If history has diverged in the twelfth century, then why seek clues as to the nature of that divergence in the twentieth? Manse Everard must proceed with extreme caution and without making any unwarranted assumptions. He has just "deleted" the alpha timeline which had resulted not for extratemporal interference but from temporal randomness. However, he must not assume that the beta timeline is a continuation of that randomness but must first eliminate the possibility of intervention by time travellers. In "Delenda Est," such intervention was Everard's only explanation for a historical divergence:
"'Some time traveler. It could only have been that.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Delenda Est" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 173-228 AT 7, p. 219.
In The Shield Of Time, Everard has yet to learn that this time he is dealing not with a time criminal but with a personal causal nexus, an individual whose world-line intersects with those of so many historically significant figures that any random alteration in the course of his life has immense consequences.
Everard's reason for checking the twentieth century is that a blunder by time travelers "'...is extremely unlikely...,'" (p. 372) therefore any extratemporal interference would have been deliberate and would have involved some scheme whose consequences would have been evident in later history whereas all that they find in 1989beta is a decaying empire which indicates another random change.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Because, most likely, any interference by time criminals to create the beta timeline would not have included any desire to see that decaying empire in 1989 beta. The temporal criminals would have wanted that empire to be powerful and vigorous.
Ad astra! Sean
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