Chapter III ends:
"...peace among men." (p.628)
The following Chapter 20 begins:
"'I just got your letter,' Floris had said on the phone. 'Oh, yes, Manse, do come as soon as you can.'" (ibid.)
So there is peace in the past and the agents have returned to the twentieth century. Happy endings all round. And we learn an advantage of Time Patrol membership when the text continues:
"Everard hadn't wasted time aboard a jet. He stuck his passport in a pocket and hopped directly from the Patrol's New York office to the one in Amsterdam. There he drew some Dutch money and got a cab to her place." (ibid.)
Subjectively instantaneous space-time travel can be just instantaneous space travel. In fact:
"The time effect was the by-product of a search for a means of instantaneous transportation...'"
-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53 AT 2, p. 9.
Apparently, both instantaneous transportation and travel into the past involve infinitely discontinuous functions.
The mention of money also matters. When Guion invites Everard to dinner at a restaurant of his choice, Everard reflects:
"Superficially the offer meant little. An Unattached agent of the Time Patrol drew on unlimited funds. Actually it meant a great deal. Guion wanted to spend lifespan on him."
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART ONE, 1987 A. D., p. 4.
Unattached agents value their time.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
For one reason or another, there must have been a constant trickle of losses in the Time Patrol, longevity treatments or not, from all ranks of field agents. So this valuation by Unattached agents of their personal lifespan TIME made sense.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: also the convention that agents don't take indefinite vacations, even though they can return to the same instant, because that cuts down on the % of their probable lifespan they spend on Patrol business.
And Unattached agents have a higher casualty rate than the rest of the Patrol, because they get handed the nasty cases.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Drat. Another comment disappeared.
Re vacations or holidays (to use the UK term): it's fine for agents to take three WEEKS vacations, but not three YEARS. Any agent who actually needs that much time off from his work should probably think of retiring.
Again, I agree, Unattached agents had higher losses from that rank than the rest of the Patrol.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Mr. Stirling! I agree. A vacation of three weeks is fine, but not three YEARS. Yes, Unattached agents get handed the most dangerous cases. Ad astra! Sean
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