It was in 2092 that I graduated from college. Due to my outstanding research findings and breakthroughs in the Pharmaceutical College, I was taken under the wings of Professor F.K Stellar, one of the world’s leading scientists.

He specialized in Biotechnology and would later go on to make significant scientific discoveries in Neuroscience. It was like a dream come true for me.

When I first met Professor Stellar, it didn’t take long for me to realize that the dynamic of our relationship would not be normal. He gave me two rules: Do exactly as he said and to leave when I was told.

The professor was adored by many, especially by the women of his Department. He was caring, charismatic and was always the sharpest man in the room. That all changed after he lost his wife to a tumor. It got logged into the back of her brain, and it became too late to save her. That was when he decided to devote his time to studying Neurology.

He felt that as an advanced society, our research and medicine were significantly insufficient in that department. He became obsessed with understanding the human brain beyond the natural scientific level.

When the Government decided to shut down his project, he fired back. But his revenge was as classy as the man he was known to be. He then went on to discover the BT Serum. It is now the key ingredient in many pharmaceutical drugs worldwide. It is the active ingredient in the POL-Pill of Longevity and has sustained many lives. The Government was forced to make him a national hero, and his research was allowed to continue.

For twenty-seven years, I served him, and I served him well. But that all came to a bloody end, one dreadful night.

It was my birthday, Manuary 7, 2093. My childhood love and longtime girlfriend Anne Hallowell had come to see me on Demeter after we’d been separated for over three months. She worked on Janus in the Biotechnology Department. With us both having two different and highly demanding jobs, we hardly had time to meet up. But that night was special because we didn’t just meet up to celebrate my birthday. I asked Anne to marry me, and she said yes.

I was the happiest man in the world that night. We had dinner and went dancing on the rooftop of my Departments 32 story skyscraper; it was a magnificent night.

Anne was to leave the next day. We weren’t going to see each other again for another month and a half, so I decided to give her what she always wanted, a tour of my lab. Well, technically, it was Professor Stellar’s lab, but I wasn’t allowed to be in there past 7 pm. So, I stole a key card from one of the guards. Nothing was going to stop me from making her wish a reality.

We were careful in sneaking our way through the hallways. It wasn’t that difficult, the building was practically empty at that time and I studied the break patterns on the guard on duty.

When we arrived at the final guard post before my lab, I waited for the guard to step away. Using the key card, I was able to let us both past the check-point. When we got inside the lab, her face lit up like floating paper lamps on a dark night. She went all around the room, grinning and smiling like a 6-year-old girl.

“What does this do? and this one? How about this one?” was all that she could say for about 25 minutes?

And then suddenly, we heard a noise. We panicked and hid behind some machines. It was the professor. I was surprised to see him at that time. It was already past 11 pm; he should have been home by now. I saw him punch out and got into his car myself. He came in, headed straight to the back of the room and literally shattered my understanding of reality. He opened a sideboard, entered some codes on a monitor hid within in and the back of the lab opened up and transformed into a secret-lab facility.

We both collapse into a stupor. But it wasn’t the lab that surprised us most; it was what was inside of it.

“What did you see?” Alex, who was originally reclined in his chair, became enthralled and threw his words with a gapped mouth stare.

Raymond carried himself closer to the table, stared at us with slit eyes then responded.

”Right there, frozen in a glass pod, was Mrs. Ilia Stellar.”