Prologue 3: Glass Bottle
Earth Year: 3146
Off the coast of Australia
"Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!"
I kept hearing a sound as I was sunbathing on the yacht foredeck. Scratching my eyes as I tried to open them, I sat back up and threw my legs off the pool lounge chair. Slowly opening my eyes, I could see the clear turquoise water past the side railing. Slowly standing up, I stretched my legs a bit before walking over to look over the railing.
"Dave, what's that thing down there?!" Looking at a shiny object hitting the hull, I shouted to my brother. Poking his head out of the control cabin, he squinted his eyes before walking over. As soon as he looked down, he pulled his shirt off and threw in my face.
"Splash!"
Before I could take the shirt off my face, Dave had jumping overboard. Chucking he shirt on the deck, I looked back down to see what happened.
"Ben! We just got rich!" This was what I heard just before my eyes landed on Dave. Wide eyed and staring at me with a smug grin on his face, Dave was holding a glass bottle above his head. After our eyes met, Dave began swimming over to the swim ladder on the boat's stern.
I ran over to help him get back on board. Falling onto the deck, he carefully placed the bottle down before turning to me.
"Ben, you just made us millionaires. You can't possibly believe what you just did. The bottle I just brought back can be sold to the state museum for an insane amount of money. With this I can finally continue my archeological career. The state museum's program can't reject me anymore. YEESSSS!"
'Flap, Flap, Flap'
Dave gave his brief monologue before yelling out at the top of his lungs, scaring off the seagull sitting on the cabin's roof. Seeing him so happy, my eye sight began to blur as my checks got wet. Streaks of water continued to flow down my face as I watched as my brother was celebrating our fortune. He even began kissing the bottle again and again, before our parents finally got out on deck due to the commotion.
Hearing what had happened from us, they also got happy for Dave. Father immediately set course for the mainland. Reaching the mainland, we took the bottle, which we hadn't opened yet, to the city museum. Despite our curiosity toward the contents of the bottle, the state had announced the Protection of Archeological Finds Program, through which sealed artifacts like the bottle we found could be sold to the local city museum for a large sum. However, the value of the sealed artifact would greatly decrease if opened by the finder.
Reaching the museum, my Dave and our Father went in to finish the procedure as my Mom and I waited outside.
Thinking back to how we got here, I realized I must have used a lifetime of luck for us to be here. The state had announced the new program due to the scarcity of ancient artifacts found and protected in the past millennium. We were a middle-class family that had rented out a small yacht for our bi-annual family vacation. Now thanks to finding the bottle, our family can finally live a better life, and even pay for both my brother's advanced studies and my primary education in better institutions. As I was thinking this, Dave and our Father walked out to meet us sporting bright eyes and toothy smiles. Just before we could ask about how things went, Dave abruptly stopped and yelled into the sky.
"We did it!"
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City Museum, Artifact Preservation and Restoration Room
'Pop'
The museum's chief artifact restoration expert carefully opened the sealed bottle. From inside the opaque glass bottle, she took out a rolled-up stack of parchment. Slowly unravelling the parchment, the expert found that the stack of paper was tied together in the corner with rope. Seeing this, the expert knew that the parchment was at least 1000 years old, as rope had become obsolete as technology grew past it in the early 2200s. After noting down some more observations, she continued to unravel the parchment until it was lying flat on the table with robotic arms applying just enough pressure on the corners.