The Madness of the Feeling

Chapter 1: Meetings

Late February, 2023

It was an unusually warm day in February. I had told myself I was going to finally get off of my ass and take a vacation. A much-needed one, because my research was going nowhere and my project had all but stalled. My boss had been telling me I should get out to see the world. To clear my head and come back to tackle our research with a fresh pair of eyes.

I couldn't disagree with him. I had spent the better part of a year trying to get our artificial gravity chamber to work and while the overall concept was sound, the execution left a lot to be desired. Getting this technology online was one of the key features of the upcoming NASA mission to launch a space station around the moon. The project was still a number of years out, but the goal was to create a space station that could be inhabited by civilians without the need for extensive training and exercise regimens to keep its crew healthy. Effectively nullifying the effects of weightlessness.

The solution: efficiently create artificial gravity so that there were fewer points of possible failure. The fewer moving parts and the simpler the design, the less likely it was to fail, or in case of failure, the easier it would be to repair.

Up until then, the most cost-efficient way to produce artificial gravity was by applying centrifugal force. It is a fairly cheap solution with the only real downside being the motors required to regulate the spin so that it didn't become too fast or slow at any given time. It also wasn't feasible on the surface of celestial bodies with gravity different from Earth's. Japan had been working on spinning cones or cylinders that would house people. I personally wasn't too keen on that idea, but it had merit based on the technology we had at the time.

This was why I had put so much effort into exploring the idea of gravitational fields that could be tuned to exact values without the need for complicated mechanical parts. It would be one of my greatest achievements. Unfortunately, my tests had been going nowhere after a promising start. I'm not even sure why my later tests failed, but I was lost and frustrated by how unsuccessful I had become in such a short amount of time.

I had been sitting in my office going over some numbers, when my boss, Harry, knocked on my door before letting himself in. Sometimes I got the impression he thought I was doing something shady at my computer and wanted to give me a warning to cover it up before he entered.

"Ekko, I read your report from yesterday and I think the new adjustments have a lot of promise," he said as he flopped down in the chair in front of my desk.

"Thanks. I think so, too. We're looking to run the experiment next week. Just give me a few days to go over everything."

Harry cleared his throat. "I don't think that'll be necessary."

I narrowed my eyes at him curiously. "Why is that?"

"I just got a call from HR. It was brought to my attention that you haven't taken a vacation in over two years. Normally, I'd let it slide, but considering how terrible you look right now, I'm gonna have to ask you to take some time off."

"Why, Harry? We're actually making progress. Our recent tests have been promising and our morale is up for a change," I protested.

"Son, have you looked at yourself recently? You've been wearing that same shirt for three days. You have visible bags under your eyes from lack of sleep. You've lost a lot of weight. Your trash can is filled with fast food containers. Whatever you're doing right now isn't living."

I grunted and shifted uncomfortably in my chair. This wasn't the first time we had had that conversation. It had become a bi-monthly occurrence and an annoying one at that. What I was working on was for the betterment of humanity. My legacy and the very future of interstellar space exploration. My life wasn't all that important when I thought about it. Mainly because this project WAS my life.