• Prologue: Al Jareeza and the Proposition


    June 17, 2010

    The room was bright, not the brightness from natural sunlight, but more of the irritable brightness from the artificial light of a light bulb. The reason the light bulb that hung from the center of the ceiling was so bright was because the room had no windows, and was completely closed by four gray concrete walls. The air held a slightly musty, damp smell, as well as warm, which would make you feel a bit drowsy. Being underground, it was one would expect for not being exposed to any fresh air. The whole place seemed to be vibrating lightly; the generators weren’t too far from the room.

    In the center of the room was a rectangular oak conference table, matching chairs tucked in on each side, seating twenty people at the most. At the head of the table that was directly parallel to the entering door sat an elderly man, adorned in a luxurious white tuxedo and crimson tie. His sense of fashion, which was better off for a businessman, did not fit his occupation as a prestigious scientist and researcher. Fingers tapping against the edge of the table, thuds echoing softly in the lonely room, he seemed to be impatiently waiting for something, an almost cross expression on his wrinkled face. Breathing out an inaudible sigh, he straightened up from his previously slumped posture and ran a hand through his graying ruffled hair.

    There was an abrupt clash when the door slammed open, swinging on its rusted hinges for a few moments from the forceful push of a harried brown haired young man, several other men and women behind him, looking stressed out and all wore worn scientist robes. The drained group was all breathing heavily, trying to catch their breath from some assumedly tiring event. The man who’d opened the door stopped his noisy breathing and looked at the elder man seated at the conference table with a suddenly nervous expression. “I’m sorry for the delayed arrival at this month’s conference, Mr. Lansing.”

    Alric Jared Lansing, well-known and “mad” researcher in the world of science, did not respond for a minute, uncomfortable silence falling on the room again. His childish emerald eyes shifted from each scientist’s worn out face, while his own face held little expression, before clearing his throat slightly. “Well, it’s good that you’re all here now. But what exactly caused you your delay and apparent… stress?”

    The group exchanged small glances of worry for a moment before the man who’d spoken, Bayle Kiel Edson, sighed and replied for the group as a whole again. “You see, sir, the generator malfunctioned suddenly about an hour and a half ago, so we had to go see to it. The damage is pretty bad, and we don’t even know if it’s repairable. While we hastened to try and fix the generator, we completely forgot… about today’s conference, but we rushed over here as soon as Edwin remembered.” A stout man at the back of the group gave a small nod at this. “We left the rest of the work to Maria and her group.”

    Alric had listened to this with a blank expression, hands folded on the desk’s cool surface. “That explains that ‘earthquake’ I had felt just about one hour and a half ago.” As he said this, he had narrowed his eyes accusingly at the scientists, making them all take on grim frowns. “Well, what are you all standing there for? Seat yourselves down!”
    Bayle was the first to take his seat in the chair to the immediate left of Alric, now trying keep up a calm unfazed act. The others quickly followed his lead, silently sitting down, and some coughing awkwardly in the process.

    “Now then, I shall begin this conference’s subject,” Alric began when the last scientist, Rachiel Martia Tyson, closed the door and sat down on the remaining open chair. “As many of you know, most of the projects the United Scientific Research Committee has begun have progressed in fine order, but they are almost all reaching their ends, nothing more to research on the subject. As of which, many of our scientists have been dawdling about with nothing to do, so I will now propose a new idea.” He paused and swept his eyes over the scientists before him, who all stared blankly back at him. A bit disappointed by the lack of interest, he continued in a flatter tone. “For as long as humans have gained intelligence, we have wondered about this ever looming being we call Death.” A few faces had turned into either confusion or subtle curiosity. “Is it truly as old as time and the beginning itself? Is its power so great that nothing can break its iron grasp? Does it touch and linger on every surface, or are there things that are… immortal, things or beings that are immune to Death? That is what I wish to find out. I wish to create the ultimate human, the immortal human.”

    Now everyone’s eyes were slightly widened as they listened to Alric finish speaking. They glanced at one another and soon murmurs of agreement or disagreement filled the spacious room. He gazed at each of them, green eyes glinting with excitement and anticipation. Would they accept his strange, almost impossible idea?