2050, It is mid-November. The festive atmosphere of another Christmas has taken over every nook and cranny of metropolitan New York City. Roads are lit with a light blue colour, resembling snowflakes. Every corner, there are sounds of the bells jingling and the sound of excited people, talking to each other while holding big boxes of presents. The sense of business can be felt even more than a month before the real festival, as people rush to buy goods before prices start to spike. In the centre of the city, the headquarters of the Counter-Extraterrestrial Association sits majestically like a king. In the office room, Lieutenant Colonel is sitting behind the big screen, watching every dot moving on the digital world map. Numerous abnormal activities have been detected recently, mostly in remote areas, and there have been countless times that he and his comrades have received sudden calls at midnight because something has been found. The burden is not only on him but also thousand

- Okay, thanks for contacting me. I will arrange for a one-week accommodation for you in Perth, from 11 December to 18 December 2050. The visit to Huntly Mine will be guided by one of my people at the University of New South Wales from the applied science department. But why do you suddenly want to visit our bauxite mines? - My company is importing minerals, and I am asked to go around to check the quality of the ores in some places that the bosses ask me to visit. Sorry for bothering you near the end of the year. - Don't fret yourself about it. It has been quite long since you contacted me. Bye then. - Bye! I shut the holographic video call. The person that was on the screen is one of my classmates during university, Issac. He studied with me at Tokyo University, but after graduation, he decided to work as a professor in material science in Australia, where he had access to resources such as mineral ores and synthetic materials. We have been i

The second day of the trip to Australia comes. It is early in the morning, when one can still see the faint image of the moon in the sky. And yet, someone is interrupting my sleep. Someone that everybody in the world knows. - Wake up. We need to prepare for the expedition to Huntly Mine. Their people will arrive at the hotel to pick us up at eight sharp. - Mirai is throwing a pillow at me, who is currently half-awake and trying to hold his ground on the bed. For a freelancer whose life is always threatened by unexpected project invitations and weird customer demands, getting to sleep in bed is nothing less than a brutal fight with time. And now, as a self-proclaimed hero, there is no difference. - No... Five more minutes... - I cover myself with the blanket. - After drinking that big jar of draft beer and getting back to the hotel, you immediately pass out, and I have to bring you to bed. And it was only like nine o'clock. - Mirai complains and throws a

After about ten minutes, a train arrives at our station. As expected, it is just the driver's carriage when you look at it from the outside. After the door opens, Albert signals us to step in. I withdraw my thoughts. The interior of the train is upgraded to match the standards of a commercial train, even more luxurious than a typical commercial train. There is air conditioning and air filters installed, and even the tiniest details are spotless. The carriage contains the driver's chamber, which takes half of the space of the carriage, partially separated by the table area, taking the other half. Albert enters the driver's chamber and scans his card on the receptor placed in the centre of the steering wheel to register a driver. After that, the set of buttons and levers emerges beside his driver's seat. He presses a button. We hear a long beeping sound, then the engine starts working. Yeah, this train has definitely been around since the twentieth century. It is shaking from a

The explosion blasts the door towards us, and Albert, who stands directly in front of the door, gets concussed with arguably tens of kilogram of lead and platinum (to block off heat and radiation). He collapses onto the ground. - Don't even know if I should call it a blessing in disguise... Mirai, can you perform first aid and drag him to a safe corner? - I talk to Mirai. - Can. Mirai checks his vitals, then takes out a sleeping bag. She places his passed out body inside it, and drags the sleeping bag to a corner that looks protected even if the station collapses. Then, we inspect the door. - This bomb is definitely newly placed here. Just look at the remnants. - I point at the open end contact point of the door with the wall. - Agree. This bomb is just a typical type that does not do enough damage to destroy a structure, but can do something like killing a person in close range. Realising that the bomb does not give off any valuable in