A Flash of Light

Lisa had just seen her brother disappear. She knows that he uploaded something onto her computer and she can't help but wonder what it is. Jake insisted it was something important but how could she be sure. She spends half the night pouring over code, checking the current code against previous code. After an exhaustive search and not being able to come up with anything, she decides to get some sleep. She doesn't feel like making the drive to her apartment and she has a sofa in her office for just such an occasion. She makes herself as comfortable as possible and tries to get some sleep. Around 4 am she is startled by a sound coming from the computer room.

Although still worn out from the day before, she gets up to investigate. She moves as quietly as she can toward the computer room. She hears the sound again. She quietly opens the door and is blinded by a flash of light. After what seems like just a moment the light is gone. The result leaves her seeing a million tiny specks of light. When the specks disappear she is by herself. Whoever was in the computer room had to go past her to get out since she is standing at the only door in and out but she doesn't feel anyone bump into her. It is like whoever was there just disappeared into thin air.

She suspects that some sort of 'Time Traveler' must be messing with her work. But what is so important about her work that agents from another time period are so interested in it and how did her brother become one of these time agents. The whole thought process gives her a headache. She goes back to the sofa in her office and tries to get some sleep. The next thing she knows, someone is nudging her, trying to wake her up.

"Lisa, wake up." a voice says almost whispering. After a few minutes Lisa realizes where she is.

"Okay, I'm awake" She responds with irritation. Bob is standing beside her holding a cup of coffee.

"Here, I thought you might need this." He says handing her the cup. She takes a sip of coffee and gets up.

"We need to stop what where doing. I think someone has uploaded a virus to sabotage our work." She declares.

"How is that possible? The computer isn't connected to the internet yet. Someone would have to physically get into the computer room to do that." Bob responds, "Besides, even if someone did, our code would proactively disable it."

"I think that's what happened. Last night I heard a noise coming from the computer room and when I went to investigate, someone shone a bright light in my face." She explains.

"Where did they go?" Bob asks.

"I don't know, they just disappeared into thin air." Lisa answers.

As Bob and Lisa are talking, Beth comes into Lisa's office with an excited look on her face.

"I think you are both going to want to see this." Beth states barely containing her excitement. Bob and Lisa follow Beth into the computer room to a console and look at the display. The display is updating at an alarming rate. Lisa and Bob look at it in amazement.

"The code is writing itself?" Lisa both states and asks the question at the same time.

"Yeah, It's like it's learning and adapting and updating itself in real time. I've never seen anything like it before." Beth says.

"But what is it updating itself to do?" Lisa wonders out loud, "This must be what the intruder I was telling you about did."

"What intruder?" Beth asks.

"Lisa spent the night in her office and thought she heard someone in the computer room last night." Bob answers.

"Were they from the future?" Beth asks, "because I don't know anyone in the present who could have done this."

"It's funny you should ask because that's just what I was thinking." Lisa admits, "Someone from the future is screwing with their past."

"But it's not our past." Beth corrects, "If we could understand how this code works it would open a whole new world of possibilities."

"Should we let it finish or should we shut it down and reinstall the latest backup?" Lisa asks.

"I think we should shut it down" Bob answers, "We have no idea what we're messing with here."

"I think we should let it finish" Beth counters, "It could advance our knowledge of programming by decades."

"I'll have to think about it." Lisa finally says after a moment of silence. Lisa goes to her office to think about it. She doesn't like the fact that her work is being tampered with and there is no way to know what affect this tampering will have on the future. Beth is right though, it isn't her future they are messing with, it is their own future. Maybe they do know best but Lisa is wondering how this change will affect her present. She might have to deal with something she won't be able to contain. She doesn't like the idea of not being in control of the situation. After thinking about it for some time, Lisa finally makes her decision.

Lisa emerges from her office and makes her announcement.

"I have decided to shut it down and reload the latest backup. if we let this thing finish, we have no idea what it will do and we will have no idea how to control it." Beth is disappointed but they shut the computer down and reload the latest backup. After running some diagnostics they determine that everything is back to normal.