While they waited for the sushi to arrive, Mallory returned to her office to answer a few pressing emails and return calls. Despite the enormity of what she’d just learned, she found herself slipping back into her routine with surprising ease.
Voss had trained her well.Compartmentalize. Prioritize. Stay composed.Still, her mind was racing just beneath the surface.Thoughts spiraling beneath her calm exterior.
Across the hall, Elliot Voss did the same.Unhurried. Focused.
He replied to key messages, reviewed a stack of fgged documents, and approved the final phase of the Rejuvenex production timeline. Everything was on track. Every detail moving with quiet, relentless precision. And soon, Mallory would understand just how vast the pn truly was.
When the sushi arrived, she returned to his office, still caught somewhere between anticipation and disbelief.
She’d walked in that morning expecting a busy day of contract reviews and executive scheduling.Instead, she’d been informed of a master key to the future of humanity.
Voss sat at his desk, calm and composed, breaking apart a pair of wooden chopsticks with the practiced grace of someone who had eaten more than a few Japanese meals in his time.
He lifted a piece of negi toro from the tray, dipped the corner into soy sauce, and pced it into his mouth with a quiet reverence. He chewed slowly. Eyes closed for a moment.Savoring the buttery richness of fatty tuna. Savoring the calm. When he opened them again, he smiled. Warm. Knowing. Present.
“So,” he said, brushing a napkin across his lips, “Vitalyx gives humanity its health back.Rejuvenex... gives it time.”
Across from him, Mallory was already stirring her miso soup, the steam rising in slow spirals from the ceramic bowl. She took a careful sip, then set the bowl aside, leaning forward slightly.Her eyes narrowed—curious. Focused.Ready.
Voss tapped another button on his control panel.
The LED screen shifted to reveal a familiar-looking vial—the same pearl-colored twist-cap design as Vitalyx, but this time beled in clean, block lettering:
REJUVENEX
“It’s not an immortality formu,” Voss said. “But it’s very close.”
Mallory arched a brow, half in disbelief.“You created Amrita? The mythical Elixir of Life?”
Voss let out a long, hearty ugh.“You know, we spent a year—and a fortune—with branding consultants. Sleek names. Edgy names. Forgettable names. Not once did Amrita come up.”
He grinned. “You just outcssed them all in five seconds.”
Mallory smirked, flipping her auburn ponytail over her shoulder.“That’s what happens when you leave me out of these things.”
Voss chuckled again, nodding. “Fair enough. But in truth—Rejuvenex doesn’t make people immortal. It turns back the clock.Helps people regain their prime. Returns them to around thirty-years old. What they do with that time... that’s up to them.”
He gestured toward the screen.“Rejuvenex works much like Vitalyx. It’s a liquid—swallowed in seconds. And its effects beneath the surface begin almost immediately. Telomere lengthening. Mitochondrial repair. Stem cell regeneration. And it doesn’t stop at the body. The mental impacts are just as astounding. It restores neural efficiency. Repairs memory scaffolding. Enhances neuropsticity. In most subjects, one dose reversed twenty to thirty years of aging.”
Mallory had just finished a piece of salmon nigiri. She paused, chopsticks still in hand.“If it’s that effective... Why not just combine it with Vitalyx? Heal and rejuvenate in one go?”
Voss’s expression darkened, the humor leaving his face.“Because if the body isn’t fully reset first, Rejuvenex can perpetuate dormant issues. Genetic defects. Latent diseases. It doesn’t just preserve the body—it amplifies everything.Any corruption left behind… would only grow stronger.”
He leaned back slightly.“And then there’s the pain.”
Mallory tilted her head, wary now.“Pain?”
“Taking Rejuvenex before clearing the body is… devastating,” he said. “Imagine your cells being torn apart and rebuilt mid-transformation. One unauthorized subject tried it out of sequence. The neural overload alone put her in a coma for three days.” Voss’s voice dipped, heavy with regret. “We were lucky to get to her in time to stabilize the damage and rebuild her systems. She said the pain was so intense, it was like her bloodstream had turned to magma—like being boiled alive from the inside out.”
