Coping With A Crisis

Several Time Patrol agents respond to the crisis in "Amazement of The World," Part Six of Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991). We have met no less than four of these agents before:

Manson Everard was introduced in the opening short story, "Time Patrol," and has reappeared in every subsequent story usually, although not always, as the central character;

Keith Denson was introduced in the second short story, "Brave To Be A King," and mentioned in "Delenda Est" but has not previously reappeared;

Wanda Tamberly was introduced in "The Year Of The Ransom" and has reappeared more than once earlier in The Shield Of Time;

Guion was introduced in Part One of The Shield Of Time and reappeared in Parts Three and Five although he remains off-stage during Part Six - but he had anticipated this crisis.

"Amazement Of The World" involves four timelines:

(i) the original Time Patrol timeline;
(ii) the alpha timeline;
(iii) the beta timeline;
(iv) the restored Time Patrol timeline.

I call (i) "original" for convenience in this context. However, it incorporates many interventions by Danellians, the Patrol and time criminals so it is not the very "earliest" timeline. See here. I plan to discuss Guion's role but might run out of time now so this could be another post.