A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex

Prologue

  2100, the Earth…

  In a physics lab, a female scientist is meticulously adjusting the nodes of a huge machine in the centre of the lab. After every circuit is connected, she exits the glass chamber, sweat and anxiety soaking her lab coat. She pulls a long lever.

-          Teleportation system activated. Power connection severely damaged, divert to reserve electricity. Charging capacitors will take one minute. Waiting for authorisation.

-          Authorise to charge.

-          Authorised. Commencing charge.

  They are everywhere, going on massive rampages and massacres. Spaceships and smoke cover the sky, and towers grow like mushrooms after rain. Innocent lives fall one after another. Even the strongest and the most intelligent of us feel powerless against them, wielding all types of cutting-edge weapons, equipment and vehicles the current Earth technology is far from being able to rival.

  Intruders, an alien empire from a faraway galaxy that dominates other creatures across space using force. Having been setting down on Earth since 50 years ago to discreetly conduct research and build facilities, every one of humanity's single moves is looked through. With their relentlessness, every nook and cranny they march through, not a single soul is spared from the trampling.

-          Charging complete. The current energy level can maintain operation for the next five minutes. Initialisation and analysis of the teleported subject is 40 Avogadro numbers of atoms. Authorisation requested.

-           Authorise to initialise.

-           Authorised. Commencing initialisation and analysis.

  But this is not the end of humanity. History can be changed, once and for all. In the last functioning physics lab of Tokyo University, all that is left is to send this package back to 2050 to warn people of this apocalypse, and slowly find a way out of it. The time machine would be ready in a few minutes. The remaining mission is to hold her ground and survive until the finality of the teleportation.

  Loud sirens that perpetuate from emergency communication towers complement the panicking atmosphere overwhelming the city, but in despair, passing through her eardrums are heartbeats and humming machines harmonising into a drum march.

-          Analysis complete. Please enter the teleportation information. Teleportation will start right after all required information is entered.

  Although not a standard practice even for a budding scientist, she needs to skip some procedures to accelerate the delivery process. In particular, she tags a random address and hopes that it falls into the correct hands of the correct person. And press the complete button…

-          Verifying information. All pre-teleportation procedures are completed. Discharging energy and teleporting in three... Two...

  One.

  ...

  A flash blurs her vision for less than a second, followed by a slight burning, painless and piercing sensation. She instinctively looks down at her chest, where the feeling has occurred.

  A hole. A hole that is so clean that even her blood takes a few seconds to start dripping. In front of her, the culprit laser beam has already roasted the control board. The metallic frame has blocked the path of the beam, leaving the important nodes residing along the teleportation mechanism intact.

  As blood continuously dyes her lab coat in red, her five senses slowly fail. Her legs can no longer support the weight of her body, and so she falls onto the floor. In the last few seconds of her life, She hears the beeping sound of the machine, signalling the successful delivery of the package to 2050, and the sounds of hurried footsteps. They seem to know what device is in front of them, and thus, the furious glass breaking and metallic smashing sounds.

  She vividly feels the warmth of the blood pouring out of her body. The smashing sound fades as her eardrums no longer receive external sound, and thus she can only feel the weaker and weaker thumping. 

  At the very least, she knows that the first part of the plan is a success. Her endeavour, her hopes, and the fate of humanity in another timeline, she entrusts them to whoever receives this package.

  She smiles for the last time. The life of a 25-year-old female scientist, with many unfulfilled hopes, dreams and ambitions, abruptly ends.