Prompt from seat14C.com

At 4:58am on June 28th, 2017, the passengers on board ANA Flight 008, en route from Tokyo to San Francisco, are cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet, approximately 1,500 nautical miles off the West Coast of the United States. A small bump, otherwise noted as a barely perceptible bout of turbulence, passes Flight 008 through a temporary wrinkle in the local region of space-time. What these passengers will soon find out as they descend into SFO is that the wrinkle has transported them 20 years in the future, and the year is now 2037.

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"Noah.... I mean Dr. Lockhart" She smiles while playing with her pearl earring. Her fingers tremble ever so slightly. The green eyes have a young innocence about them. If not for the slight crinkles at the edges I wouldn't have put her past twenty.

"I'm Dr. Eleanor Burke, I work with Dr. Hawking. This way, please. My car's outside. I'll take you straight to his office."

There's something about her. Her face. Very familiar. I wasn't expecting anyone to pick me up, much less a qualified doctorate whose time seems far too precious to be chauffeuring me. "I haven't collected my luggage yet," I stutter.

"The luggage will be brought to the car." Another smile. Once again a tinge of nerves seep out of the pretty face. "Here in San Fran, we don't like to waste time on airport protocols."

I thought Tokyo was developed but this is way beyond my imagination. Who knew SFO had advanced so well. That's when I take in my surroundings. Things are definitely different here.

At one turning I stop to take in the advert about a maid for the house. A robot. The plastic girl whizzes around the house on a hover-board doing chores. Dr. Burke holds me by my elbow and guides me out of the airport.

"You have AI's for a maid? Wow, this feels more like 3017!"

"Oh, that's just a silly experiment. Don't worry about it."

She gets behind the wheel and I slide into the passenger seat of the vintage Jaguar. A small screen in front of me rises from the dashboard. A robotic voice says, "Welcome back Dr. Lockhart. It's been a while–"

Dr. Burke snaps the screen shut.

"Another silly experiment?" I can't stop myself from asking.

"You were always so smart." She has a dreamy look in her eyes.

"How'd you know how smart I was? Have we met before?" Where have I seen this face?

"Oh... Oh no... we haven't. I just meant... meant as in how Dr. Hawking described you."

Before I can say anymore she starts the car. We join a hyperloop underground highway that jets us off at phenomenal speeds into the city.

"Aren't you guys worried about CO2 emissions?"

She laughs. "Carbon's invested here as fuel."

"You're kidding, right. That sort of technology doesn't exist."

She refuses to speak, instead, switching on the music and Enya belts out 'Only time' from the car stereo in a voice sweeter than chocolate.

"I love this song." I smile.

Dr. Burke nods as if that's not news to her. A slight tinge of sadness sweeps over her face and I wonder if it's the song or something I said.

I catch her chewing her crimson painted fingernails. For a doctorate, she seems very nervous to meet me. A nobody. A fresh Ph.D.

We arrive at a sixties styled building sprawled over huge grounds. She leads me in, her red-heeled shoes clicking noisily on the parquet flooring, charcoal skirt swishing against her legs. I nearly bump into her when she stops outside a door and a whiff of citrus shampoo churns something inside me. What's wrong with me? This woman must be a good decade or older and yet a vulnerability about her makes me want to reach out to her.

The door opens and the aroma of fresh coffee and waffles brings a growl from my stomach. Dr. Hawking is seated by the window gazing out. He turns to me slowly when he hears the door close behind us and greets me with a big smile. "Noah, hope the flight was not too turbulent?"

"It was fine, Sir. I can't tell you what an honour it is to meet you. I'm so glad you liked my research paper enough to invite me here."

"Take a seat, Noah." He gestures to the sofa in front and I sit down although my right leg refuses to sit patiently and staccatos noisily against the floor.

"You met Eli."

He glances once at her and she smiles back with glassy eyes. The lines on her forehead darken.

"So when do I start?" I ask.

"Immediately. If you go with Dr. Burke she will take you straight to the lab. You will work on the impacts of binaural beats in developing neural networks."

"Hold on. My research has always been on adults. I don't know much about young brains–"

"This is not up for discussion, Noah. Please get on with the research."

Before I have a chance to protest further, Dr. Burke whisks me off to a lab situated within the same building. When they invited me, I was expecting to work within Stanford University grounds but I can't complain when I get to live and work in Dr. Hawking's home!

The research lab is nothing like I imagined. It's very spacious, a large expanse of the building dedicated to the lab. Even Stanford would struggle to have so much space to one area of research.

