TIME WARS

Chapter 2

     United Airlines Flight 1613, LAX , LA
              20th October,2022,3am

"Remind again why I had to use my vacation days to accompany you on an impromptu work trip halfway across the globe?", asked the woman seated next to Ethan, being quite skeptical and calculative.
"My boss especially asked for you, Jen. Which, although sounds creepy, is actually just plain intriguing," grinned Ethan as he put his glasses in his jacket pocket and prepared to sleep his way through 18 hours of boredom.
Jennifer shrugged, and adjusted her seat into an upright position. She didn't like boredom on flights, or boredom in general. She liked to be active, enthusiastic, being eager to do something, anything. It was an invaluable quality in her field as she often ended up working for long hours.
Tonight, she had another 18 of those long hours to spend. So,naturally, she decided to watch Netflix for as long as she could stay awake.

As she opened up her laptop, a blank screen faced her. The reflection showed a woman who was 30 but looked 'at least 5 years younger' according to her husband, with long red hair complimenting her pale skin and jet-black eyes that gave one the impression of staring at an impenetrable wall.

Sighing heavily and cursing herself once more for agreeing to this trip, she put on noise-cancelling headphones and fired up the latest season of Stranger Things.

-----------

         Infinity Laboratory 17, New Delhi
                 21st October,2022, 2pm

Ethan had taken the liberty to walk around the laboratory he had worked in a few years ago, when the time machine in front of him was just a theory Rohan had had at the time. He'd asked Ethan to work out the math and see if it was indeed possible to go about actually building the machine, from both financial and scientific viewpoints. The cost, which was nevertheless quite high, was approved after a lot of private investor backing, a surprising amount of it being anonymous.
And now, the results that were earlier dreamt of were very close to being reality.

"Welcome Back," said Rohan.
"Yes boss, great to--Oh!", stumbled Ethan. It had been almost a year since he'd met Rohan in person and nearly a decade since they'd started working together and he couldn't remember a single time that Rohan had looked more empty. He was definitely very tired but there was also a lack of that subtle authority that he brought every time he walked into a room.
"You look absolutely horrendous and I'm assuming that means we have made time travel possible, or at least some form of it!" blurted out Ethan, barely controlling himself. He'd waited over a day to say this and he couldn't help himself now that he'd got the chance.

"Yes and no. We do have some sort of time travel, but it wasn't intentional. I believe we have recieved an object from the future. It could be some sort of message, or a catalyst for our present selves to act in a certain path from this very moment in time," said Rohan. He spoke with the air of someone talking about the day's news or the weather forecast.

Ethan meanwhile, was the polar opposite. His jaw had dropped subconsciously and he found himself at a loss for words.
"I...I just have so many questions," he finally stammered out.
"All to be answered in good time,buddy," replied Rohan, patting him on the back. "Now come over here and tell me what you think of this," said Rohan, guiding Ethan towards his desk which was empty except for an equally empty coffee cup.
Ethan suddenly stopped mid-walk and said," Hang on, how'd you figure out it was from the future?"

"Ah, i forgot about that part. Tell me Ethan, does Jennifer still have her wedding ring with her?"

"I don't follow", Ethan mumbled.

Rohan shook his head and walked up to the desk. As he turned the coffee cup upside-down, a ring fell onto the desk. "This is Jennifer's ring," he said silently.
Ethan,though,from about 5 feet away,wasn't too convinced that the ring was Jennifer's. It was of the same size and shape but that's where the similarities ended. There was neither shine nor sparkle of the diamond, almost as of it weren't there. The ring itself looked burnt somehow, charred in some manner. It looked very, very delicate to Ethan and he had half a mind to ask his boss to not drop it onto desks again.

He expressed his doubts to Rohan and in response, the latter simply showed him a small mark on the frame. An ever so tiny "J" was inscribed on the ring.
Ethan raised his eyebrows at Rohan.

"Plenty of people with a name that starts with J", he said, but there was a bit of panic in his voice.

His boss's gift was one he'd been eternally grateful for and an explanation as to how it ended up into a laboratory thousands of miles away from where it belonged wasn't one that Ethan looked forward to.
"It's charred, but it's hers, I'm very sure of it. And you don't have to worry about explaining yourself to me. It was a gift, not a loan." Rohan said, almost uninterested now.

"Thanks, but I'm pretty sure I saw her with the ring on just last night. I'll call her and we'll see."
" Yes, you do that, while i send the ring to forensics. If it isn't Jennifer's, i want to know whose it really is."
" You don't have her DNA."
"I do, actually," said Rohan, walking up to Ethan and picking up a few strands of red hair from his jacket.
Ethan blushed and said something about it being Jennifer's jacket as he couldn't find his own.

"Yes of course it's her jacket. She wouldn't go within 10 feet of a dumbass like you," laughed Rohan while walking out, leaving Ethan alone with his thoughts and embarrassment in the lab.
-----------------