Well, I didn't win with my story for Seat 14C, so I'll post it here for people to read.
I was dozing when we went through the turbulence, I've been through a lot worse before. I hardly notice it any more. It's part of air travel. I did wake up though, so I asked for a cup of tea and went back to reading my book.
This was the last leg of my round the world trip. I had started in London, travelled around Europe, then on to Asia and Australia. Now I'm off to travel across America for a few weeks, then back home to England to my friends and final year of college. I had decided on this trip after a car accident had killed my parents. I don't have any close family left, so after my recuperation, I decided I wanted to make sure I had seen as much of this world as I could before settling down.
The sun had come out by the time we approached San Francisco Airport. I was excited to see this bustling, foggy city. A little later the captain announced he had been told to descend quickly and warned us to make sure we were seated and had our seat belts on. While the flight attendants were walking the aisles making sure people were belted up, the plane seemed to start diving towards the ground. I looked out the window and saw a fighter jet alongside us. It seemed to be tracking our descent.
The captain came over the tannoy again "please don't worry about our escort planes. They are just there to help us with our descent". So at least this descent was intentional and we weren't crashing. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking that, we were descending so fast.
I was surprised how close the jets were to us, any closer and I'd have to give up my seat to its pilot. Normally it takes a while to actually get on the ground once we start approaching an airport, but today we must have been given priority as we continued to descend and I saw some lights ahead of us. There were two bright lines instead of the normal individual lights along the runway.
We were only a few hundred feet from the runway when the escort jets finally pulled away. The landing was a bit rough, we hit the tarmac quite hard and the captain applied the brakes much harder than I've felt before. I was pushed forward into my seat belt. It all seemed to be a bit rushed and as we taxied to the gate there were lots of military vehicles on the ground. When the steps were in place and the door opened, armed military figures entered the plane and ordered everyone to leave quickly. We all grabbed our bags and got off the plane.
As we walked down the steps the army herded us into a fenced area below the airport lounge. We asked the soldiers what was happening, but they said they couldn't answer any of our questions and we would have to wait until officials came to talk to us. They seemed to have memorised the phrase as it was repeated word for word, no matter what question was asked of them.
I saw the captain and crew of the plane marched off in handcuffs with guards surrounding them. As the crew were nearing the terminal building, a man in civilian shirt and trousers rushed out and ran over to what I guessed was the officer in charge. He was waving a folder in one hand and some sheets of paper in the other. He thrust the paper at the officer who took them with a stern expression on his face. He seemed to read through the papers a couple of times and then held out his hand. The man in the shirt and trousers handed over the file and took back the papers. The officer flipped through the contents of the file and then barked out some order to his men who literally jumped and rushed to take the handcuffs off the crew. The man in the shirt then went over to the captain and they started what seemed to be a heated discussion, but we were too far away to be able to hear them.
The captain’s head slumped and the shirted man put his hand on the captain's shoulder in a comforting gesture. Some of the crew looked shocked and some put their hands over their faces. I could see the same confusion on my fellow passenger's faces as I was feeling. The civilian shirted man then started towards us, followed by a few other people who looked like airport staff and some in military uniform. Quite a few people started shouting questions at them as they got nearer.
The shirted man held his hands up and shouted for us to please listen to him. "I know you're confused and I will try to answer all of your questions, but please bear with me as I try to explain the situation".
"My name is Raymond Gates and I am the airport chief of security. I want to apologise for the inconvenience you have experienced today, but the situation is quite unique. I'm not sure how to tell you this, but your flight was declared missing on June 28th 2017. Your plane was over the North Pacific Ocean when it suddenly disappeared from all tracking systems. It was assumed your plane had crashed. We're not sure what happened but we are digging out the records of your flight to see if we can shed some light on it for you."
"What do you mean our flight disappeared," said a middle-aged lady near the front of our crowd.
"All we knew until today is your flight disappeared over the North Pacific and we lost all tracking information. No wreckage was ever found and it was presumed the plane crashed into the ocean and sunk. But today approximately three hours ago an object suddenly appeared on radar tracking stations. Its transponder was sending out a code that didn't match any of our current records. As plane travel is now strictly controlled we didn't know what to make of it, so the military were called in and the jets were scrambled to try to identify the craft. The pilots broadcast your planes registration number and we couldn't find it in our database. The pilots were ordered to bring you into land as soon as possible."
"Wait, why would you think we'd crashed?" the same lady asked for all of us.
"Err, I’m not sure how to tell you this, but It's been a long time" Raymond answered.
"What? What do you mean?"
"Today is June 28th 2037. Your plane disappeared twenty years ago."
We were all stunned. Everyone was silent until the lady at the front spoke up "it can't be. We’ve just flown from Tokyo, we've been nowhere else".
"We are trying to work out what happened" Raymond replied. "but we don't have any more information than you at this time."
Everyone started talking at once. Questions were being thrown at Raymond from all sides at once.
"Please ladies and gentlemen. Please, we are trying to work out what happened and will keep you updated as we get more information. Will you please follow us inside where we can give you all the information we currently have."
