Chapter 2

Daisuke walked through long corridor towards the door to the conference room with a stern expression on his face. In his head, there were playing countless scenarios of how the conference will go. He imagined all prominent figures of Free Country around a giant desk all staring at him and reminding him of the importance of this mission.

The thoughts made him very uneasy. His hand started to tremble and cold sweat surfaced on his forehead.

With every step, his feet were getting heavier and heavier. His breathing accelerating. His mind contemplating all possibilities didn't even notice that he was already at the door. He exhaled sharply and swiped his hand through electromagnetic lock.

Door swiftly opened without any kind of sound.

Behind the door were four five people, four sitting behind the desk, other two standing. Daisuke knew all of those people, some very closely. There was general Shirokawa with his sister Mrs. Shirokawa. Then there was a tall man with full grown beard. The head researcher of the institute, Doctor Sylvester Foul. An older man with sharp face and piercing glare standing by the window was head of information teams, lieutenant Igor Kazov. And the man sitting by the side of general Shirokawa was none other than Daisuke's father. Hamasaki Azami.

Upon Daisuke entering the room, all the looks were focused on him. Daisuke just stood here motionlessly, his eyes just fixated on his father.

"Hamasaki. You're finally here. Good. Please sit down." General pointed on a chair before Daisuke.

"With all due respect, general. I prefer to stand." Daisuke straightened up and put his hands behind his back.

"Well, as time is not on our side at all, let's get right into it. I assume that you know all the people present in this room, so no need for any introductions. Let us now proceed with revising the plan."

All present people sat down on their chairs.

General continued: "Hamasaki. I know that you're familiar with the plan. But for the sake of clarity, let me revise it briefly. As you know, the last living man died 'there' yesterday morning. It was long predicted that when 'their' society become what they wanted it to be, we will pose a threat to their ideals. And there we have it. As of yesterday evening, enemy forces built a siege at the western border. Since we knew this will one day happen, we devised a plan, which needed cooperation of all capable people at our disposal.

We can't hope to beat them in combat, and we have nowhere to run. So we will use the most powerful weapon of humankind. Science. You, together with Mrs. Shirokawa here and Doctor Hamasaki there. What you didn't know, that separately, but parallel to your research and development, Doctor Foul and lieutenant Kazov were working on the project too, Doctor Foul's team was devising criteria, physical and mental that would be best suited for the mission, while lieutenant Kazov with his team were gathering information on the goal and necessary steps on this mission. And your father, Doctor Hamasaki was working on it as well."

"But what does it have to do with me in particular, general ? You said yesterday that I'm going on this mission, but that means-"

"Now, let me explain all that to you. You, with your expertise in quantum computing and quantum machinery, were working on quantum computer. But to call it a computer is an understatement. As all people in this room know, we recently learned that in quantum world, the notion of time doesn't exist. In other worlds, quantum entanglement does not depend on space, but it does not depend on time as well. Which means, that we can entangle particle from the past with particle of the present."

"Yes sir, I am well aware of that. But why do you need me on this mission."

"Because you are perfect." It was Doctor Foul, head researcher. "As you know, quantum entanglement of human tissue or any part of human body in fact, is very invasive process. To withstand the process, body has to be in perfect shape. Just as is yours. That's why you are the ideal candidate."

"But, Doctor I still-" Daisuke was becoming more and more confused with every word said in that room. His uneasiness now grew into a panic.

"Okay boy. Let me give this to you straight. No more sugar coating. You just listen. When we're done talking, we can have a discussion."

General looked Daisuke straight in the eyes and straightened his back, which gave him even more respectful aura than he had before.

"The main goal of our plan is not do destroy 'their' society. It is to prevent it to be created in the first time. For that, we plan to send someone back in time, by entangling him with quantum machine that you helped build and alter the course of history by influencing the prominent figures who were responsible.

Now you might have been asking why influence them. We could just kill them. First I know this sounds horrible to just murder people who didn't even commit a crime, but it is also impossible. You see not only it would cause some unpredictable paradoxes, but an algorithm that Doctor Hamasaki wrote wouldn't be able to calculate that big of a change."

"What algorithm?" Daisuke was still more and more confused.

"The algorithm that I wrote. I created it to provide an aid for a person who is going to be on this mission. It calculates, how the changes that you make change the outcome in the historical events. However it can only handle very minor changes due to huge amount of data being processed. Even with the quantum computer, the consequences of death of one of the people responsible for 'their' society would be impossible. That's why you have to do only some minor changes. One at a time."

Daisuke was confused but his father's words cleared his mind.

"You said 'you have to do'. You knew that they want to pick me and you didn't tell me?"

"I am sorry son, but the mission is of more importance than any of us will ever be."

Daisuke was left staggered. But yesterday, he made up his mind to save all of them and accept the mission, but still he wanted to know why go to such lengths as to hide it to the last moment.

"I am sure now you want to know why we kept this from you. It's only a natural reaction. Well let me explain all from the beginning."