For A Better Future

Once upon a time in my future, as I relaxed on my couch in the 20th floor balcony of one of the many tall towers that had already covered my hometown which was a part of the successful completion of 100 Smart Cities Project launched 15 years back, I looked at the vast endless sky above me. A lot of things had changed, for better or worse. At least now, we had a better view of our night sky as it was covered with hundreds of thousands of manmade satellites or 'brights' as we liked to call them. We even had a 'fake moon' now, which is apparently 8 times brighter than the real moon gracing our sky. This was made possible by the Joint Collaboration between all the major space agencies and of course, it would have cost unimaginable amounts of money had our team of Indian researchers not given them out of the world brilliant solutions to make it cost efficient. I heard the street dogs barking in the distance, as I tugged at my coat, picked up my coffee mug and went back inside. 

All my house chores had been done and I was about to move into my study to prepare the final draft of my research paper when I came across that object. It was a small transparent sphere and almost looked like the surveillance cameras that patrolled the city with real time transmission to the police control room but those did not have switches on them and this one had. I had not noticed it earlier but now that it had gone all Laser Light on me, that I registered its presence. It is strange how when human brain registers a threat; the flow of time seems to come to a still. In the next seconds to follow, I went into auto pilot mode and let my instincts take all the decision that my brain should have because apparently when human brain registers a threat, it also stops working at the same time. 

I quickly grabbed the wall mirror behind me in the hope of blocking the laser beam in the event that it turns hostile which I sincerely hoped it wouldn't because one doesn't need to be a physics professor to know that if a laser beam wants to really hurt you, then not even Terminator can save you. 

Fortunately, the beam got deflected out of my way and I somehow mustered up my courage to bolt for the door. I picked up my car key and phone on the way to the front door but just as I was about to leave, I did the thing which makes up the whole point of a horror movie, I looked back. 

There was a huge flash at that instant, the whole room was engulfed by the blinding light coming out of that object and then it was accompanied by an ear-piercing beep.

 I don't remember clearly what happened next but the next time I opened my eyes I found myself in the middle of a busy fish market. At first, I thought I was dreaming until the strong stomach wrenching ammoniacal smell of sea food hit over me. 

This felt too real to be a dream. But the strangest thing was that I was in the middle of a fish market in China. There were a series of people speaking Mandarin all around me, there were sign boards written in Chinese characters that I did not recognize. 

Any normal person would have gone crazy by then in that bewildering situation but the only thing I could think of at that time was 'Thank God, I hadn't taken my overcoat off'. Suddenly the whole situation seemed so funny, I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud which earned me a few surprised glances from the nearby vendors. 

Maybe I had teleported there? But how? I had been keenly following the International Journal of Quantum Science and although researchers had made a massive breakthrough by teleporting a series of electrons having different energy levels but teleportation of atoms let alone objects or me for that matter was yet to happen even in theory for about 10 more years. 

And here I was with nothing except for my clothes, a hair tie which I was grateful for, car key which had apparently no use now, phone with obviously no network, purse which had a few meds and some coins which after exchanging at the airport kiosk would most probably amount to nothing, that I may as well exchange it in as scrap metal and then there was my watch which I had never seen before. 

It was a really exquisite watch, although it didn't show the time, it had a beautiful design which made up for its lack of serving its real purpose. 

It had a stone in the center which looked like opal and was slightly bulged while tiny golden chains held it together with the strap. 

It would have made an excellent bracelet if not for the presence of a small crown beside it. It seemed to covey the moving message that even a watch which couldn't show the time deserved a crown to set the time. 

Of course, I had watched enough of my Avengers to realize that this mystery watch must have something to do with my teleportation. But for now, I needed to get out of my present location. 

The small problem pertaining to the situation was that I didn't know where to go. 

Easy, I started walking in the direction where people who had bought their fill of sea cuisine were heading because everyone knows that after buying stuff, one is more likely heading towards their residence than a mafia organization.

After walking for about half an hour, I came across a building having "International Plaza" written over it. Finally, I could find someone who speaks a language I know. I entered the lobby, found the waiting area, made myself look like I had a purpose to be sitting there and quickly grabbed the English newspaper in front of me. 

It was a copy of The New York Times; I was highly impressed that the hotel provided such high-end services and even served its guests paper news even in these times when their price had sky-rocketed after The International Forest Conservation Act of 2027. 