Dr. Burke shows me the ropes on how she runs the lab. She ends her long chat with, "So basically Noah, we really need to get to the bottom of the impacts and solution within the week–"

"End of the week? That's crazy. This sort of research takes years. I was planning to do my double doctorate on this."

She shakes her head vigorously. "There's no time for buts, Nix. We have to get to it this week. It's not up for discussion."

Nix? How did she know my pet name. The only people that call me that are mum and younger bro. Maybe I mentioned in my previous comms with Dr. H?

She's about to say more but stops herself and takes a deep breath. "I'll get some coffee. Why don't you familiarize yourself with the systems?"

My fingers brush hers as she walks past and the muscles on her face tighten and eyes glaze over. I don't understand this hyper drama or what's going on with this woman but every minute with her is like being spun through a roller coaster. How will I get through two months here?

She returns with two mugs of coffee a few minutes later and perches on the bar stool next to me. We work in silence for a couple of hours.

Finally, I rise from the chair with a yawn and stretch. "I'll go out for a quick walk if you don't mind."

"I'll come along."

"I wouldn't expect you to. You don't need to spend your precious time Dr. Burke–"

"I insist." She grabs her sweater and leads me out of the building. Instead of going towards the main road, she guides me towards the woodlands at the back. We talk about our education. She tells me about her working experience with Dr. Hawking and his quirky behaviour. We have a good laugh and a brisk walk helps me get some energy and oxygen.

"So any ideas on the research solution?" Her wide eyes are searching mine for answers I don't have.

"I'm not sure why Dr. Hawking and you believe­–"

"You can call me Eli."

"Do you mind if I called you Eleanor?" I wince but I can't make myself call her Eli. It doesn't sound right.

She tries hard to suppress a smile and looks away. "That's fine. Eleanor sounds good coming from you."

Is she flirting with me? Without realizing we venture far enough that we approach a road at the end of the grounds. Not far ahead, a large screen adorns the side of the road and on that, there is a large photo of me de-boarding the plane this morning with a banner – "The answers are here.."

"Woah! What's that?" I ask.

Eleanor looks at me with panic and back at the board. She writhes her hands together and starts to say something but nothing comes from her mouth. She glances at the board again. "I...I... don't know what to say."

"How about you start with the truth? What the heck is going on here?"

"It wasn't meant to be there. They said they would skip this screen, dammit!"

"Who? Why would they skip so that I don't see it?"

"Oh, Noah. I didn't think you'd understand. You need to know the truth. You should talk to Dr. Hawking. It's best if it comes from him." She walks back towards the lab.

With a few fast strides, I catch up and hold her hand to stop her. "Why won't you say what it is and why do I get the feeling like I know you."

When I look at her face, her eyes brim with tears. She gazes at her hand where I have held her. Transfixed we both stand there for a few moments staring at each other.

"Don't make me say it. I can't. Not to you."

Her leaving fills me in an uneasy vacuum. I hardly know her for a few hours but I feel like a huge part of me is missing. Slowly I trudge back to Dr. Hawking's office. He is seated behind the desk and doesn't even look up to see my angry stride into his office.

"Eli called me to say you were coming. I should've expected that. You were always far too bright to miss a beat."

"Will everyone stop talking in riddles and tell me the truth for once." I pace the room, frustration spreading through my veins.

He drops the pen on the desk and gives me a long hard look. "This morning your plane went through a wormhole, a wormhole my team set up specially to get you here. You might ask, where is here? Here is 2037. You skipped ahead in time. Twenty years."

His words sound like small butterflies flying over my head, circling the room and lifting higher. None of it registers or sinks inside. I slowly slide into the seat opposite his desk. "What... How... What?"

"Exactly what we thought you would say. You have been brought here to solve the biggest problem we face today. Suicide rates in teens have gone up exponentially. Similar to the 'Blue Whale' challenge from your days, kids seem to be fine until suddenly they drop dead for no reason."

"What? And I have the solution?" I massage my forehead. "That's why you and Dr. Burke have been asking me to get on with it and arrive at a solution."

I pace around the room for a few minutes while he waits quietly.

"The advancements you saw in the early 2000s, Noah, we had an exponential version of that between 2017 and 2020. By 2025, we had robots for most of the manual work. Man goes on a holiday to moon nowadays. Water's no longer a scarce commodity. Things have changed. Improved hugely."

"There's a but somewhere," I prompt.

"Yes. The technological advancements help us lead high quality of life but we are still unable to help the young minds and mental health issues remain one of the biggest problems faced by this planet."

