The white mist receded before him. He was in a laboratory. No. Observatory? There were pictures on the wall, formulas that he already knew. References, writings and strange projections. People moved from place to place. The space was completely silent except for a woman's voice that greeted him as she passed by. Oleg nodded and walked towards the center. Something rustled behind him. Oleg turned around but saw nothing but more formulas spanning across whiteboards. This isn’t an ordinary observatory, why are the whiteboards here? Something big must be going on here. The woman had disappeared. The rustling was also gone. Silence numbed his senses and disoriented his perception. Formulas. He must look at them to see if any of them are new. ‘Why am I in the observatory? Black holes? Antimatter? What am I discovering?’ Alexey Omelchuk's tunes began to fill the silent space in the distance. Oleg ran towards a person standing in front of a large workstation. His wheezing breath steamed up into the air.
"Oleg, where have you been? Shouldn't you answer your phone?" the man asked, turning to him as Alexey Omelchuk's composition played louder and louder out of his chest.
"There's no time. Tell me everything," Oleg snapped at the man, thirsting for knowledge. Oleg licked his lips greedily. Iron. The man had begun to explain a new formula, part of which was written on his paper. Something flashed in the corner of his eye. Oleg turned but saw nothing. Shadows had begun to form inside the observatory. They fell from the devices onto the walls and floor, snaking towards him.
Oleg turned back to the man: "Sorry, start from the beginning."
"So, this formula of yours that you discovered... Are you alright, you look a bit pale," the man asked.
"Please continue," Oleg commanded rudely. Something moved in the corner of his eye on the wall, Oleg instinctively turned.
He had moved into his home. Someone or something was in the apartment as well. He couldn't see it, but he knew. He remembered that something else was there with him. He walked into the living room. The light from a soon-to-break fluorescent tube flickers irritatingly. Everything else looked as it was back at his house now. Same couch, same tv, same table. A science magazine lay on the table. Oleg recognized himself on the cover. "The man who solved one of the biggest problems in physics. Page 5." As Oleg rushed towards the magazine as frosty mist began to fill the room.