In "Star of the Sea," there is just a single temporal discontinuity. A time travelling sociologist in second century Rome wants to borrow and duplicate a copy of Tacitus. He enters destination coordinates for a short space-time jump into a private library, intending to return immediately to his departure point. He does not arrive in the private library but does return to his departure point with an alternative version of Tacitus, Tacitus Two. (I am recording only events that occur in the timeline guarded by the Patrol.) Then the Patrol must work to ensure that historical events conform to Tacitus One, not to Tacitus Two.
This brief jump into and back out of a divergent timeline is unique in the Time Patrol series.
2 comments:
I think the jump involved time as well as space -- any copy of Tacitus would do, after all, at any point in which complete copies were circulating. The determining factor would be accessibility and not being interrupted while he makes the duplicate, so if it was, say, 100 years "later" than his previous point of residence in ancient Rome, that wouldn't matter.
Except that if a historical change is propagating, it -would- matter, as Everard's jaunt to the Celtic New York future does. The difference is that the scholar jumps straight back, which Everard and van Sarawak are prevented from doing.
I agree that the scholar went forward in time.
Post a Comment