I spent two more days in the clinic. And I was feeling much better but had to stay for the last tests scheduled by Professor Silicon.
In two days, I got back to normal life. I returned to the office to work on those fast thyristors material I was assigned to. I was lucky to have my camera in one piece, and even more lucky to have all my photos and videos safely stored in a memory card.
No one around seemed to notice anything strange about me or my absence. As Lextor Anderson told me, he got me covered, so I didn’t have to worry at all. And it really worked. My colleagues thought that I indeed spent all that time during the business trip to the TSemics Ultralab, and nothing happened.
The next days I was working as usual, preparing various content to promote TSemics power semiconductors, learning about their application, analyzing power semiconductors market news, watching closely all the competitors. I was feeling well like I usually did, like I did before the incident in the lab. Actually, everything seemed too normal. I haven’t heard from Professor Silicon for several days, and I started to think what if this was just a dream. Maybe I inhaled some kind of a gas in that Ultralab that made me see things that never happened.
Before I joined TSemics I heard some rumors about this factory. People said that the production process of power semiconductors was very complicated and required using various chemicals, alloys, raw materials, and a lot of sophisticated equipment, all of which generated some sort of negative field that influenced people’s mind and drove them crazy. That is why your smartphone or any other gadget could function in a weird way when you were walking close to TSemics territory.
Of course, this was just an urban legend, which originated long ago after one of TSemics employees left the company building and started to scream “they’re chasing me, they’re close, don’t let them process me”. Poor man seemed to overwork. The day after he was ok, and everyone forgot the whole story very soon. It appeared in the media once a year, but only as a local joke.
At that moment I recalled the urban legend. What if indeed there was something that influenced my mind? What if this was just a hallucination? To clarify the situation, I decided to wait till the end of the week, and pay a visit to Professor Silicon. And now I had a lot of things to do.
As I mentioned, my job task was to attract new customers for TSemics power semiconductors. I was only in the beginning of a long journey, so I had to learn a lot. First, I had to learn more about applications of power semiconductor diodes and thyristors to know where to look for the companies which used them. I never realized that power semiconductors were literally almost everywhere. If there were no power semiconductors, there would be no electricity at our homes.
Looking through tons of power electronics materials, reading various articles, old books and magazines, made me perfectly calm, and I forgot everything about my previous worries. I dived into this ocean of information, and I was feeling more confident in this area, and more importantly, I was feeling more confident about my decision to join it. After all, I had so many adventures ahead, which will prove that my choice was right from the very beginning. Or was it my choice? Sometimes I think that some invisible power had something to do with my choice.
Anyway, I was looking through several web articles, when I came across some news. There was a new semiconductor company on a market, which seemed to grow very fast. It was established long ago but only as a university lab working with semiconductor materials like germanium, silicon, diamond, gallium nitride, silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, gallium phosphide, indium phosphide, indium arsenide, indium antimonide, and some others. And several months ago, it received a huge investment and was ready to enter the market as a standalone company. The company name now was SilSic Corp.
Just yesterday those guys were some small local lab, and now almost every industrial magazine and newspaper were talking about SilSic and their plans to expand. It turned out that in the last two weeks they bought eight small to medium companies working in power semiconductors market. They were building their own semiconductor supply chain – the companies they acquired were producing semiconductor raw materials, tooling and equipment necessary to produce the devices, test and measurement systems, and it was not the end. According to the last interview with their CEO Drayton Dense SilSic’s plan was to become the one and only semiconductor company in the world.
Drayton Dense explained his bold plan as the only way to provide best semiconductor solutions, and if that meant to become the first worldwide semiconductor monopoly, then it has to be done. He always despised those small and useless companies which could not provide the service in time and with the required level of quality. For many years he worked himself in a small company, and new all the disadvantages such companies had. But now everything was different, and he knew what to do to become semiconductor God walking our planet and serving his people.
The interview article was very big, but it was enough for me to understand that I didn’t like that man and his ideas. I didn’t like the way he spoke, the way he acted, the way he described all other companies. And what I didn’t like the most was that he was realizing his plan step by step. How could a small lab become such a powerful corporation? And in such a short period of time. There was nothing about that in the internet, not even a small hint where all the money came from. The only thing mentioned was that Drayton Dense was working in that local university lab since its first day. And nothing more.
I felt that we would hear more about Drayton Dense and his SilSic Corp. in the future, so I need to be alert about every move they take, and every news about this company has to be thoroughly investigated. I added SilSic to my watch list of semiconductors manufacturers, and returned to my work.
The rest of the week was very quiet, no more market surprises, no more thoughts about the Ultralab accident. I felt normal, and everything around me seemed to be ok. No more electricity tricks, no more lightnings, no more flashbacks or bad dreams. It was Friday, and this evening I was going to pay a visit to Professor Silicon. I had to know that I wasn’t insane, and more importantly I wanted to know more about the consequences of that accident. Back in the clinic I felt some power within, and I wanted to learn how to use it well.
It was 5pm, and I started to pack my laptop and camera in my backpack. I was ready to go and eager to meet Lextor Anderson again. Besides, I wanted to share with him my thoughts about this SilSic company and their tremendous and scary plans.
In an hour I was standing at the entrance of that hidden city. Professor Silicon was waiting for me, happy and smiling as usual. His looks made me feel comfortable once again.
We entered the hidden city, and on our way to the temporary lab, Professor told me that he was working a lot lately to restore the facility. And this time it was hidden in the hidden city. And when we came closer to the place where the Ultralab was standing before, it looked like it never actually did. Now the place was full of trees and various bushes, flowers, alleys and benches. And they were building the new lab right beneath this beautiful garden.
The entrance to this new lab was far from the garden in the very least expected part of the hidden city. However, it was easy to access, and no one could ever suspect that this could lead you somewhere else. That was a small old power substation building that led underground. And you could access it as well from outside the hidden city like Professor did on an everyday basis. And so did I after this day.
The tunnel leading to the lab was well filled with warm LED light. You could walk to the lab or take a small electric cart to save time. This time we had many things to discuss, so we decided to take a good walk.
Professor Silicon told me that this new lab project will take at least another month, but he wanted me to start learning how to use my powers. That was a relief for me. This meant that I wasn’t insane, the urban legend was just an urban legend, and I didn’t inhale any gases or had a bad dream. It happened. It really happened. And I can finally learn the truth about me.
We were approaching the lab, when Professor told me that he knew how to unleash and control my abilities. And today he was going to tell me all about it.