhmm. That's it."
Jason cautiously waved his hand through the air as the mechanical glove wrapped around it hummed softly. A few inches away a robot with the LIFE Industries logo moved according, perfectly mimicking Jason's movements. Giggling with childlike excitement the boy began making far more unusual and drastic movements, all which the robot copied perfectly.
"This is officially the coolest thing I've ever seen."
Soyers chuckled as he removed the glove and the robot ceased function.
"Want to guess how it works?"
Jason hummed in thought for a moment, his hand placed to his chin before his eyes widened and he snapped his finger in realization.
"Motion capture through electrical impulses in the glove? Maybe micro-sensors that read nerve signals and transmit them wirelessly?"
Soyers whistled, clearly impressed but shook his head.
"You're pretty close!"
He held up the glove.
"You were right about the nerve signals. The glove reads the bioelectric field around your hand. Every lil' twitch, every muscle contraction, and converts that into a digital signal. The robot's internal AI just interprets it and mirrors it in real time."
Jason had to try really hard not to go full nerd after the explanation, instead opting to express himself in a more age appropriate fashion.
"That's...insane."
Though he couldn't help the massive smile on his face. Soyers grinned aswell.
"Insane is what we aim for around here. Why don't I show you the hy-?"
He was cut off when the phone in his coat pocket started buzzing. Jason tried his best not to laugh as he watched the man fidget and struggle to remove the device and then answer it.
"Yeah! I'm here! Mhm, yeah okay."
He paused for a moment, holding the phone far away from his mouth and covering the screen with his other hand.
"Hey Jason, why don't you take a look around the place while I take this call. When I'm done I'll explain anything you're interested in."
Without waiting for the boy's response Soyers quickly dashed out of the room and left Jason to his own devices.
"Y'know he's pretty cool..."
So Jason quickly got to work. Walking around the room he made sure not to touch anything, though he looked all he wanted. One of the things which caught his attention was a container of small drones that were fixed with cameras and other gadgets. He wondered what they were planned for. Probably military export? He'd have to ask Soyers when he got back. Moving on, the next interesting item was a silver orb in a case, labeled 'N-Tech. Model 37.'
'Sleek. Got no idea what it is though..."
He moved on again, walking around to the many displays and making note of what he could understand at a glance and what had to be explained. Though after approximately fifteen minutes he walked past a peculiar door without a notable logo or any labelling. He almost missed it since it blended in far too well with the white walls.
'I'm curious...'
He stared at the door for a moment, a bit hesitant to enter. Would this be outside of the tour guidelines?
'Well, on one hand Mr. Soyers told me stay in this room. But this door is also part of the room soooo...'
Jason placed his hand on the door and like all the others it just slid open. Thankfully it didn't need any pass code or key card, which probably meant it wasn't anything secret or dangerous. So Jason entered the room with less reservations than before.
'The power of semantics!'
The inside was...a bit boring. The room was small—it was about the size of a walk-in closet—with shelves on every wall going from the floor up to the roof. The shelves were littered with small, palm sized hexagon cases. In all honestly Jason thought they looked pretty cool, but still boring. Though he soon noticed that all of them were labelled.
"Are these like...failed prototypes for the helix cube from earlier?"
He knew well enough not to touch them—he was far too cautious to start touching random stuff in someone's lab without permission—but unfortunately he didn't need to. Unbeknownst to Jason, one of the cubes on a higher shelf began to shake and rock until it fell off the shelf, crashing onto the ground next to his foot. He jolted in surprise at the noise it made—quite thankful that no one was there to see him—and quickly picked it up.
"Oh crap! Crap, crap, crap!"
He examined it well, taking note of its label.
[Bio-Organism #27B - Failure. Host Rejected. Neural/ Bonding Instability. No autonomous function.
Status: Deactivated, Discontinued]
That rose a few questions in his mind, though they were quickly pushed aside when he noticed the crack at the bottom of the container.
"Shit!"
He didn't panic, atleast he tried not to show it. Jason rattled his brain on how to fix the situation, but he couldn't think of any. He would have to face the music.
'Well aren't you wonderful Jason? You get an exclusive top secret tour of the LIFE Industries, a once in a lifetime opportunity, and you just had to go and break their stuff! Real nice!'
Then it quickly got worse.
"Kid? Where are you?"
Soyers was back, and looking for him. Jason took a deep breath, closed his eyes and began accepting the situation.
"In here!"
He called out to the man, the panic returned as he heard his footsteps growing closer. Eventually Soyers reached the room and was greeted by the wonderful image of Jason holding the cracked hexagon in his hands.
"Oh."
The lack of reaction only made the boy panic more, which Soyers thankfully noticed.
"Don't sweat it. These things are just for decoration at this point."
