It was the middle of June, Monday morning 6AM, the alarm went off, Reevan woke up and sat on his bed for a few minutes. He was asking himself if he should go to work today. Then he realised that he had been waiting for this day for a long time. He had an appointment with someone important on that day. Also, he needed to work for the next four days to complete his mandatory work hours for that month.

He had moved to the city recently. It was called Paras and was the capital of the country. It had been a few months since he came here. The city had connectivity to all the places of the country and also to other countries. He came here so that he could meet interesting people and work on the world’s most interesting problems.

As he stepped down from his bed, the lights turned on automatically. There was a voice in the background saying, “Good morning, Reev. Do you want me to brief you on today’s plan?” He replied, “Morning, Jeev, no need, I already know it.”

He briskly walked into the washroom. After brushing and washing his face, he pressed the button on top of the mirror. A fresh towel rolled down from the outlet, which was placed just below the mirror. After taking a shower, he walked into his living space. Again, there was a background voice telling him that he had another 50 minutes to get ready to be on time at work.

He opened his closet, in which, at the top, there were five sets of outfits hanging. All of them were of the same color — shirts were light blue and pants were black. He also had a few sets of clothes which seemed like normal, random outfits. At the bottom were two pairs of clean shoes, one in black and another in brown. He pulled out one set of clothes from a hanger and his black pair of shoes and got ready for work.

As he stepped onto the road, suddenly everything seemed to be happening at 2x speed. Everyone was walking fast. A lot of them were wearing similar clothes to his, but in different colors. There were four lanes with small vehicles cruising through them, all of them looking the same. On the side of the road, escalators were going down into the subway and digital boards were displaying: Enter here to reach the platform. There were flying objects all over the sky, seemingly moving at many different layers.

As he entered the subway, he scanned his hand at the machine located near the entrance. It showed that he had only 5,000 credits left for that month and opened a pathway for him. Inside the subway, there were 10 or more platforms, and each platform had an array of pods standing idle. Each pod could carry up to four people. He entered the first pod together with three other people and the pod closed. It started cruising through the tunnel at lightning speed, as though it already knew where everyone was going. After passing around 50 stations, the pod stopped and the background voice told Reev to get off there. Reev stepped out and started walking. There were boards displaying the name Modern Agro Farm Unit 537. He walked along the pathway and, after a few minutes, entered the facility. There was a big clock at the entrance displaying: The shift starts in another 10 minutes.

As he went through a closed container, his full body was scanned and the display showed clearance to enter the facility. Since he had joined as a research scientist at the facility only a few months ago, he had been tasked with learning about the project during those first few months. After walking through the large facility, he reached his workstation. There was a girl sitting next to him who asked whether he needed any help. He replied, “Thanks, Maia, no need — I am still exploring the research documents.”

After completing his working hours, he was getting ready to leave. Maia asked him what his plan was for the rest of the day. He said he was planning to travel to the learning centre to meet a professor. She asked what it was about. He replied that he had submitted a research proposal to the professor a few months ago and wanted to meet him regarding that. She asked what kind of research the proposal was about. He replied that it was related to human space research.

She replied, “Really? That’s awesome, Reev!” She told him it was the best learning centre in the whole country. It was also a head learning centre with plenty of courses available, even ones that were not very popular in tier 2 or tier 3 city centres. Even though those cities tried to provide all those courses, most of the talent was concentrated there, so there was naturally a difference. She told him she would like to join him sometime in the future.

Then both of them left for the cafeteria. After finishing their lunch, they were asked to scan their hands to pay. Maia offered to pay for his lunch since he was low on credits that month, but Reev insisted on paying for himself. Then both of them parted ways.

Reev got onto another pod to the central learning centre. As he reached the learning centre, his eyes were glowing like a child’s in a chocolate toy shop. He went near the entrance and scanned his hand. A display showed that his appointment was scheduled in an hour and asked him to wait in the common area. He took the lift to the 250th floor of the building and started walking in a particular direction as a voice instructed him where to go. He finally reached the waiting area and sat on a couch. There was music playing in the background, and from there the whole city was visible — large and small buildings, tall and large trees as far as the eye could see. Some trees were so large that a 5-storey building seemed like a small child standing beside its mother. He sat gazing outside, even as many people came and went around him.

After an hour, the background voice again instructed him to go to a particular meeting room. He walked in and met a man in his 50s. There was a name tag on his shirt labelled Prof. Adin. Reev greeted him, saying, “Good afternoon, Adin — it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Though he was trying to act normal, his body had started shivering. He tried to control himself but could not. Then, slowly, he pulled himself together and managed to compose himself.

Adin noticed his behaviour and replied politely, “Good afternoon, Reev. It’s nice to meet you too.” He asked him to sit down and said that he was really impressed by his research statement. He mentioned that he had a few doubts about it and asked if Reev would be able to help clarify them. Reev replied that he would be more than happy to do that.

They then began their discussion. Adin asked, “How are you planning to simulate this environment without needing a huge budget?” Reev replied that he was first planning to simulate it in a quantum system and then try to replicate it in a physical environment. Adin said that it was an interesting approach, but added that Reev would need to work on a lot of mathematics to map the problem from its domain to the quantum system. Reev replied that he was aware of that complexity and that it was precisely the problem that needed to be solved. Their conversation continued and an hour went by in the blink of an eye.

As they were getting ready to leave the meeting room, Adin told Reev that it had been a very interesting discussion and that he would think it over and get back to him. Reev thanked Adin for spending his valuable time on this and said he hoped to meet him again. He then came out of the building and started walking with confidence and hope in his eyes. He reached another subway station, entered, and took a pod back home.

Why did Reev come to that city? What was the background voice he kept hearing? What were the credits for? We will find out in the upcoming blogs.