CHAPTER 7 - The Rejection

Humanity rarely fears what it cannot understand.

More often, it fears what understands it too well.

The Central Assembly Hall of Sapienta had been designed to inspire confidence. White stone, transparent alloys and adaptive lighting combined into a structure so precise that it felt less like architecture and more like a physical expression of an idea. Every surface reflected order. Every line suggested stability. Visitors entering the chamber were meant to leave with the same conclusion: the future remained under control.

David had always disliked the place.

Not because it represented science, but because it increasingly represented certainty. Throughout his career he had learned that discovery rarely emerged from certainty. It emerged from doubt, questions and the willingness to explore ideas that seemed uncomfortable. The Assembly Hall celebrated the opposite. Here, uncertainty was treated as a flaw waiting to be corrected.