Scientists were still arguing after I brought them pictures of it evolving low overhead and sending up a thick trail of black smoke. The asteroid passing tumultuously overhead, dinosaurs howling in despair in the distance as if sensing their doom – it was more than a young girl could bear, and as time tensed its muscles and dragged us into the present, they all abandoned themselves without hesitation into my arms. The sky, which should have turned blue as soon as oxygen appeared in the atmosphere, was still black. At the appointed moment, I was launched and, although I knew that such a thing was almost impossible, I felt myself being pushed backward by the temporal velocity with which I was propelled. I gritted my teeth and drove on through an increasingly desolate and darkening world: the sky had gone black and the stars were constantly visible. It wasn’t until the terms of the trip were explained to me that I realized that the Institute must have tried and failed, and now they were pinning all their hopes on me.
