Futureproof (short story)

Futureproof was the fourth story in the anthology True Stories.

Plot
On the heritage planet HP79, which is soon to be redeveloped by Futureproof, a mechanic tells Benny that her spaceship will take three days to repair. She goes on a promotional tour with academics and a group of business students, who believe that preserving the planet is pointless given that the universe is ending, and learns that the planet is inauthentic and only meant as a "heritage experience". When one of the students, Ariane 7986521, slips away from the tour with a wink to her friends, Benny wonders if she is a saboteur and follows her.

Benny follows Ariane into a service hatch and hits her head. When she becomes conscious again, she finds that she and Ariane have moved through time to the planet's destruction and, not knowing what is going on, she goes with her to the surface and sees Futureproof's completed buildings, which were supposedly meant to be biodegradable, falling apart. Most people have evacuated, but some have remained behind and Ariane had hoped to see their end-of-the-world party using her friend Marcus's time machine. They head back to the hatch and return to their own time.

Ariane tells her friends that the future was not what they thought it would be and that she cannot describe it, which is the same for Benny. As Benny tries to leave, deciding not to visit the student bar after seeing it crumbling in the future, she is stopped by the guide and asked to explain herself. She finds this oddly comforting after seeing what she did in the future.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Mechanic
 * Guide
 * Ariane 7986521
 * Marcus

Worldbuilding

 * HP79 is a heritage planet.
 * The business students attend HP79 University.

Continuity

 * The Unbound Universe is dying. (AUDIO: The Library in the Body, etc.)