Time

Chapter- 2

Yatri is a 17-year-old boy who was produced 1 year ago and has lived in a government’s apartment ever since with all other batch mate who were mass produced in the same batch. All of them are studying in universities in the field of their interest.

Yatri has joined engineering. He is very passionate about how things works and always curious to see inventions and technologies. He has a room partner called Zarnu, who also studies the same subject at the university and is equally curious. That’s why they make a good match at home and school.

Yatri wakes up at 7am and goes to the bathroom. He checks on Zarnu and finds him still sleeping. He tries to wake him up while brushing teeth but Zarnu says he wants to sleep for 5 minutes more and turn the side on the bed. Yatri finishes his bathroom routine and quickly goes to the kitchen and prepares breakfast for both of them. After a while, Zarnu joins and they eat the breakfast together. They talk about last night’s party at Linda’s place and laugh at their funny activities. After they finish, they prepare for the college and go to the college by their flying car which activates by their watch on their wrist.

They join the class but there was still time to start the class. So they gossip with classmates about last night and other stuff. After a while, AI starts to give the lecture about their Astronomy and quantum physics. AI also talks about the Project X, which AI researcher and scientists have been jointly working on. The project is about wormhole. It explains how it might end the era of transportation through vehicles and could all be just a wormhole, which could lead us to anywhere we desire in no time. This pulls the attention of Yatri and Zarnu as they are extremely curious teen, they start to imagine the world without vehicles and how they can travel to a place of their dream. Yatri closes his eyes in the imagination. Immediately AI warns, “Yatri, please pay more attention to the lecture and ask questions if you have any”. Zarnu pokes him and both laughs at each other. AI continues teaching…….

After the class, Zarnu and Yatri had basketball practice, so they go through the hallway of the college where they pass by ‘Research and Development Laboratory’ and pay more attention to the lab’s door like never before. Yatri whispers, “Zarnu, isn’t that wormhole experiment going on here?” Zarnu replies, “For sure, where else could it be? I heard that nobody except registered scientists are allowed to enter and they need very strict security clearance”. “Wish I could go and see the Project X and check how it works”, says Yatri. “May be in your dreams because we are just students and it will take a lot of time for us to be scientists so forget about that”, Zarnu replies. They reached the basketball court and start playing with the team. He scores the goal but gets Déjà vu while the ball basses through the basket. He feels like the ball goes from 1 place to a completely different world. This feeling repeats every time he puts the ball in the basket. He looked like he was lost and just stands with the ball in his hands making other team wait. “Yatri! Yatri! Yatri!” Zarnu calls him and he wakes up, suddenly acts like nothing happened, then passes the ball to his teammates. Zarnu feels something is happening to Yatri, but keeps it for the night to talk about.

After they have dinner at their apartment, Zarnu starts a conversation. “How is your health? You seem a little distracted in the match today”. Yatri replies, “To tell you the truth, I’ve been feeling Déjà vu about the wormhole thing for the whole day today after that class. I don’t know, I feel like I really want to see what is inside that lab and how they are making that thing”. “Yes, I agree but nobody would allow us even to see the ongoing project,” says Zarnu. “I don’t know but tomorrow I will go there secretly,” says Yatri. “I don’t think that’s a good idea if anyone finds out then we’ll be in a big trouble”. “Believe it or not, I have already planned it”. Says Yatri. “How?” asks Zarnu. “That you leave it up to me. But we both can enter as per my plan,” says Yatri. “Sorry, I cannot be a part of this as it's dangerous and even if we enter the lab, we don’t even know what’s there. We may end up in trouble,” says Zarnu. “Oh Come on! Don’t leave me alone” says Yatri. “Sorry, I have to,” says Zarnu and leaves the room. Yatri seems engaged with his idea and works on building the plan for tomorrow…..

