“What kind of danger the Pliocene Period can present to us, Professor?” inquired Sonia with utmost curiosity.

Marwan put the glasses on his hand and back on his face. “Proto-Ancient Egypt perished in a catastrophic natural disaster,” Marwan answered. “So, going there is very dangerous! No one knows when the apocalypse happened at that time. That is not a picnic, but suicide!”

“Isn’t going to the Pliocene Era it will prove that your theory is right?” Sonia retorted. “You concluded that the Sphinx and some of the pyramids in Egypt are from the Pliocene Era, and the people in this era have advanced technology, that is proven by the skill to build those magnificent sites.” 

Marwan took the bait from Sonia, who excelled in making other people talk. The professor’s tall and a bit chubby figure got tensed. His body was not quite straight but somewhat sturdy, signifying a scientist who spent more time on the field than in a laboratory.

“The extreme, secret, and unpublished part that this kind of time travel is not to bring the past to the present as an Augmented Virtual Reality experience. This project transports us to be in the past for real, flesh and blood. It’s the time when Proto-Ancient Egypt or the Old World became the period before our New World today. We don’t experience seeing and feeling it as virtual reality. The fact is that the world is totally strange! We don’t know what kind of danger and how big, how severe it’ll be, especially the catastrophe that wiped out the Old World of Proto-Ancient Egypt!”

“Did you lose your pioneering spirit?” Sonia asked with disappointment.

“Don’t get me wrong! I’m still a scientist.” Marwan refused to be called like that. “But just to prove that the Sphinx and some of the pyramids in Egypt are from the Pliocene Era, it doesn’t mean that someone must go back to the past. So, let me make it clear! Through this show, let me send a message to Mr. Reign, don’t persuade me again to be involved in this project. My answer is still no!” []

The commotion in the main hall was a common view for the employees who worked in the room around the hall. They were the technicians of Tunnel Educations Inc. at the ChronoTours Center in Jakarta who supervised every activity so the rides were operated well without much trouble.

Just as in the other rooms, people in the control center were busy watching the monitors and panels in front of them. Only a few people stood, and then went to and fro watching other panels, touched equipment, and went back to the first place. It was about a month after the Grand Opening now, so things were going regularly now. A “smooth sailing”, people said.

When the phone rang, a man stopped his activity and reached out for the telephone handle on the neighboring table. “Hello,” he said. “What’s up, Rin?”

He nodded on receiving the message from the front desk and then turned to another person who sat behind the largest table in the room facing all other employees at work.

“Mr. Made Oka,” the operator called the man who emanated a charismatic aura although he was silent. “Rina just said there’s a phone call from InterTime again inline-four. Do you want to answer it?”

The man in question stopped looking at the paperwork on the table in front of him and sighed.

“They just never learn,” said Made Oka, spinning his ballpoint on his head. “Just send my reply, Gus, that I never want to receive phone calls, from InterTime, ever!”

“Very well, Chief,” said Agus with comprehension. Then he talked on the phone, conveying his boss’ message to the operator. Not long afterward, Agus talked again to Made.

“Chief, Rina said the operator from InterTime must get connected with you. If not, her boss will fire her.”

Made frowned. “Whatever, as I care,” he grumbled, and then went back to his work.

Seeing his boss unhappy, Agus fell silent. He directly said to Rina that Made Oka didn’t want to talk to InterTime, no matter what. Done deal. Agus immediately put the telephone handle back in the first place.

They then continued their work. Made Oka was snapped a bit when his smartphone rang. He reached out to that smartphone near the edge of the table. Through a specially preset ringtone, he knew it was her daughter calling, so he picked it up.

“Yes, hello.”

Made Oka paused a while to listen, made short remarks, and ended the phone call. And then he put his smartphone in his bag.

“Gus, I must go home now,” said Made Oka, tidying up his work on the table. “Arni and her mom are waiting for me in the basement.”

“Yes, Sir. Give my regards to Arni and Madam,” said Agus for courtesy.

“Okay,” answered Made.

After his work was tidied up, Made Oka took his lab jacket off and put it behind his locker door. He made sure there were no personal belongings of his that were left behind. When he was ready, he walked towards the entrance.

“Who’s the shift head tonight?” he asked everyone in that room.

“Mr. Park!” As usual, Agus gave the clearest answer of them all.

“Okay, if he comes, tell him to reroute server number two in the collection room. There’s a trouble that needs repairing and replacements.”

The entire staff nodded altogether.

After delivering a few more messages, Made immediately went out and closed the door. He left the ChronoTours ride site, disregarding the commotion in the lobby on the ground floor. Several passersby wearing uniforms greeted him, and he greeted back without slowing his pace down towards the elevator with the sign “For employees only” on it. Shortly afterward, he found himself in an elevator going towards the parking lot on the basement floor.

After he arrived, he picked up his pace again towards a certain car parking on a space specially reserved for him. He then saw a little girl hurrying toward him and hugging him around the waist.

“What’s wrong, Sugarplum?” asked Made. It was unusual for him to see his only daughter acting like that.

“Daddy, Auntie Caroline, and Uncle Suranto are here,” Arnie mumbled, her neck turned to point in a certain direction. Made Oka also turned towards the direction Arnie pointed and saw an American lady with her Indonesian husband. From the look of her aging but still a quite beautiful visage, the lady was sobbing on Made’s wife’s shoulder. Made Oka became worried to see the whole thing.

