Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 35: A Step Towards The Unknown

“A tiny bit.” The boy replied without hesitation, his voice shaking slightly.

“Great! Now if you could wait a minute.”

Julian strode a circle around the room padding his busy colleagues on their shoulders and having a few words with them. Each scientist glanced at Tim after their conversations with Julian.

Julian returned to Tim and said, “Please go and introduce yourself to Scarlet. She’s going to weigh you and do some medical tests so that Geel could calculate adjust the ratios of the ingredients for the drug. Today we are going to let you have a glimpse of that place. Is that fine with you?”

“Yes,” Tim silently replied and went towards the girl. Julian approached the mathematician and they started to have some intense discussion about the pictures in a holographic projection.

“Hi miss, my name is Tim.” The boy introduced himself to young woman.

“My pleasure.” The girl smiled warmly. “I think Julian had already introduced me to you. May you lend me your hand?” She gently took his hand and flipped a palm upwards. The air seemed to be calmer around her. Had Tim been a few years older and was interested in girls, her soft face, brown curly hear and deep blue eyes would have melted him. “Now close your eyes and count to three.”

 Tim did what he was instructed to.  After opened his eyes he felt dizzy for a second. He noticed a small drip of blood on his finger that was quickly wiped off with a piece of wool by the girl. She then bowed down and took out a weighing plate from under the table. Tim took his shoes off and stepped on it, his weight was measured in accuracy of tens of grams. “Thirty seven point three nine!” the woman shouted to the mathematician, who in turn began tapping buttons rapidly. “Take a seat, dear. This will take a while,” she told Tim and began to pull different flasks of chemicals from the long large shelf hanging on a wall and bringing them to the table in the middle. After bringing everything, she went to talk to Geel and Julian.

The two men from the far end of the room approached Tim, the one named Jason took a small flashlight and asked. “May I? This won’t hurt.”

Tim nodded.

Jason kneeled on one leg and directed the flashlight to Tim’s eyes. He turned it on and off two times and held it longer to let the light dim slowly during the third. “Perfect.” He told to himself. “Could you stand up, turn around and lift your shirt up?”

The boy did as he was asked. Jason put his fingers on boy’s back and began pushing different points by his spine going up, giving most attention to Tim’s neck. “Does it hurt?” the scientist asked a couple of times. Each time Tim replied with negative answer. “Thank you,” Jason said and walked to the group standing by the mathematician to join their conversation.

Tim waited for a while, staring at the bunk in the far end of the room. Thoughts about getting on it started giving him chills. He was fine up until this point. But now, when he was about to be thrown into unknown, second thoughts got into his head. Was he really as tough as he imagined? Won’t he break and fail bringing down hopes these people had put into him? He had not much time to elaborate on the doubts, since after the scientists by the computer dispersed around the lab to do different tasks.  Julian came closer and said, “We finished our calculations and we are ready to put you for the first trip. Don’t be afraid. It’s not scary at all – it’s just different, it will be a positive experience. I promise.” He smiled to assure the sincerity of his words. “Shall we go and get you connected?”

For a while Tim looked silently at the scientist. He gathered his courage, stood up and said “Yes. I’m ready.” The boy did not know that he was master at hiding his emotions. Deep inside he was feeling troubled and afraid, but his face did not give out a thing. Together they walked to the devices assembled by the bunk. Julian asked Tim to take his top clothes and shoes off. When he was done he jumped on the top of the hard mat and lay down.

“It will take a few minutes, just try to relax.” Julian attempted to calm Tim down.

 Jason and Xin started to stick different sensors on boy’s chest and hands. They took a swimming cap with many wires connected to it and put it forcefully on his head.  “We will tighten you to the bed,” Xin said.

“It’s for your own safety,” Jason added. They opened a drawer, took out a couple of belts and began strapping the boy to the rings welded on the metal table beneath the bunk.

Scarlett brought a small rack with chemicals. There was a small plastic bag hanging the pole on the top of it. Many small tubes from the chemical flasks were connected to it. She attached a tube to the bag with a needle.

Tim found it harder and harder to breathe. This did not seem to be a walk in the park, he had naively imagined. The picture of the machine in his head after the conversation with Tom was much more user friendly - a bed or a liquid tube in which he goes to sleep perhaps, nothing as primitive and scary as he was witnessing here.

“This only looks terrible. Calm down, all of us had been where you are,” Julian told pleasantly. As if he was reading Tim’s thoughts.

The mathematician brought a small computer and plugged it into the equipment which was connected to the sensors on boy’s body. Other wires from the console were given to Scarlett and she connected them to the dosimeters on all tubes.

“Are you ready?” Julian asked.

“Yes,” Tim replied, his voice trembling slightly.

“Here. We go.” Julian took out a small needle out of his pocket and stuck it into the vein on Tim’s right hand.

The boy could feel his eyes closing, the physical world was getting out of his reach.

Julian nodded to Scarlett. She stuck the large needle to an artery of boy’s neck and said, “Here he goes.”

The mathematician started to put buttons rapidly and fluids from the chemical flasks began pouring to the small bag with the blue liquid.