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LOCATION: CAPITOL HILL
CITY: WASHINGTON, DC
DATE: JULY 20, 2026 | TIME: 6:00 AM
Valerie Connors was in her boss's office going over the finished draft of the Vital Transition Act. They'd been there since 4:00 AM, and had been discussing the high level details.
Barrett Langston had an appointment in an hour with the President to brief him on the legislation before it was introduced on the floor, and he wanted to be sure he had a grasp on the fine points.
It was just about time to go.
"Why don't you come with me?" he asked. "I'm sure Trent will be glad to hear about the NKTC directly from you once we're done going over the VTA."
Valerie looked up at him. She'd intentionally been avoiding this, but she knew it was only a matter of time.
"Fine," she said. "But you know you don't need my help."
Barrett laughed.
"No, I don't. But that doesn't mean I'm not glad to have it."
They put together their things and headed out.
At the appointed hour, Valerie and Barrett were ushered into the Oval Office.
President Michael Trent and his Chief of Staff Jonathan Keaton were there, along with the Secretaries of the Treasury and Labor.
Treasury and Labor, Valerie thought, they must be panicking about Vitalyx crashing the healthcare sector.
After the initial introductions and pleasantries while coffee was served, they got down to business.
"Mr. President," Barrett began, "this is the Vital Transition Act. Now that almost all of the $5 trillion healthcare spending is no longer required, this Act allows Congress to repurpose much of it to provide financial aid and retraining for those in the sector."
The Labor Secretary leaned forward.
"This is interesting," she said. "We've been wondering how to handle this. But having a $4 trillion budget gives us a hell of a runway to really make a difference."
Trent sat back on the sofa and appeared thoughtful.
"You know," he said, "it's amazing that something as revolutionary and important as this can actually become a tragedy for so many. I guess that says a lot about our healthcare system. It was designed around people being sick, not being healthy."
Everyone in the room nodded.
"But," the President continued, "I think you're on the right track here, Barrett. It's not like medicine is the only scientific field out there. And it's not like all of biotech is about illness, either."
"That's right, sir," Langston said. "Not everyone needs to be rescued. But there are many who do. Including those in the financial sector who were so heavily invested in these fields. We can't forget that it was those investments that lead to other cures in the past. We shouldn't leave them out to dry."
"We must keep in mind that the reduced revenue from these sectors will have a massive impact on our federal budget," the Treasury Secretary said. "We need to make sure we have a way to compensate for this huge shortfall through other means."
Valerie chimed in there. She was a major part of the team that wrote the legislation.
"Sir, we've already seen studies that show people only need two hours of sleep a night once they take Vitalyx. Productivity on a wide scale across every sector of society will improve and increase. We should be pushing other agendas forward. Maybe space exploration?"
They discussed the issue further. In the end, President Trent blessed the effort, and Langston was ready to introduce it on the Senate floor during the week.
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LOCATION: CAPITOL HILL
CITY: WASHINGTON, DC
DATE: JULY 20, 2026 | TIME: 1:00 PM
Senator Langston took Valerie to lunch after they left the White House.
"Any idea when they're planning to announce Rejuvenex?" Barrett asked after the waiter took their orders.
"Right now, they're gauging the public reaction to Vitalyx," Valerie said. "But I think the plan is to do it in two to three months. That means there's a chance they can have humanity enter the Tutorial on New Year's Day. Imagine it!"
Once they returned to Capitol Hill, it was Barrett's turn to get to work. His Orator class gave him incredible political persuasion, but with this legislation, he wasn't expecting much pushback from either side of the aisle.
He set up a meeting with his counterpart in the Senate and the two party leaders from the House. May as well get them all in a room together and hash it all out.
The next two days were spent putting different items in and taking others out. But the normal horse trading that accompanied such sweeping bills was absent.
Every time one of them tried to bring something up, Barrett could just clear his throat, and the person changed direction.
The Redirection skill from his class was quite overpowered in situations like this.
Barrett knew that once everyone was inducted into the System, it wouldn't be so easy, but for now he felt like the only adult in a room full of children.
In the end, the bill was complete, and contained measures that both sides of the aisle not only found satisfactory, but outright supported.
The Vital Transition Act would be the largest repurposing of federal spending in America's history, eclipsing even the New Deal series of public reforms in Roosevelt's day.
And by the end of the week, Barrett was scheduled to present it on the Senate floor.