We followed them inside and were shown into a lounge where food and drinks were being provided. there was a medical team in the corner, and I guessed they were there to assist anyone who didn't take the news too well. Stewards came round and poured tea or coffee for everyone. The hot drink seemed to be having a calming effect as we all relaxed a bit.
A few minutes later an official looking lady and two men entered the lounge and walked up to the front. They arranged a couple of tables and laid a strange looking tablet flat down on them.
The lady tapped her forearm a few times and a display seemed to erupt from the tablet and float in the air above it. It was a presentation, floating in the air. It showed the SFO airport logo, but I was stunned. I'd never seen anything like it, but twenty years had passed and technology moves on.
"Firstly, I'd like to assure you we are doing everything we can to contact your relatives and let them know you've been found. We have retrieved the passenger list from the archives and have a team of people tracking down your families. We will be speaking to you all individually so if you have any questions you can ask them in confidence."
This was all too much to take in. Of course I had questions, we all did. I wanted answers and I wanted to find my family, but how was I going to get back to England, I guessed my passport had expired. I took my phone out of my bag. There was no signal. One of the staff saw me and explained that phone technology had moved on and our phones wouldn't work.
It took the rest of the day for the airport staff to interview each of us. They asked for our details ("last known address and relatives"). They didn't understand it was current for us, not twenty years in the past. It was difficult answering "None" for relatives. I almost chuckled "Even twenty years later the loss of my parents still hurts".
During the interviews, they gave us what they called a PCU. They explained it was basically a smartphone that was issued to everyone once they reached working age. It was like a watch with an earpiece and a separate roll up screen. It was used as proof of identity and a payment system. It would project a keyboard onto our forearms so we could type in data, or we could talk to it, and if we wanted to read news or books we could use the screen to display the information after searching for it using a voice search or the arm keyboard. They explained the PCU's are connected to one big worldwide communications network called "CommNet", and it was free for everyone to use so people would always be able to keep in touch with friends and family.
Once they had finished taking our details and teaching us how to use the PCUs they booked us all in to a hotel that was attached to the airport and arranged to meet us in the morning and share any information they could find.
We all went to the hotel to check in. We had been given three floors between us so we would all be together in case we wanted to talk. The concierge told us our rooms had been sent to our PCU's and we could follow the directions they gave us. I looked at my watch and it was showing me a small map of the check in area with a blue line moving from the desk to the elevator.
A Dinner had been arranged for us and the PCU chimed when it was time to go downstairs, and again showed me a map so I could find the restaurant. It was a quiet dinner with a low level of conversation. I guessed we were all trying to come to terms with what had happened to us.
After dinner, we broke up into natural groups and had a few drinks. Some of the passengers were overwhelmed and headed to their rooms, but there were a few of us who, like me, wanted to see this new world.
I was in a group with four other passengers as we stepped out of our hotel lobby to explore this new world. Jake was the de-facto 'leader' of our group. He was slightly taller than me with brown hair and talked with a European accent. He was wearing Jeans and a short sleeved checked shirt.
As soon as we stood on the side-walk, we knew we were in a different world. Instead of the steady roar of the traffic on the busy street in front of us, there was a gentle rumble of wheels on the road. It was stranger still because all of the traffic looked the same as when we had left Tokyo. There were cars, busses and trucks which all looked the same as we had known, but they weren't making anywhere near as much noise. And looking at the traffic we realised the air was clearer and the cars were cleaner. In fact, as I looked around, everything was cleaner. Without car exhaust, there was less pollution in the air and everything looked and smelled clean.
Being inside until now, we hadn't taken in how different it was from what we had known before we stepped on ANA flight 008. As well as the quiet, there was green everywhere. There were raised plant beds along each side of the street. There were window boxes below almost every window. Every spare space seemed to have had some greenery planted in it.
Jake hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take us to take us to a bar. When the driver asked which bar, Jake replied "Any bar", and he took us to a bar on El Camino Real. We didn't talk much as he was driving us, we were looking at the streets and buildings around us. Every single building had a small wind turbine on its roof, and on some, we could see solar panels. I thought that was a good use of the space.
When the taxi stopped to let us out, Jake asked the driver "How do I use this thing?" pointing to the watch on his arm. "You don't look stoned!" the driver muttered to himself as he pulled Jakes arm towards him and placed the watch face down on a pad between the two front seats.
We got out of the taxi and again marvelled at the quiet and the way the air smelled fresh. The bar had a sign saying it was "Old Timey" and I thought it was more appropriate than they knew. Jake went inside first, and we followed. I felt like a sheep following Jake to the bar, but I was too busy looking round to make any decisions of my own. One thing I noticed was that it could have been called old timey back in 2017 (it sounded strange in my head to think of 2017 as being in the past). All of the seats were made of wood, and the bar surface looked like stone. I couldn’t see any plastic, the seats were wood, the tap handles were polished wood and all of the small tables were metal legs with wooden tops.
There were three video displays projected onto the walls. Two were showing the news of our flight. The bartender greeted us by name, and I asked him "How do you know our names?"
He looked confused and said "What do you mean? You came up on my system"
"What system?"
