Past and Future

prologue

Earth 19999
Time: Year 2037

The machine, crude and make-shift as it is, is the best thing she'd seen in a long time.

"Aural signatures recognized," her partner murmurs, fingers flying over the keyboard. She looks at the code, checking it for any mistakes before asking "The years are correct, right?"

"Yes," her partner replies. "If you're ready.."

"Yeah, yeah," the girl mutters, turning to her outdated laptop. She checks her partner's code again, before going back to her laptop and punching a few keys. "Targets going quantum in 10, 9.."

"Wait!" her partner stops her, eyes suddenly wide with hesitation. She narrows her own eyes, "What?"

"Are you sure?" he asks her. The girl blinks.

"What do you mean am I sure? We've been working on this for years and you--"

"I know that," he says, a note of irritation in his voice. "What I am talking about is, well, you know how this will end."

"Your point?"

"Do you really want to lose your life like this?"

The girl stares at him. Something like a scream builds in her chest, oppressive and strong, but she refuses to let it out, because there isn't any time, and he is just wasting hers-- but she shouldn't. There is more at stake here, more than her anger, and she should remember that.

"Tell me," she starts, voice perfectly level. "Would you have stopped? If it meant this hell would go away, would you have hesitated?"

Her partner looks away. She stands.

"You didn't. You chose to give it up for the rest of us, so you," she says viciously. "You, are the last person who can tell me that I shouldn't."

"I chose to," he says, turning back to her. "Look where that brought me."

The fight goes out of her, just as quickly as it came. She collapses back into the chair, sagging. The silence lingers.

The girl turns to look at the heavily guarded door of their lab. She doesn't remember the last time she was outside. The few cameras they had left to monitor the surrounding area had been crushed, broken by God knows what. She doesn't remember how it felt like to smell air that didn't reek of blankets and stale pizza.

"Can you blame me for wanting to try?" she says softly. Something breaks in her partner's face and he looks away.

She breaths raggedly. "Targets going quantum in 10, 9..."

Her partner's voice joins hers in counting down. He looks at her, before pulling her close, a little hesitantly.

"3, 2, 1..."