But then I felt like I was falling off a cliff when I saw the news having Boris Johnson and Donald Trump on its main page. There was no way that I had time travelled to the past. It just wasn't possible, I mean no matter how convincing this situation was but after years of research I along with my friends had concluded for sure that time travel to the past was definitely not achievable, that Albert Einstein had been right and we were going to present our paper providing detailed alternative solution to the problem next month and here I was 11 years back in time. 

I had to do something, anything to understand the situation. I rushed to the washroom and closed myself in one of the stalls. Anyone watching me closely would have thought I had an emergency too dire to hold which was true in a way. 

I looked at the watch carefully again. The shiny opal surface, the tiny crown, maybe if I rotate the crown, something would happen. 

I turned it clockwise, and slowly I found that the bulging surface also turned around to reveal a mini projection of a hologram in front of me. It was a projection of a countdown showing only 4 hours left... to what, I did not know. 

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and tried to think of my current situation. I had travelled back in time even though it wasn't really possible, furthermore to China, 11 years back. What could possibly... and then it hit me, this was the time when The Corona Fall had started. 

11 years back, October of 2019, a virus mutated in a fish market in the heart of the Wuhan City in China. This virus mutated and infected people all over the world, totally shaking the foundation of many developed economies. 

When further investigations were done, it had been found that it originally caused a harmless common flu but after it had infected a man in that market, it had suddenly genetically mutated leading to changes in the virus structures which made it very dangerous. 

This had created huge loss for several countries, millions lost their lives, everyone was 

home quarantined, and the situation did not recover until a major breakthrough in the field of medicine took place in 2021 with the development of 'Copills'. 

These were capsules which were developed to fight the virus. A single dosage every month was to be taken in order to ensure not getting infected. This brought about an end to the struggle and brought back the much-needed tranquility in our lives. 

I realized that my getting here in this time had to do with The Corona Fall. Maybe I was sent here to save the world from the suffering it had yet to suffer. The countdown must have something to do with the virus infection. 

The fact that it did not take me too long in realizing this and not expressing any surprise on why out of the current 7 billion population on Earth, I, a normal researcher was chosen for this trial had something to do with my great obsession in dystopian movies. 

I carefully examined the hologram now showing only a little more than 3 hours left, I tried swiping it left and right so that the screen could show any further information. Nothing happened. I tried turning the crown again, and this time the hologram changed. 

It now showed a map with two spots blinking on it. One was at the "International Plaza" which must be me and the other was at the fish market from where I had come from. Ding Dang Dong, everything seemed clear to me now. 

That fish market, here in Wuhan, was where it had all started, I must go to that spot and find the man going to be infected. If I can stop him, then the future can change. 

I rushed out of the stalls in a hurry while the other ladies eyed me with a look of sympathy. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I had been in the bathroom stall for over an hour. 

I hurried out of the hotel and started walking in the direction I had come from, meanwhile I employed my mind into thinking of my plan upon reaching the market. 

I was certain that the other spot in the holographic map was representing the first person to be infected with the virus. I knew exactly what I had to do after finding him. 

I opened my purse, and started searching for the meds I had seen before. It wasn't after I felt like I had fiddled with thousands of compartments in that small purse, that I finally found the strip of "Copills". 

As I re-entered the fish market, I had decided, I would find the man and give him the pill which would stop him from getting infected. As a safety measure, I would give him the entire strip to eat for a year every month so that by then, this event in time would have been eliminated completely.

Afterall, DNA changes are extremely rare events, furthermore, the virus isn't Liam Neeson and I didn't kidnap his son. I started following the directions on the map and entered that maze of a market, one alley leading to another. 

I only had about an hour's worth of time left when I found the man. He looked in his fifties as he warded off flies by waving his wrinkly hand over the oysters he was selling. 

I opened the Google Translate app on my phone and turned-on translations to Mandarin which I had luckily pre-downloaded or else I would have to turn all sign mode to communicate with him. 

Now, the major problem was how to convince this man to take the medicine and not think of me as a victim of a pyramid scheme. 

I began the conversation lightly by asking about his oysters, then when he was not looking, I added the contents of the "Copills" capsule into his bottle of water. I had to resort to such schemes as I did not have much time left. 

As he drank from the bottle, I was planning on offering him the rest of the medicines when suddenly there was a loud sound that came from the watch. 