"Are you okay?" he asked
"We are very, very new here, so what system?"
"It's the same system as everywhere else. You walk through the door and your PCU registers you're old enough to be in the bar, and I see your names on my screen" he said as he pointed below the bar.
We ordered our drinks and found a table where we could watch the news on one of the displays.
As we were sitting down my arm started to buzz. I looked at the watch and it showed a picture I didn't recognise, but underneath the picture was a name I did know, Elaine Hardwick. It was my best friend.
How had she got my number? Even I didn't know my number. Now I had to figure out how to answer the call on this thing. They had gone over it when they gave us the PCU, but there was so much to take in I think I forgot more than they told us.
I tried pressing on the watch face as I dug the earpiece out of my pocket. I guess it must have worked as I could hear Elaine as I put the earpiece in.
"Is it really you?"
"Who were you expecting?"
"It's been so long, when your plane disappeared, we, we..." Elaine couldn't finish the sentence. She took a deep breath and continued, "When are you coming home?"
"I've no idea. I still don't know what happened or what's going on. Everything seems to have changed so much."
"Well, I've already found you somewhere to stay"
"What, why did you... Oh, twenty years, of course, my flat's gone isn't it."
"Everyone thought you had died, when the plane went missing, people thought it had crashed. They searched for months looking for wreckage but didn't find any. Everyone on board was declared dead. However, as soon as I saw you pop up on CommNet, I started asking around for somewhere to stay. We’ll get you sorted."
My head was beginning to whirl. Trying to accept that twenty years had passed was making me dizzy. "Look, I'm trying to get my head around everything. It's all so different, I don't know where to start"
"Oh, of course, you missed 'The Change' "
"The what?"
" 'The Change' they called it. When everyone moved to using electricity instead of petrol. It started when America opted out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change it made all of the other countries realise something had to be done. Every other country agreed to work together to reduce global warming. After a few years, they all agreed to stop using petrol and diesel engines."
"Wait, you mean everyone just agreed to stop using cars?"
"No, not stop using cars, move to electric and make sure the electricity was generated from renewable sources"
"So you have windmills and solar panels there too? I thought it was only here"
"It's everywhere, all over the world. Every country agreed. I thought some countries wouldn't stick to the agreement, but everyone has, and any country that was having difficulty making the change was helped, with windmills and solar panels, even subsidised vehicles"
"But you said America didn't agree"
"At first America resisted, but eventually it realised it couldn't stand alone. Other countries didn't want to do business with America if it was still using combustion engines. It took a few years, but they eventually agreed and now they are leading the way in renewable energy research"
"And with all of the production and maintenance there are now more jobs than before. People have to make the solar panels and windmills, maintain them, and look after all of the plants that have been planted to try to reverse the damage. And with every country working together there have been so many advancements. Like the PCU, it's such a simple idea 'To allow people to stay connected'. But having a worldwide communications network has been a blessing. There have been some natural disasters and the PCU allows survivors to be found quickly, and allows people to organise worldwide help immediately."
"Like today, you pinged up on it and I've found you already."
"Yeah, sounds pretty good"
"Anyway, do you know when you'll be coming home?"
"They want to talk to us again tomorrow, so I'll ask them then"
The next day, when I asked about flying home, they told me there wouldn't be another flight for a week as long range flights were kept to a minimum as electric passenger planes were not yet ready for international flight.
That gave me a week to explore the city, and as the authorities had given each of the passengers a new bank account, I could use my week for sightseeing as I had intended. When I had left Tokyo I had expected to land in a city grid locked with cars and looked and smelt as any city bustling with traffic is (or was). Now as I wandered the streets and looked around, I started to notice the little cat sized robots were cleaning the sides and windows of buildings. That explained why everything looked so clean. An army was at work to make sure it all stayed clean, and without the exhaust fumes, it was an easier fight for them.
Every time I stepped outside, I still wondered at the smell of nature in the air instead of the smell of car exhaust. I had got so used to exhaust fumes I didn't even notice them anymore. But here the air smelled so sweet, every time I stepped outside I stopped purely to sniff the air.
I chatted with Elaine and my friends every day. It was so easy on the PCU, I called them every day without needing to worry at how many minutes I had left. The PCU even got so used to my routine it started prompting me if I hadn't called my friends at the usual time.
Everywhere I went I could use the PCU to find sights to see and get all of the information about those sights. I would never get lost as the PCU knew which hotel I was staying at and could guide me back. Its navigation even worked indoors now, showing me maps of the museums, theatres and shopping malls I visited. The PCU even got to know what I liked and would set an alarm if there was a sale in one of my favourite shops.
It took me a while to figure out, but the PCU even helped me to cross the roads. I was looking for a button to press at some traffic lights but didn't find one, when the traffic light turned red for the cars and allowed me to cross. This happened quite a few times until I noticed people would walk up to the lights and wait, and the lights would automatically change. I guessed the PCU told the lights someone was waiting and the lights changed automatically.
That week of sightseeing was a lot more than visiting another city. It was learning about all of the changes that had happened in the twenty year long nine and a half hour flight from Tokyo to San Francisco.
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