The History Of The Time Patrol

If a time traveler or a team of time travelers were to write a Complete History of the Human Race, then that History would necessarily begin with the first generation of human beings on Earth and would end with the last generation whether on Earth or elsewhere. However, a History of the Time Patrol would have to begin with the discovery of time travel by the Nine in 19352 AD and to end with the death of the longest living member of the last class of graduates from the Patrol Academy. Further, it would also include accounts of visits to both pre- and post-human periods.

There is another difference. In the History of the Patrol, Patrol members would recount not only their observations of and interventions in historical events but also their memories of events that did not happen in this timeline. Thus, the History of the Patrol would:

be long and complex;

move backwards and forwards within conventional linear history;

be discontinuous, e.g., would not recount Carthaginian victory in the Second Roman War but would recount Patrolmen's memories of such a victory and also how those memories had affected their later practice.

Wanda Tamberly is shown records:

"'Consequences of time gone awry." (The Shield Of Time, p. 253)

We know of the Carthaginian timeline, the alpha and beta timelines and a history with Keith Denison playing the role of Cyrus the Great. Were there also pre-Patrol timelines when the Nine, the foolish, the greedy and the mad turned history inside out? The single multi-volume History of the Time Patrol would have to be followed by several volumes of Appendices recording innumerable alternative histories known only by the testimony of those who remembered having seen them. Further, any Patrolman would read the History would know that it might be invalidated by his own future experiences.