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LOCATION: 72nd STREET STATION
CITY: MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
DATE: JULY 20, 2026 | TIME: 2:00 PM
But not everyone was excited about the future of the country. Some found the new state of affairs unbearable. Men and women who would give anything to hold onto the status quo that had existed only a week before.
Barnie Watson was one such man. A hedge fund manager riding high, he'd just rotated nearly his entire portfolio into Silvane Pharmaceuticals, convinced they were on the cusp of a major breakthrough. He deployed $600 million of the fund's capital into the stock, and, to show his conviction, piled in his own fortune as well.
Three days later, Vitalyx made headlines, and Silvane collapsed. The stock bled value so fast that Barnie's leveraged positions triggered margin calls. To cover them, the fund's prime brokers began liquidating other assets, driving losses across the portfolio. Redemptions poured in, and lawsuits followed, including one from a teachers' pension fund that had entrusted him with hundreds of millions.
Barnie was ruined professionally, financially, and personally. And he hadn't yet told his wife. He pictured the look on her face when she found out the house, the cars, the club membership were all about to be taken. She'd probably kill him in his sleep and try to collect the insurance.
No, it was easier for her if he were to die a clean death. One that would allow her to collect on that life insurance. Two million was a lot of money if she just adjusted her scope. She was used to living on that much a year. Now she'd have to make it last.
He chuckled to himself. At least they'd never had children. It would be hard enough leaving her alone, but abandoning kids on top of it would be too much.
He tilted the bottle of Bulleit Bourbon and finished it off. He looked at his Patek Philippe watch.
Heh, they'll probably take this too.
It was time. He walked toward the subway station at 72nd and Columbus. His tie was loose and his shirt was partially untucked.
He stumbled a moment and his left shoe came untied.
"Fuckit, whatever," he mumbled as he kept walking.
He pushed through the glass pavilion doors and walked toward the MetroCard machines.
He pulled out his wallet and slapped it on the scanner just as he was falling forward through the turnstile.
Barnie made his way down to the platform. The 2:00 train approached. He looked around.
A few students with earbuds in paid him no mind. An elderly woman with a grocery bag stood nearby, but moved away when she smelled the alcohol.
He wavered near the yellow strip until he saw the train coming around the bend. At the last minute he smiled and said goodbye to his wife in his heart as he hurled himself forward.
It was a strange feeling, dying.
It felt like he just kept falling and falling.
It was only a few feet to the tracks.
Right?
Why was he still falling?
Barnie also thought it would hurt a lot more, but he felt no pain at all.
…
…
Suddenly he woke.
A monitor nearby beeped along with his heartbeat.
Wait.
Heartbeat?
"Ah, there he is!" a voice said.
Who is that?
Barnie, impossibly, opened his eyes.
He was in a hospital room. He looked down, and he was… in perfect health.
He tried to sit up, and was shocked to find once again no pain.
"There we go," the nurse said. "You took quite a spill. Onlookers said you fell in front of a train. Good thing we had Vitalyx," she said with a sparkling smile that she had no idea dripped with all the irony in the world.
To be saved by the very thing that…
He turned his head and his wife sat there. Angry as hell.
Shit, he thought, she knows. What do I do now?
She stood and walked over to his side.
"Nurse, would you give us a moment please?" she asked.
The nurse nodded and left, closing the door behind her.
"What were you thinking?"
"I… I'm sorry, Judy. I just… I lost everything," he said.
Judy exhaled.
"You fucking ass. Did you really think I'd prefer you dead? Do you know what I thought about when I saw you lying there? Not about the money. Not about the house. I thought about being alone. Don't you dare try anything like this again."
She slapped his shoulder, and once again Barnie was surprised to feel no pain.
What is this shit? It must really work. It's incredible…
"Well?"
"I don't know what to say," Barnie said. " I don't deserve you."
She leaned in and rested her head against him.
"You know, they just passed new legislation in Washington. For those whose jobs were displaced by Vitalyx. We can get some help and get back on our feet. It's going to be fine."
Barnie exhaled, falling back against the hospital bed.
"When can I leave? Did they give you any idea?"
Judy laughed.
"You've already been discharged. We were just waiting for you to wake up. Come on, let's go home."
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System Broadcast
Vitalyx Recipients: 1,015,951,443
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@GraceInMotion: First time I've danced since my MS diagnosis 12 years ago! Thank you, Vitalyx! #VitalyxMiracles
@TrollKing694U: ngl you were probably better off sitting down #NotThatGreat
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