Next day Zarnu wakes up around 5am and goes to the bathroom. While coming out, he finds out Yatri’s door is left open. He quickly checks Yatri's room and finds out he is not there. Immediately, he understands that Yatri has left for the college to execute his plan to break into the lab. Zarnu feels compelled to go and help him and save him from the unforeseen situations. Quickly, he grabs his flying car and heads to the college. He saw Yatri’s car in the parking lot of the university and keeps his car next to Yatri’s. Zarnu was wondering how Yatri might have entered the college because everywhere there was artificial intelligence surveillance and there’s no way he could go inside without signing in. He just waited outside and was thinking. Someone taps on Zarnu’s back. He turns around and finds out it was Yatri. Yatri says, “That’s what I was also thinking yesterday, but I figured it out. Listen, look there, there will be total 6 scientists coming for their shift, which starts at 6 am today and all will be in a queue to register their entry after a while. Every time when a person stands in front of the face scanner, it recognizes the face and previously set time for their entry. Then the gate opens and again closes. This process takes total 3 seconds. Now, we have to take entry within that 3 seconds. But for that, we need to carry this magnet. It slows down the gate closing time and enables us to enter within that time. So, first, I will put that magnet on its side, which will slow down gate’s function, then you remove the magnet while coming in”. “What about the camera in front?” asks Zarnu. “Camera is only checked if any suspicious activity reported, so, don’t worry about that”, says Yatri.

They wait outside and count a total of 5 scientists entering one by one and go behind the sixth one. Once he enters, Yatri puts the magnet like he explained and Zarnu takes that out while coming in. No, any mistake occurs. They now finally enter the airlock area of the lab where scientists have to change their cloth. Yatri and Zarnu secretly go inside while hiding from walls and other stuff around. But since the lab is big and they really don’t know where does Project X is located, they have to find out by hiding and scanning every single door that they see. Finally, Zarnu finds out the wall written Project X but the door is locked and they don’t have access. They are again stressed and couldn’t figure out what to do. Zarnu says, “See, this is what I was worried about”. Yatri replies, “Can you please stop panicking and let me think”. After a while, Yatri comes up with an idea and says, “Look here at this mirror, you can see the reflection of a scientist that is working in another lab. So take 1 magnifying mirror from the bathroom that is used for shaving and normal mirror and go in front of the face scanner of the Project X door. With the help of 3 mirrors we will show the face of scientist who have access to the lab”. “Wow! That’s brilliant!” says Zarnu.

They do exactly as planned, and the plan works brilliantly.

They both enter inside the lab and see the lab is big but kind of empty. They are confused with the arrangements. They were expecting big machines and many technical arrangements. But it seems that there are not many things other than a quantum computer and some equipment. Zarnu asks, “Is this the right place we are looking for?” Yatri says while scanning the areas with his eyes, “This is exactly what we have been looking for”. He presses some buttons on the computer and it starts the operation. Zarnu shockingly looks at the process. A bright yellow light appears and starts to revolve around the circle, which gets bigger and bigger. A strange sound generates while bright lights revolve. Suddenly, the light becomes stable and stands still. The circle is almost 6 feet wide in diameter. Yatri and Zarnu both are amazed to see what just happen and they are really happy to see the wormhole that they have been looking for. Suddenly, there was a sound of AI asking to enter the coordinates. Yatri went to the computer but Zarnu tries to stop him, “No, don’t enter any coordinates, this machine is still not fully functional and we don’t know what happens”. Yatri says with smile, don’t worry, I will not put any location far away, I will just put the coordinates of the place where we came from and that is next to our flying cars”. Zarnu says, “Oh, this was your plan to go out of this place, that’s genius”. Yatri starts to put the coordinates, but he heard someone is coming to enter the lab. They both are very afraid and try to put the coordinates as soon as possible. But they hit a few wrong numbers which they don’t know yet. The computer says please enter in the circle in 10 seconds then the countdown starts. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0. They are inside the circle and same time someone enters the lab, and the boys disappear into the wormhole.