The Three Stages Of Temporal Quantum Change

For such change in "The Year of the Ransom," where it is introduced, see the previous post.

In The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART FIVE, Guion tells Everard about what might be minor fluctuations. In PART SIX, there is a major change, described as "a temporal upheaval" (p. 298), not caused by any time traveler:

"The fluctuation was in space-time-energy itself, a quantum leap, a senseless randomness." (p. 344)

In "Star of the Sea," the Tacitus Two text is described as:

"'An object uncaused, formed out of nothing for no reason.'" (20, p. 631)

But, in this case, there is a reason. The Tacitus Two timeline was given some kind of (potential?) reality by the activity of time travelers:

"'...what we've found is the irony that our investigation of a disturbance to the plenum is what brought it about.'" (15, p. 599)

This situation involves both circular causality, which can usually be accommodated within a single timeline, and interaction with a divergent timeline. I have tried to rationalize this situation in earlier posts (see Tacitus Two and, more specifically, Unstable Space-Time II) but it does not really fit into my five-dimensional analysis of causality violation.