Time Machine
Peony Yee Kei Leung, Group 3: Fiction, Diocesan Girls' School
ave you ever wanted to change the course of history? Like, stopping the Opium War, or stopping the
Chinese Civil War? Well, I know someone who wanted to change the course of history. Sit back and
enjoy.
There was once a girl who, when looking back on history, would find the loss of so many lives in
the construction of the Great Wall a terrible pity. She was called Sarah.
As she grew older, she became a highly respected scientist, because of what she invented: bubble public
transport, for example. Bubble public transport is a public transportation which allows the passenger to take
their ride in a bubble. It was highly recognised, and Sarah became the greatest scientist of her time.
Yet, the invention she wanted to complete was a transportation that could travel so fast, it could go through
time. She wanted to be able to change history by travelling through parallel worlds. She was normally practical,
but she couldn’t give up the dream of being able to change a bad test mark, or to be able to spend more time
with her family members. The hidden secret in her heart was that she wanted to go through history to change the
fate of the people who spent years in constructing the Great Wall. In short, what she wanted was to persuade the
Gin Emperor that there were better ways to defend China rather than making a humungous stone wall which
ended so many lives. She needed to go back.
Of course, such an ingenious invention could not be kept secret for long. The one to discover the secret was
an evil, moody, obsessed, mad scientist, Anzac.
Anzac was obsessed indeed; he was obsessed with evil inventions, with turning back time, with correcting a
past wrong.
Years ago, Anzac met Sarah at school. She wasn’t pretty, nor was she popular. The only things going for
her were her brains. She was the smartest girl in school, even wiser than the teachers. He learnt to love her.
Maybe it was another obsession, or maybe they could really have set up a fortunate life together. As it turned
out, Sarah was leaving the town forever. They couldn’t contact each other. Anzac, after that, never saw his
teenage love again.
Anzac didn’t know that he was about to take the time machine from was his teenage love. He only knew he
had to turn back time to make sure that he would intervene with the course of events and would follow Sarah
when she left town that fateful day with her father. He was determined not to lose her again, given the chance.
* * *
In Sarah’s lab, commotion whirred all around the room. Sarah was the commander of the chaos, fixing a
huge bulk of a machine and checking some settings.
This was actually the time machine. She smiled and hummed her favourite song as she twisted in a few
screws and flung away the screwdriver to her back, where it rebounded on the wall and joined it’s companions
on the floor.
At the dingy window, Anzac peered inside. Actually, if he just looked at the scientist, he would recognise
her as Sarah, but Anzac continued to stare at the time machine. He could see the time period on the settings to
be Qin. What could this scientist be to go to the Qin period? Just as he was about to train his microscope on the
scientist, another person burst in. Anzac dove into the bushes under the window and changed the dial on his
hearing machine to ‘high’.
“--------
are you doing?” he heard a voice say. Possibly it was the voice of the new-comer.
“
I’m going to the Qin Dynasty. You’re the only one who knows about the time machine. Don’t betray me
now. Just let me go. I’ll be back soon.” A weary voice said.
“
You’re not on about your dream of saving the Qin people, are you? Oh no, you’re serious. You’ll get
beheaded, come on, snap out of it!” the new-comer said.
“
No one deserves to be treated like this. Get your hand off the dialer. Now. I need to set the speed of travel.”
Footsteps sounded. Wow, the commanding tone of the time machine inventor was really familiar, Anzac
thought.
Anzac realised that the inventor was about to go to the Qin dynasty with the time machine, and he couldn’t
set things right. No, he had to stop them. But how? That was the question.
“
As your fellow scientist, I really advise you not to go. Really.” The new-comer said meekly.
“
Stop worrying, I’m coming back. I’m not as fragile as you think.” The inventor said. Then, he heard a click,
H
Shortlisted