According to the temporal physics of the Time Patrol series, Manse Everard can meet Dominic Flandry. All that is necessary is that Everard, starting from sufficiently far back in history, travels forward in time and through a quantum fluctuation that replaces the Time Patrol timeline with the Technic History timeline. The Time Patrol timeline is the same as ours, except for its hidden history, until at least 8 March 1990. Returning from 11 October 1307 and proceeding for some reason into the twenty-first century or further, Everard would pass through a quantum fluctuation, then through the Chaos, and into the beginnings of Technic civilization. Exploring the further future of this divergent timeline, he could come into the period of the Terran Empire and thus meet Flandry. Of course we like to think that Everard would be able to travel pastward, then futureward again, back into the late twentieth century of his home timeline. However, Time Patrol agents sometimes do wind up stranded in the wrong timeline. In my opinion, they do not cease to exist but that is an old disagreement between my analysis and the way that the issue is discussed in the series.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I think your argument here is better than the one originally proposed in the Time Patrol stories: Patrol agents stranded in "deleted" were not snuffed out when those timelines were "deleted." They were simply unable to return to their home timeline and had to make the best they could of when/wherever they ended up.
And I love the idea of Manse Everard meeting Dominic Flandry!
Ad astra! Sean
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