Branches of Longevity Challenge: First Insight on the Hideout

Coryana had just finished her diary entry and the file she started, so she could store all the information she had gotten about Bernard Williams and her sister Sophie.

She was now eager to see the hideout and find out what her role in this place would be. When she activated the COM, she asked Sarin to show her around, shortly after he came to her room to pick her up. „Shall we?“, Sarin held his arm out towards the door. „Yes, please“, Coryana walked towards the door, opened it and stood in the hallway, waiting for Sarin to lead the way. The hallway was engulfed in blue light, she didn’t quite understand why the whole hideout was layed out with the blue lights. One fact that bewildered her, was that she had a normal light in her room, she began to wonder, why most of the hidout was equipped with blue lights and which rooms had normal lights. What is the purpose of this?
Sarin closed the door to her room behind him and turned to the left.

The hallway amazed her, just like everything she had seen in the hideout so far, all of the rooms and hallways were part of the mountain. They just moulded out the whole facility, it left her wondering how long they must have been busy creating this place. The hallway had rooms left and right, she didn’t even attempt to count how many there were, they seemed to have no end. „This is the living quarter, here everyone has their own room. The purpose behind this, is to give them some privacy, but at the same time we want to give them the chance to work in peace in their rooms if their profession suits the equipment they have in their rooms.

„Sarin, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why is most of the facility engulfed in blue light, but the rooms have normal light?“, „That is because we built this facility by digging and picking away the rocks of the mountain to form the rooms and hallways. At some places there are small holes that could be seen from the outside. If we would use bright light everywhere, this place could be discovered easily. The rooms on the other hand, have no holes whatsoever, therefore we can provide the rooms in the living quarter with regular lights. This way they won’t feel suffocated and can still work and live in peace.“ „Since you just mentioned it, how come we do not suffer from any breathing problems in this mountain? There are only very few holes as you said, shouldn’t we be very low on oxygen?“, Coryana was intruiged.
He stopped walking and turned to face Coryana, „That is correct, under normal circumstances, we would suffer from the low oxygen in the mountain. But we have developed a technology that allows us to build generators and a ventilation system, that makes absolutely no noise at all. That ventilation system provides the entire hideout with oxygen. Fascinating, isn’t it?“ Coryana was impressed, she had already seen similar technology in the lab, but they did not have to operate in secret, she wondered where they got the supplies to build all of this. How did they build all of this without anyone noticing?

Sarin continued walking down the hallway, after a while he took another left turn into a corridor. This corridor had a very high ceiling, „Why is the ceiling suddenly so high Sarin?“. „Because we just entered the working quarters, partially we have to transport big objects, therefore we need a higher ceiling. All the rooms you see here are for manufacturing and designing new tools, weapons, labratory equipment and furniture. Of course they are split up into different departments, right now we are passing through the furniture department.“ „Hmmm, now the lights are also normal again, are there no holes in this corridor?“, „No, since we have to be able to transport the furniture and other things, we had to make sure there are no holes, this way we can clearly see how to walk and where. Therefore we can ensure, that the objects do not get damaged during transportation.“
„How do you get all the materials for all of this? Isn’t it a bit risky getting them?“, „Not really, we have our connections with quite a few retailers. They have made verbal contracts with us to sell us the materials at different times and different amounts, they even take different routes to deliver the goods. This way the risk stays minimal. Of course we have built up trust with them over the years, otherwise it would be risky itself to do business with them. At the same time we have alot of intel on our business partners, thus they do not try to sell us out or betray our trust.“

After passing through the work quarters, they reached the huge staircase she had come down, when stepped foot into the hidout the very first time. „Are we going outside?“, she wondered. „No, we are going back to the Lounge. You have been there before, it’s the big room, where you met Roxani for the first time.“
„But didn’t we use the elevator last time?“ “And we will again.“, Sarin replied, while he turned to his right and pressed a button. I didn’t even notice the elevator…
The doors of the elevator opened and even the elevator was bathed in blue light. Sarin activated the elevator, but Coryana could not see how he had done it. This time it didn’t take long until they reached their destination, she guessed that they maybe went up two floors.

Once the doors had opened, she recognized the Louge she had seen right after her arrival. This time only a few people were present. A woman was sitting one of the sofas reading a book, while an elderly man was sitting at the bar and 3 people (probabl around her age) were sitting on another sofa. Sarin walked over to the bar, she followed him and they both sat down. „What you want to drink, Miss Guerra? We also have cocktails at the bar.“, Sarin smiled at her. „Uhm… I'll just take water please.“
„Did you enjoy the tour so far?“, „It‘s just astonishing to see what you have accomplished, although I am sure, it’s not easy to keep all of this a secret…“
„Well, at times of course it is difficult to conceal our actions, trades, business and the hideout. But it will all be worth it, once we have changed the future for the engineered race.“, he sounded extremely determined and sure of his path. I need to find out, how they plan to change the fate of the engineered race. Maybe we can work together and I don’t have to try to change it all on my own. „How do you plan to change the fate of the engineered race, Sarin?“

„Tomorrow we will have a meeting to discuss our progress so far and where we are headed with our plan. Would you like to accompany me?“, Coryana did not expect such an invitation, but she knew this was the perfect opportunity for her.
„I’d be honored to be a part of the meeting!“, „Great! Let’s just enjoy our drinks and then head back, I will show you the rest of the hideout tomorrow after the meeting. Is that okay for?“
„Of course!“

To be continued…