Cover image of "You're Safe Here," a novel about breakthrough wellness technology

Welcome to 2060. Manhattan is under water. The Gulf Coast has succumbed to superstorms, and California has fallen victim to extended drought. The rest of the world? Don’t even ask. But technology has continued to enhance the survivors’ lives. And in no area has there been more marked change than the field of wellness. There, a single company has emerged as dominant above all others. WellCorp, the brainchild of founder and CEO Emmett Neal, has been at the top of the heap since her design of the WellNest. “WellNests are now in nearly every home in America,” we learn. Each is a cocoon-like environment governed by AI and incorporating augmented reality that flashes the resident’s detailed vital statistics in front of their eyes. An AI named Emmie guides the user through each day’s planned routine, from morning to night. But the WellNest was only the beginning for breakthrough wellness technology.

One landmark improvement after another

Other breakthrough products have followed the WellNest. Lenses, featuring enhanced vision and incorporating AR directly into the eyes. Wrist implants that replace ID and banking functions. Pohvees, which are tiny cameras affixed to the brow just under the hairline that connect every wearer to their contacts around the world. And now Emmett’s most ambitious effort yet: the WellPod. It is, in fact, a pod-like container built for ocean travel that offers volunteers the opportunity to isolate themselves, completely alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There they will reboot and refresh, free of distractions for six weeks, accompanied only by their personalized, therapeutic Emmie.

There’s only one problem: a monster storm is on the way toward the mid-Pacific. Precisely where the WellPods are spaced apart by miles of open water. And it will take days or weeks to move them to safe places.

You’re Safe Here by Leslie Stephens (2024) pages ★★★★☆

Photo of an idyllic South Sea island unlike the Pacific scenes in this novel about breakthrough wellness technology
If this is your image of the South Pacific, forget it. You won’t find it in this novel, much of which is set in the region. Image: Celebrity Cruises

Corporate politics, a love triangle, and breakthrough new technology

Maggie has leapt at the opportunity to isolate herself among the first group of WellPods. She’s got a lot to think about. For several years she’s been living on the WellCorp campus with her partner, Noa, in one of the company’s advanced WellNests. Although small, the AI-driven home can satisfy their every need. Neither has been off-campus for years. The only problem is, Noa, who is many years Maggie’s senior and holds a top job in the company, is practically never home. And Maggie’s childhood-friend-turned-college-lover, Thomas, turned up recently., when one thing led to another. “She’d never dated a woman before Noa, and Thomas was her only other serious partner.” And now Maggie is pregnant, floating somewhere in the mid-Pacific wondering how to break the news to her partner.

Meanwhile, Noa is confronting a drama of her own making. She has learned about the approaching storm—and begun asking questions in a senior management meeting with WellCorp’s board chair and majority investor. Meeting resistance, she protests loudly, demanding that the company do something to protect the people in the storm’s path. This does not go over well, and within minutes of leaving the meeting, Noa learns she is fired. Security unceremoniously leads her to clean out her office and head toward the outside world for the first time in many years. Then Emmett Neal intervenes—and the drama picks up the pace. It’s full of surprises all the way to the end,

About the author

Photo of Leslie Stephens, author of this novel about breakthrough wellness technology
Leslie Stephens. Image: Beyond With Jane Ratcliff

Leslie Stephens writes a popular Substack newsletter and has contributed to other print and online publications as well. She has a BA from Wellesley College and is studying for a master’s degree in counseling from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where she now lives.

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