Look into the future

Kelis, Lien, Eno, Axel, Nix, and Tera were on the fourth underground floor, near the pillars that belonged to the vanished civilizations.

- "You said you were in the future?" - Lien clarified.

- "It happened almost as soon as I found out that the Ark project was voted for," - Kelis replied.

After Kelis received the phone call that the Ark had been chosen as the hope of humanity, he sat silently at his desk and looked at the photo where he, along with Rennie, and other scientists were standing at the opening of the research center.

Kelis slammed his fist on the table angrily.

- "Ark?!... who would have thought Rennie... all your efforts will be worthless in the end."

Kelis took out a cognac from the chest of drawers and poured himself a glass.

- “Maybe if we had followed my path, this wouldn’t have happened… although… it’s too late to think about it now.”

Kelis drank a glass of cognac and poured himself another.

- “If you were still with us, how would you get out of this situation?... I would probably go to the most radical measures again.”

Kelis was about to drink a second glass when he stopped. He thought for a moment.

Kelis got up from his chair and quickly rushed to Axel.

- “What? Do you even understand what you’re asking? No one has launched the pillars yet. What if they tear our planet apart?” Axel began to argue discontentedly.

- “He has practically no tihirax left. At worst, he’ll blow away one floor… And at best, we’ll know if they even work,” Kelis replied.

Axel sighed in dissatisfaction.

- "You can disappear somewhere in time..."

- "I know..."

Axel looked at the confident Kelis and volunteered to help him.

Axel and Kelis went down to the fourth underground floor with several other technicians.

The technicians used large exoskeletons to set up pillars next to each other, forming four sides, with Kelis standing in the center.

Axel looked inside the pillars, which contained tihirax. It was a rare mineral that served as a source of energy for the TDC. It glowed, but the light was very weak.

- "I will move to Earth a week before the Rebirth, and see if the Ark project really succeeded," - said Kelis.

- "Tihirax is on the verge. There may not be enough for you to return," Axel noted.

- "I will take a chance," - Kelis replied.

Kelis spun the time compass on one of the pillars and launched the pillars. A wind rose around and Kelis moved into the future. He, along with the four pillars, found himself on the fourth floor of the research center.

It was quiet around. The entire floor was abandoned and unkempt. Kelis looked around cautiously. There was no one on the floor.

Kelis took the elevator and went up to the upper floors. He got out of the elevator and found himself in rooms where chaos and disorder reigned. Papers were scattered everywhere. Some of the computers were turned on, but no one was sitting behind them.

Kelis wandered through the deserted corridors.

- "Hey! Is anyone here?"

- "Kelis?!" - Eno asked in surprise.

Kelis looked around and saw an exhausted Eno, with an unkempt beard, holding a stack of papers in his hands.

- "You said you were going to spend time with your family..."

- "I guess Kelis told you so from this time. But I'm from the past."

Eno looked at Kelis in surprise.

Eno led Kelis to the window and showed him what the city streets had become. They were filled with abandoned cars, looted stores, broken windows, and littered with trash.

- "I don't know whether to believe you, because this is a time when everyone is going crazy," - said Eno.

- "I don't have time to convince you. So I'll have to believe."

Eno looked at Kelis's confident gaze.

- "After the lists of those chosen for the ark were announced, everyone who didn't get there was simply told to accept the Rebirth," - said Eno.

- "People will never accept that."

- "That's how it happened... People started a war. Those who were ready to take up arms gathered together, just to get into the ark. Their first target was Sei's ark."

- "Sei?" - Kelis clarified in surprise.

- "That's the name of the ark that was created from recycled TDC..."

- "What is with him now?"

- "The ark is under the control of people who took up arms and forcibly expelled those who were supposed to get there by lottery. It is thirty percent full. That's how many people are currently living in the mined ark, and no one is being let in."

- "What about the other three arks?"

- "They are heavily armed by several countries... All in order not to repeat the fate of Sei. Although there have already been armed precedents with attempts to break through the first line of defense of one of the arks."

- "Well... I'm not surprised"

- "The world has never been in such chaos as it is now. If the end of the world had come for all of us, people would have finally come to terms. But when they know that there is someone who will bypass all this in a safe place, unlike them, then it changes everything. They ask questions and talk about injustice.”

- “Do you say that too?”

Eno thought for a moment and answered. – “Of course. I was just as unlucky not to get on the ark. And I’m terribly angry that I have to stay here. And you? After hearing all this, won’t you be angry?”

- “Am I angry that I didn’t get on the ark?... No. I’m not angry. I don’t care if I get on the ark or not.”

- “Then what do you want?”

- “To save this planet with our TDC. Now I’m sure that our project must be implemented.”

Kelis turned and headed back to the elevator.

- “Where are you going?” - Eno exclaimed in surprise.

- “To launch the TDC that is in our hands. To its full potential. And in the end, to save this planet.”

Eno followed Kelis.

- “You understand that even our TDC is not a perfect solution. It, like other technologies, will entail its own problems! And there will be other armed men on your path who will oppose you!”

- “I know, it’s inevitable…”

- “Then why?”

The image of Rennie appeared before Kelis’s eyes, at the moment when he had quarreled with him, in the last minutes of his life.

- “If there is a chance for a better path for humanity, we must take it.”

Eno stopped and looked at Kelis’ back, who confidently headed towards the elevator that led to the pillars in the underground floors.

- “Well… I hope I will be in a better version of the path of humanity.”

Kelis went down to the pillars that had transported him here. He looked at the pillars. They stopped lighting up because they had been discharged.

Kelis opened one of the pillars. The Tihirax inside it was no longer glowing. Kelis hit the Tihirax with his fist and it lit up with a faint light again.

Kelis placed the tihirax back into the pillar and all four pillars lit up again.

Kelis moved the time compass and traveled back in time.