"Caused by what exactly?"

"We don't know that and that's what we want you to figure out and fix this."

"Why do you think I will have the solution?"

"Because you said so yourself. One day you were driving home. You called Eli and told her you knew how to fix the epidemic. That was the day you died in a car crash."

"What?" My mind reels with the new information.

"We brought you from 2017 because the current version of you from this timeline is dead and there is no other hope. Already, just the news of you being here has brought in a huge wave of positivity and the predictability indicator shows a decline in death rates."

He has mentioned my death in such a fleeting way as if he was quoting the day of the week. I swallow hard. "How did I die?"

"It might be best if you don't know more. All you should be doing is focusing on the cure. Time is precious, Noah."

"You telling me time is precious? Of course I bloody well know that. I am dead in twenty years time. Well, I don't even know where that leaves me right now. Am I dead or alive? And what happens to the time space ripple you just caused by bringing me here."

"You are well aware of the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. It's best if you know less. Any involvement from our part in arriving at the solution might divulge the path." He turns towards the window. "We'll deal with you when we get to it but right now if we don't find a cure, we have a bigger problem. Your death is no different to all the rest that are dying every day. So stop moping and get on with it."

I want to hit him but it takes all my strength to slowly walk away from there. When I am at the door, he stops me. "Has Eli told you anything?"

"About the cure?"

He gives me a curious look and then says never mind with a wave of his hand dismissing me from his office.

I return to the lab and question Eleanor straightaway. She tells me all about the illness. It started three years ago and then grew rapidly. People had noticed a spike in teen suicides due to unexplained drop in Cortisone levels. The deaths were scaring people further leading to a spiralling issue led by psychological effects.

"What we need to do is go back to the time when it didn't exist and compare patterns to post it's starting. What did kids do differently? What changed things? But this type of quant can take years. How will we analyse fast?"

"Big data. Quantum comp will crunch the numbers in a matter of hours."

Eleanor and I immerse ourselves in the illness data but I cannot see any correlation. Creating order from this chaos sucks the life out of me. Minutes, hours and days pass with us stuck in the lab with no breakthrough. I take my daily walks but I never bump into anyone younger than twenty.

"Where are all the kids these days? They aren't all dea–" I can't say the words.

Eleanor stops eating and looks up at me. "Kids don't play out like we grew up. There are worries about abductions. They play indoors nowadays."

"How do they keep fit then? Maybe that's what they are missing?"

"You always used to say that." She smiles and sips the wine. "Each house is equipped with a gym nowadays. People are very conscious about obesity and it's monitored strictly."

"And what about schools?"

"Education is online. It's effective and efficient as it can be done anytime suitable in the day. Kids are thriving on the new curriculum."

I play with the Shepherds pie on my plate. Three months in Japan has made me remember home in England all the more. Eleanor has managed to find my favourite food as I was feeling so homesick but I have lost my appetite since Dr. Hawking mentioned about tomorrow's press conference. He is hosting one to talk about the solution but I still have nothing to show.

"Where did I live? If I died a few months ago I must have had a place. Do I have family?" I ask.

Eleanor watches me over the wine glass as she slowly sips the red liquid. She rises to her feet and gathers our plates together. "We must really get on with the work. We'll look like fools if we have nothing to show tomorrow."

When she walks past me I hold her wrist to stop her. "We were more than just colleagues, weren't we?"

Her long lashes hold back the tear from slipping past. "Please, Noah. Let's not do this now as it is I'm struggling with..."

No more words are spoken for the next few hours as we both immerse in different parts of the research. What was it that I had thought of and why was that solution so elusive yet? I guess two decades of experience would count to more wisdom and a solution and however fast I run now with the research I can never make up for it so quickly. The numbers, stats start to blur in front of me and the burning in my eyes has reached fever high level. I push the chair away flinging the screen and all the equipment goes hurtling along with it. Eleanor stands there beside her desk, her features twisted with pity and desperation.

She walks up to me. "C'mon. Let's get out of here. You need a break."

I try my pull my hand away. "We don't have time for breaks. The conference is in less than five hours."

She guides me through the corridors, out of the building and into her car. "A solution is impossible in your current state. C'mon."

A quick drive takes us up to the top of the hill, what's known as the twin peaks. The parking lot is deserted and she switches off the engine along with the headlights. The valley in front comes to life with its glittering display of lights and the most amazing view of San Francisco Bridge.

Perching on top of the hood she taps the spot beside her. "You used to call this place the panacea. Every problem according to you can be solved if people stop and take a look from here."

