It was his first summer back from college and Jason needed to get a job, but this didn't interest him. Jason was always looking for an easy way to make money, and it seemed too good to be true. NASA experiments? they couldn't be too dangerous, he thought, they're run by the US government after all. Jason decided to follow up on the add, found directions to Forandring Street and entered a nondescript single-story building with the numbers 1313 on the front. The doors opened up to a large room filled with natural light, clean and hospital looking. There was a large desk attended by a middle aged woman. "excuse me sir, are you here for the experiments?" she asked sweetly. "yes, yes, i would just like to know more about it" Jason replied.
"well, good, I'll call the doctor, its been a slow day around here, Dr. Horowitz will explain more to you if you just follow him" she replied, "Can i have your name?" she asked
"Jason, Jason Shuman"
"and your age?"
"19"
and just then a tall, partially balding man in his thirties appeared at the doorway "yes, hello, so you want to know about our experiment? I'll tell you all about it!" he gushed. The lady at the desk handed him a clipboard and the doctor glanced at it. "follow me" he said. The enthusiasm on Dr. Horowitz's face was unmistakable. Jason was led down a similarly well-lite hallway passed what looked like laboratory rooms, clean and filled with computers and equipment of various sorts. "You may be interested in what we're doing here"
"This is a NASA program, you know, and what we're working with pertains to the heath of our astronauts. "
"ah, ok" Jason responded.
"you see, when our astronauts are in space there is no gravity, and no gravity means no resistance for their muscles, meaning that while in space our astronauts usually loose a lot of muscle mass, which is no good. We try to keep them fit with machines that offer some resistance, but you can only do so much."
"ah, ok"
"so what we are working on is an anti-atrophying, muscle-building kind of medicine."
"cool!" Jason replied. He liked the sound of this experiment already.
"and you look like a healthy young man, so i think you're perfect for these kinds of tests."
with that Doctor Horowitz opened the door to a typical medical examination room, but with better lighting.
"first of all, does this experiment interest you at all?"
It didn't take long for Jason to respond "yeah!" this could be a way to gain muscle mass, or at least keep what he had gained from the few work outs he did during the school year.
"great! Well, I need your height and weight please"
"I'm about five-eleven and one fifty"
"alright, five-eleven and one hundred and fifty pounds, great"
Dr Horowitz then continued to give him a typical medical examination, asking the typical questions about his health and history.
"you're healthy, it looks like, so i think you're ready to begin the tests" Doctor Horowitz led Jason out of the examination room and back into the hallway, walking down to very large room where a number of medical workers were busy going about their various jobs. Doctor Horowitz paused.
"this is where we will conduct the experiment, are you ready?" Dr. Horowitz asked.
"yes" Jason replied, and with that they entered the room.