“Made,” said a man approaching. Made didn’t see his presence at first because that middle-aged man was standing in a dark spot.

“Bro Suranto, Caroline, what’s the matter?” Made asked. “When did you two arrive in Indonesia?”

 “Three days ago, Bro,” answered the tall man with a thick mustache on his supposedly still handsome face. “How are you? I heard you are successful in Tunnel Education. Thank goodness, we’re also glad to hear that.”

“Thank you, Bro. But what’s going on here? How come you two look so sad? And what’s the matter with Caroline?”

“That’s why we came from the States to see you, Bro. I know you don’t want anything to do with my father-in-law again. But this is about Amanda.”

“What’s wrong with Amanda?”

It seemed Surano was restless and clueless, he didn’t know how to start.

“Carol said, Amanda is missing in the Proto-Ancient Egypt Age, Honey,” said Ratna, Made Oka’s wife, helping Suranto to talk.

“Missing? In Proto-Ancient Egypt Age? W-what do you mean by that?” exclaimed Made Oka with a puzzled face.

And then, he snapped his fingers, as though he was reminded of something. “Did your father-in-law modify the ChronoTours virtual time travel ride into a real-time machine?” Made asked.

Suranto nodded and bowed his head down feebly.

“Forgive my father, Made,” said Caroline Reign regretfully. “He never listened to you from the start. But now everything you feared has happened. Please have a heart and help us...”

Everybody fell silent. Made Oka surely could very much feel Suranto and Caroline’s sadness. That was because the three of them were friends since they studied together at UCLA, a renowned university in California, USA. Suranto was their senior back then and Made respected him, Suranto being a very handsome, very intelligent yet helpful fellow. However, Made couldn’t get to decide anything, with dilemmas crisscrossing in his heart.

“But I can’t help wondering, how come Mr. Reign has been that sloppy?” asked Made with a frown.

 “Just accept it, Honey. Bad things have happened,” persuaded Ratna. “Now they have come all the way half the world here for your help.”

“I beg you, Made,” Suranto pleaded. “Please come with us to InterTime Research Center.”

No wonder InterTime has tried so many times to call me, Made Oka thought. He turned to his wife for advice. Ratna nodded in response.

“Very well then,” said Made, also with a nod. “Let’s see what we can do about it.”

Suranto and Carol held each other’s hands thankfully. Then Suranto asked them to ride in a big black luxury van together.

“You go first,” said Made to all. “Wait in the van. I need to tell Security to look after my car first.”

Made Oka went away quickly. Shortly afterward, he came back and joined the others in the black luxury van.

Driven by the trustworthy driver long in Suranto’s employment, the van rolled out from the ChronoTours building and went directly into the toll gate ramp not far from there. A few moments later, the van cruised the highway.

“How come Amanda entered the real-time machine and got lost in Proto-Ancient Egypt?” Made inquired. “When did she go to Cairo?”

Suranto and Caroline now seemed calmer because Made Oka was willing to go with them. Made and Suranto sat in the middle row, while Caroline, Ratna, and Arnie sat in the back. Only Arnie slept soundly in her mother’s lap.

“During the summer holidays, Amanda who studies in a college in Paris went to Indonesia as per her grandfather’s invitation,” said Suranto, beginning his story. “You know her grandfather doted on her very much. So, when my father went on a trip to Proto-Ancient Egypt with his team, he brought his granddaughter along without our knowledge and consent. The trip lasted an hour or so, but when the team was transported back to the present time, Amanda didn’t transport along with them. Reign sent Bill to pick Amanda up, but Bill came back alone, saying that Amanda was nowhere in sight, even after he walked around the area for an hour or so.”

“I see. But I don’t know Mr. Reign has developed a real-time machine,” said Made Oka one more time.

“Well, you know my father-in-law is very ambitious in this project, despite your objections at that time.”

“But hang on,” Made Oka cut in. “Why Amanda was lost in the Proto-Ancient Egypt Age, but she departed from Indonesia? The time machine was designed to travel through time only, not space too, right?”

“I’m a businessman, how can I know about scientific kinds of stuff like that?” Suranto snapped. “Please don’t add to our distress with scientific questions like that, Bro! I’m distraught already.”

Made Oka sigh, realizing his mistake.

“I decided to bail out from InterTime because I opposed the Chairman’s plan to upgrade the ChronoTours virtual time travel ride to a full-fledged time machine because it’s dangerous. Now the thing I’m afraid of has come true, right? And I need to correct it because it was Amanda who went missing.”

Everybody fell silent because Made Oka was indeed right.

“Just give it a rest, Honey. Don’t press them like that.” Ratna repeated her previous request in order not to let their friends break down in regret for what happened. “Remember what we’ve agreed upon.”

Made Oka silent again. And then his thought wandered. Is Marwan right again this time? That Proto-Ancient Egypt wasn’t merely a nation or a kingdom, but the whole world as one great civilization? The Old World? He thought, rubbing his not-so-clean shaven chin. So, Amanda went from Cianjur but went missing in Proto-Ancient Egypt, because she has arrived in the same place but at a different time. So, Cianjur and Indonesia at present WERE Egypt in the Old World. If that’s so, how about Atlantis then? Was it in the Old World too like Egypt? []