The car that had picked him up from outside the physics lab at college had seemed unassuming, and he had remained skeptical until they had begun to enter the caverns deep in the mountains, passing through more and more stringent checkpoints.

Walking into the facility opened his eyes – row upon row of glass cylinders, each filled with a blue gel in which floated a large jellyfish-like organism.

“We found the capsule 14 years ago,” Dr Moor explained, “with enough cells in it to grow around 10 billion of these. It was the first ones that showed us their potential.”

Morgan watched, awestruck, as an unconscious subject was placed in a tank. The gel flowed down over her, and its tentacles wrapped around her skull, penetrating deep into the brain. Her eyes opened, glowing pearlescent-white, and with a beatific smile she phased out of reality into nothingness.

“You can see why we need a trained man like you,” said Dr Moor, smiling. Morgan felt sharp point stab hard into his back, and faded out of consciousness.