I sit beside her but I can't even make myself look at the luminous display in the valley.

"You know, what's funny. This was a typical teen hangout area. You and I used to hang out pretending to be one of them." She shakes her head slightly and lets out a large breath.

"Do you really think I'll come up with a solution?" I hate how pathetic and needy my voice sounds.

She gazes at me for a moment, her green eyes shining under the reflection of city lights. "I know one thing, Noah. If anyone can do it, it would be you. You always had this incredible sense of energy and full of what I can only explain... as life."

Eleanor leans over and kisses me. When our lips touch, it brings all kinds of deja vu. Deja vu I shouldn't feel as I have never experienced this but my heart fills up with a warm fuzzy feeling that this incredibly smart, intelligent woman loves me and no matter what I cannot disappoint her. Pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

I pull away from her. "I remember! I remember what it is."

"You mean the cure?"

"Yes, the cure. I know exactly what to do." I slide off the hood and help her down. We get in the car and drive back to the lab as the orange ball of fire rises in the horizon. Another day but a day like no other.

She laughs when I act like a little kid in a candy store. "How can you remember something that hasn't happened in your life yet?"

"I don't know. Maybe the time-space ripple triggered a continuous cycle... I don't know, Eleanor. I know what I was thinking of that day when I was driving back home to you."

"You remember... you were coming home?" She glances at me briefly with glazed eyes before reverting back to the road.

There's no time to go back to the lab so I ask Eleanor to take me to the largest open space in San Francisco. A huge hall known as the Public Open Space. It's deserted at this time of the morning.

I tell Dr. Hawking to put out a newsflash that we will only talk of the cure if people arrive in person at the centre. He protests that it is not the norm nowadays as most press conferences are conducted online but he eventually agrees after I refuse to go ahead without it.

Kids trickle in slow at first and gradually they increase in numbers building to a steady stream entering the building. By eight a.m., the space is packed with young minds and overflows spilling outside in the green lawns. The press conference kicks off in a mute way compared to the ones I remember from my time. I am introduced and the mic handed to me.

"I have the cure." That one sentence from me and the hall erupts into a huge roar and chatter. People are talking, clapping and shouting over each other to be heard. Questions attack us and more concerns on how it will work.

I hold my hand up to silence the room. "I have the cure," I repeat. "It will take a few weeks to be fully ready but it needs a fully utilised pre-frontal cortex the day the cure will be given."

"What does that mean?" Someone shouts from the back.

"It means you need to talk a lot more in person than you do. External stimulation is very important for the vaccine to work in parts of brain and from today, anyone who wants the cure will need to spend at least six hours a day in the presence of another person, be it in work space or at home. This is to monitor their stats before they are given the vax."

There's an instant buzz and grumbles from the crowd. I signal to Dr. Hawking, place my hand on the small of Eleanor's back and lead them out of the building. As soon as we are back at Dr. Hawking's lab, he explodes with fury. "What the heck was that? You don't have any cure, do you?"

"I do," I insist.

"Then enlighten us."

"Back in my research, I found a link between sociable relations strengthen the psycho-somatic effects and also that of placebo effect."

"You really think those people will get cured just based on pyscho-somatic impacts?"

"Along with other things. You have had fantastic technological advancements but the only downside is the lack of social interactions face to face in youth. Humans thrive on sociability. We need physical contact." I glance at Eleanor and she gives me an emphatic nod to continue.

"Dr. H, think of it like the big bang theory. Since it happened, the eco-systems, galaxies, and planets have drifted away and in doing so have built a chasm where black holes have developed. What we need is to suck the floating systems, in this case, people back in and cause another dramatic big bang. Once the social interactions increase, you will see an exponential rise in cortisone and a drop in the deaths."

I hold my hand out for Eleanor, which she takes instantly. "It's time for another Big Bang, Dr. H. Get them talking. It's time to get up, close and personal." Eleanor and I walk out of the building. We have a lot of catching up to do.

The cold air outside rushes straight to my lungs and a soft breeze blows the brown tresses all over Eleanor's face. She moves them away saying, "Dr. Hawking was right in bringing you back after all. He chose you."

"Chose? Over whom?"

"His fifteen year old daughter. She died last year from the same illness."

A large weight crushes my chest. "Why didn't he use the wormhole to bring her?"

A single tear slips down her cheeks as she watches the clear blue skies. "Because... because he said. Bringing his daughter brings back his life. Bringing you will mean saving thousands of lives." She holds her hand out to me. "Science for the greater good, right?"

I nod slowly. "For the greater good."