Mallory blinked.A slow shiver moved down her spine.Even the name Rejuvenex suddenly felt sharper.She chuckled lightly. “So there’s an optimal sequence, then.”
Voss ughed at that.“You could say that. Rejuvenex can be taken as soon as one week after Vitalyx. That gives the body time to finish its cleanse and regain bance. For those who need multiple doses of Rejuvenex to return to their prime, two-week intervals between doses work best. Enough time for full integration, without losing biological momentum.”
Voss continued, his tone matter-of-fact.“We estimate the global need at thirteen billion doses, and we’re well into manufacturing.Trials have exceeded every expectation. Elderly subjects in their eighties regained the vitality of someone half their age after just two doses. One man’s gray hair returned to bck after his second dose. Each dose has a finite amount of aging reversal that can be achieved, but two weeks after the first dose, another one continues the work until the peak age level is reached.”
Mallory rested her chopsticks on the tray, her expression thoughtful.“What about overpopution? If people stop dying... Where will we all go? How do we feed and house everyone when our global popution blooms?”
Voss’s eyes lit up—not with arm, but with excitement.“That’s exactly the kind of question The System is designed to answer.”
He leaned slightly forward, animated now.“First of all, the two drugs together give us much more precise control over our bodies. It’s hard to expin, but pregnancies become a very intentional decision at this point. The male must will his sperm to fertilize, and the female must will her eggs to be fertilized before a pregnancy can occur. This alone will reduce accidental birth rates to essentially zero.”
Voss, looking out over the city once again, continued.“As for living space, we already have the science to live on the Moon. On Mars. What we’ve cked is focus. The cooperation and peace to pursue such goals. With The System guiding our progress, we’ll finally have the infrastructure—intellectual and material—to terraform, to colonize, to expand.”
The screen behind him shifted again—pnetary renderings now, not vials.
“Some Professions will be dedicated entirely to interpnetary travel and survival.Advanced propulsion.Oxygen farming.Gravity stabilization.Sustainable architecture.”
“Once The System is active, those goals won’t just be a generic possibility. They’ll become a practical reality.”
Mallory sat back, absorbing both the sushi and the scope of what he was describing.This wasn’t about stalling death.It was about redesigning life, from the ground up.
As they finished their meals, Voss’s secretary entered quietly, gathering the cquered bento trays without a word.
Mallory offered a faint smile of thanks.Voss took a sip of his water and set the gss aside.
Then he leaned forward—eyes sharp, voice low.A new note of intent had entered the room.
“Now,” he said, “you’ve seen how Vitalyx and Rejuvenex form the foundation.”His voice dipped, more deliberate now.
“But here’s what comes next.”He leaned forward, elbows resting gently on the desk.
“Once Vitalyx completes its task, the nanites inside the body split into two teams.They migrate to each of the optic nerves, and go dormant. Rejuvenex’s nanites follow a different path. They settle in the occipital lobe, the prefrontal cortex, and the cerebellum.”
Mallory froze.Her eyes went wide.“Wait... why those areas?”
Voss smiled—slow and assured.“Because those regions govern visual processing… advanced reasoning… motor control.All together—they form the Interface. The gateway. The connection point through which every human being will interact with The System.”
Mallory jolted, fumbling her water bottle.It slipped from her grip, cttering to the floor and spshing a small puddle onto her designer heels. She barely noticed.“You’re saying—”
Voss didn’t let her finish.“Yes. This isn’t just a cure. It’s a key.The body and mind must be prepared—primed—to connect with The System.And once they are… Once Vitalyx and Rejuvenex complete their final tasks—Humanity will be ready.”
He stood slowly.Stepped toward the window.Outside, the city rose around them—steel and gss monuments to an outdated world.Skyscrapers, office towers, legacy systems built on decay.
“With the foundation thus id,” Voss said, his voice soft but resolute, “Welcome… to the next step in human evolution.”