There were still 15 minutes left but the watch started giving off consecutive beeps like that of a bomb. I was horrified at first thinking that maybe the watch was a beautiful bomb. There was a blinding flash of light again followed by that ear piercing beep, the next instant I found myself in my study. Only this time, there were other guests present too. 

My colleagues Rashmi, Anushka, Ayush, Sara and Senior Researcher Shiv were all looking at me grimly. 

"The simulation has ended, Sristi. But I don't know whether to call it a success or a failure." said Sara. 

That felt like a blow to the solar plexus. So, this was the result of the years of hard work we had put in together and not my fantasy of travelling to the past. This was the research that our team had been working on, after concluding that time travel to the past was not a possibility, we had come up with a simulation model for travelling to the past which would develop new chain of events corresponding to the changes we made in the past model depicted in the simulation and present the probable future after performing long series of algorithm structured with an artificial intelligence system we had developed together with the help of renowned international scientists who had agreed to provide us with high-end technology for research purposes.

The world had indeed become a lot closer and approachable than before. We were not working on a baseless project, we hoped that we could accumulate big data concerning major events in history like The World War, The Collapse of the League of Nations, The Chernobyl Disaster and others and by conducting trials could resolve the mistakes that led to the unfortunate events and feed these patterns in the system that we had created to facilitate the prediction of the correct measures needed for our present to have a safer future for us. We wanted to avoid making mistakes, avoid repeating mistakes of the past in our present to ensure a better future for us and our generations to come. 

However, I hadn't known that my friends had already developed the prototype of the model. Senior Researcher Shiv lifted the watch from my table, it was the same watch, he pressed at the opal surface and it detached from the straps, I stood in awe as what I had thought to be a stone came out and transformed into the small transparent sphere that I had seen earlier in my room. 

"Great, I had mistaken premium bio-plastic to be opal, there's a reason why mothers stop their kids from watching too much TV." I muttered. "But how did I enter into the simulation without taking the inducing agent?" I asked. 

"You are definitely not normal, Sristi. Is that the first thing you should ask after coming from such an intense situation?" Rashmi rolled her eyes at me. 

Of course, I knew it wasn't a normal experience but my brain was filled with too many questions to spare space for ‘omg moments’. I took my seat beside Anushka in the study which had served the purpose of a small office for our research activities. 

"We had put some in your coffee earlier when we had sneaked into your house thanks to the emergency keys you had given me. It was supposed to be a surprise!" Anushka said that without even batting an eye. 

That's when I realized that I had some pretty dangerous friends not to mention I had done something similar to the old man in Wuhan just a few moments ago. "So, what is the result of the surprise simulation? Also, you all could have hinted me with the progress of the prototype at least." I complained. 

"We knew you would be alright, furthermore we wanted to watch Miss Know It All freak out a little, but you made us freak out when you suddenly started laughing out of nowhere in the middle of the market. We thought you had lost it for a second there." Ayush said. 

" The simulation trial was a success in its execution. The algorithms and the reality touch functionality worked properly or else with you there, you would surely have detected something off about the whole situation. However as far as the result of the 

actions you performed are concerned, the system has predicted that it would lead to a completely destructed world, a world a lot different than at present." Senior Researcher Shiv answered. 

"But how is that possible? It should have taken care of The Corona Fall. How then would the world get destroyed?" I asked frantically. 

"The "Copills" that we use has been developed to prevent infection of Covid 19' which is the current mutated form of the virus. However, the old man at that time had not yet come in contact with the flu when he took the capsule. When he developed symptoms, the virus mutated differently and became resistant to "Copills" and thus took an even aggressive form. Scientists could not develop any stronger drug to handle it. This led to the wipeout of a large population on Earth.", explained Senior Researcher Shiv. 

"I think we should first have isolated the man from the outside world and then proceeded further. That would have been a better course of action." Sara said. 

"I agree. There must be a way we can change the outcome of the world for the better. Let's take the trial again." I joined. 

"Let's start moving now. Stash up your supplements, set up the equipment, we have a long night to work again." ordered Senior Researcher Shiv. 

"Thank God, we get paid properly by the government or else I wouldn't have been able to agree to this constant deprivation of my beauty sleep." said Rashmi. 

We all let out a deep sigh, lifted our heads and did our routine cheer, "For a better future!" and went back to our seats to get busy with the preparation of the new trial. 

A future that respects individual freedom, a future that guarantees safety and a future that binds us together stronger than ever is the one we all were hoping for, be it now, 11 years back or decades to come from now.