Jason looked really confused at that, almost dropping it a second time as he relaxed.
"Wait...really?"
"Mhmm. Dr. Octavious only kept them around as reminders of past experiments, they're totally useless now."
Soyers picked up another container and twisted it. It opened, revealing its hollow innards to a very surprised Jason.
"See?"
"Um...yeah."
Soyers placed it back and looked at the cracked one in Jason's hand.
"Don't sweat it kid. Infact...want to keep it?"
That surprised the boy.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Like I said we don't really use them and they aren't important so why don't you take one as a souvenir? I'm pretty sure we gave out some to a field trip group once. And that other time we threw some away..."
Jason didn't really focus too much on the man's muttering anymore, instead just relieved that he wasn't in any trouble. Also it was quite cool that he got an amazing tour and an interesting souvenir in one day.
"Jay?"
His uncle's voice caught his attention—the two turned and noticed Max in the doorway, Octavious trailed not too far behind. Max noticed the mood between the two was abit down, but mentioned nothing of it.
"Ready to go?"
The question hurt the boy a bit. He was like a kid being forced to leave the toy store. He had so much more to see and examine here in the labs but unfortunately it had to come to an end.
"Yeah, I'm ready."
He walked up to his uncle, as the man immediately took the opportunity to mess up his hair. Octavious however took notice of the container Jason was holding. Before the pale skinned man could question why he had it, Soyers stepped forward and offered an explanation.
"Sir! I thought it would be alright to give him a souvenir. We don't really use them so I hope it's not a problem."
Octavious stared in thought for a moment before he nodded.
"I see no issue with it."
Both Jason and Soyers grinned, and shook each others' hand.
"Thanks. This was a great tour. I had tons of fun."
"Glad you enjoyed yourself bud! Maybe I'll be seeing you as a coworker in the future."
Jason beamed at that. The idea of working at the LIFE Industries was too amazing to not be excited about. Working with the world's greatest scientists, inventing new and innovative technology, and being a part of something larger. That was his dream.
"I hope so!"
Next was Octavious who also offered a handshake. Jason completed the gesture, though far more awkwardly than with Soyers.
"Well young Jason. I hope you learned something today. From what I've seen I'm expecting great things from you."
Jason felt it, Octavious wasn't just saying that. The man was being truly sincere when he said he was expecting greatness from the boy, but the sincerity made it feel a bit ominous.
"...Thank you sir."
Octavious remained stone faced as usual as he retracted his hand. He glanced at Max for a brief moment, gave Jason one final nod, then returned to his work. Jason looked towards Max, the middle aged man eyed Octavious as he departed before he turned to the boy with his signature smile.
"Let's get going."
"...Sure."
—
The car ride home was a bit awkward. Max was clearly in a bad mood, but Jason didn't know how to ask him about it. So he instead opted to fidget with the broken container he received, but soon Max broke the silence.
"I guess you impressed them plenty. Maybe they'll give you a job offer."
He chuckled, though Jason could still tell he was off.
"Yeah. I tried really hard not to mess anything up, y'know?"
Max hummed at that, but after a few more seconds of silence he asked Jason a question.
"Would you work there? I mean, would you like to?"
Jason looked at the man, a bit confused.
"Yeah...What could be better than working at LIFE Industries?"
Max chuckled again, though it didn't reach his eyes which were focused and a bit dark.
"Life...probably."
It returned to silence after that, Jason didn't know what else to say for a while.
'Total mood killer.'
"Sooooo. I don't have to go to school today right?"
Max rose an eyebrow, and took a quick glance at his old watch—which much like his store clock was wrong.
"Well, it's 12:35. So no."
Jason couldn't help but smile. A cool tour and no school.
"Sweet~"
The drive was a bit easier after that, the gloomy atmosphere quickly fading.
———
———
It was now late at night—about half past eleven—and Jason was laying in bed. The souvenir he received was sitting comfortably above him, on a shelf with other trinkets and decorations. One was a figurine of a superhero in a black, blue and yellow suit that vaguely resembled a lowercase 'i' and the other was a figure of a boy in green and black jacket marked '10' with a strange watch on his wrist. They were both from old shows and comics that were popular in his uncle's childhood, which Jason were quite fond of.
'School tomorrow. Total bummer.'
He turned off his phone and placed it to his side, folding his arms under his head as he planned to get some rest. It only took a few minutes before he drifted off to dreamland, unbeknownst to what was happening on the shelf above him. From the small crack in the hexagon shaped container, a black viscous liquid dripped out and landed on his forehead. The boy was in such deep sleep that there was no reaction to the rhythmic drops hitting his head. Within his dreams, he received a vague premonition of what was occurring, though by the next morning when he awoke, it would be too late.
———