Saturday 22 February 2014

A Finite But Variable Timeline

Finite

A million years is a finite span.
People with indefinitely extended lifespans eventually die.
A time traveler exists in many periods, not just one, but that remains a finite number of periods.
A last class graduates from the Time Patrol Academy and each of its members eventually dies.
The last member of that class in his retirement should be able to review the entire history of the Patrol.

Variable
Whenever a time traveler moves from his "present" into his "past" and returns to his "present," he may return to the wrong "present," even if records kept in the further past state that he had returned to the correct "present."
When that happens, Patrol members downtime of the turning-point moment must identify the moment and try to restore the original timeline.
They may fail.
A temporal change sufficiently far downtime would eliminate the entire Patrol.

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