Evocative Phrases II

Some phrases in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story, "Star of the Sea," are tantalizingly evocative, hinting at a mysterious and unelaborated perspective on time that, I think, cannot be fitted into any coherent framework.

(i) "...if we're to discover how it is that the time stream forks - and which is the right course, which the wrong one, for us and our world."
-Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), p. 506.

"Time stream" merely seems to be straightforward. A stream in the normal sense is moving water that can be seen to flow past a fixed point. However, events occurring at different times are merely before or after, earlier or later than, each other. None of them moves anywhere. They do not flow past any fixed point.

Is there really a "fork" in time such that Everard, moving futureward, could turn left into the Tacitus One timeline or right into the Tacitus Two timeline? Or does the entire stream of events somehow flow along one course rather than the other, leaving the other empty? Obviously, that is not what happens but the language used can suggest some such image.

(ii) "...intervene, most carefully, now and then, here and there: till at last [events] were out of the unstable space-time zone and could safely be left to themselves." (p. 629)

Objects move through space, taking time, but events do not move through space-time. They occur in space and are temporally related. Thus a volume of space-time contains a sequence of events. Some "space-time zones" are "unstable"; others not. Time Patrol agents must sometimes intervene in unstable zones.

(iii) The following terminology is more familiar to Time Patrol readers:

"'Often a causal loop has a powerful and subtle force to it. What we've got to do is prevent it from developing into a causal vortex.'" (p. 600)

Since, rather unaccountably, the Patrol has historical texts from two timelines, Everard knows what they need to do:

"'We have to forestall the events that would lead to Tacitus Two, while not unduly perturbing those that are described in Tacitus One.'" (ibid.)

Events cannot be left to themselves and Patrol intervention may be the decisive factor. Indeed, it was Patrol investigation of the events that had destabilized them in the first place.

"'The time is out of joint...'" - Hamlet - "'...you can't set it right today. You can't. Meddle any more, and I swear there'll never be a Tacitus One book, maybe never a Tacitus Two. We don't belong in these events, and that's why the future is in danger. Leave them be!'" (p. 593)

Some "zones" are so unstable that the mere presence of a time traveler is problematic. The "fork" is the moment at which Heidhin did or did not commit suicide.

Records Of What Did Not Happen II

Another "record of what did not happen" is the Tacitus Two document. My theory of how the Patrol acquired this alternative version of Tacitus' Histories contradicts the terminology of successive timelines. I theorize that:

the sociologists doing field research in the early second century AD were at a time when the sequence of events described in Tacitus One and the alternative sequence of events described in Tacitus Two were both possible;

the sociologist who acquired a copy of Tacitus from a private library had to travel a short distance uptime in order to do so;

thus, he traveled forward into the Tacitus Two timeline and acquired a version of the Histories that described the alternative sequence of events;

rejoining his companions and reading the alternative account, the sociologist became alarmed and traveled futureward, this time along the Tacitus One timeline, to alert the Patrol in the twentieth century;

when Everard and Floris travel into the past to investigate, they know that they have traveled back along the Tacitus One timeline to a time before a fork in events;

their task is to ensure that, at that "fork," events move in the Tacitus One direction;

until the fork has been passed, events are in an "...unstable space-time zone..." (Time Patrol, p. 629);

after that, Tacitus Two records events that "did not happen."

The Time Stream Forks

"Star of the Sea," 4.

The Time Patrol needs:

"...to discover how it is that the time stream forks - and which is the right course, which is the wrong one, for us and our world." (p. 506)

This is the only passage in the Time Patrol series in which the time stream is said to "fork." From the time at which Everard is when he thinks this, it is possible to live or to travel forward either into the Tacitus One or into the Tacitus Two timeline. A Tacitus Two text has been brought from that timeline. Presumably anyone who travels into the "wrong" - Tacitus Two - timeline and does not return from it will spend the rest of his life there and will never be seen again in the "right" - Time Patrol-protected - timeline. Some Patrol agents are lost in the Carthaginian timeline of "Delenda Est."

A Fork In Time

See here.

In Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, some phraseology about variable time is unique to "Star Of The Sea":

"...if we're to discover how it is that the time stream forks - and which is the right course, which the wrong one, for us and our world." (Time Patrol, p. 506)

"Everard had decided to start with a visit to Civilis several months downtime from the split in events." (p. 516)

"'...we are not at the divergence point yet...We are exploring the background of it.'" (p. 541)

I have discussed such paradoxes often enough before. Here I merely note that these guarded references to a potential temporal divergence add an extra element of mystery to the Patrol agents' discussions of history as recorded by Tacitus and as experienced by themselves.

Some other phrases are more familiar from the rest of the series:

"'...the continuum is especially vulnerable around such moments. As far away as barbarian Germany, reality is unstable.'" (p. 492)

"...this segment of space-time was unstable; the less they from the future moved about in it, the better." (p. 516)

"...till at last [events] were out of the unstable space-time zone and could safely be left to themselves." (p. 629)

Fork, Split And Instability

"Star of the Sea," 4.

Of Burhmund, the rebel leader, Everard thinks:

"We need an idea of how he, the key man in all this, thinks, if we're to discover how it is that the time stream forks - and which is the right course, which the wrong one, for us and our world." (p. 506)

Everard and Floris:

"...could not take years to feel out the whole truth. The Patrol could ill spare that much lifespan of theirs. Moreover, this segment of space-time was unstable; the less they from the future moved about in it, the better. Everard had decided to start with a visit to Civilis several months downtime of the split in events." (p. 516)

(Burhmund has taken the Latin name Claudius Civilis.)

This must be very imprecise language:

the time stream forks;

there is a right and a wrong course for a whole world;

a segment of space-time is unstable;

visitors from the future increase the instability;

events split.

I quote and paraphrase these passages because I cannot devise a dimensional framework to account for them. We have to accept that something as paradoxical as quantum mechanics is happening. However, and fortunately, Everard spends most of his time in concrete historical events, not inside abstract dimensional diagrams. This is a good story, not a bad time travel pig's breakfast like some we could name.

On The Beach

I think that there is something special about any fictional scene set on a shore or beach although I cannot put my finger on exactly what: something to do with the transition from land to sea, the meeting of two environments and the possibility of embarking on or returning from a long voyage. Appropriately, there are two such scenes, both excellent, in Poul Anderson's "Star Of The Sea."

Time Patrol Specialist Jens Ulstrup has heard that Veleda had arrived by ship on the Baltic littoral five or six years previously. Everard and Floris must check out Veleda's arrival, then trace her journey back to the shore from which she had departed. Having heard Ulstrup:

"Floris...gazed past the river and the forest beyond, northeasterly toward an unseen shore." (Time Patrol, p. 570)

That unseen shore is the one on which Veleda arrived, not, as I wrongly said here, the one on which she had perceived Floris as the goddess. But Everard and Floris are cautiously working their way back toward that moment of apparent revelation. Wisely, Floris has declined Everard's suggestion that she, Floris, approach Veleda directly. Floris' reason is that Veleda has isolated herself, probably in a state of emotional or religious crisis, so that any interruption could have unpredictable effects. Indeed it would. Veleda would recognize Floris as her goddess although the Patrol agents do not know that yet.

The beach on which Everard awaits the arrival of Veleda and her companion is beautifully described with characteristic Andersonian details: sand dunes; stiff grass; haze; kelp; shells; fish- and bird-bones; darker sand under the high-water line; gulls above; cold salty wind; "...smells from the deeps..." (ibid.); incoming tide; waves hissing on the shore, booming further out; horizon becoming sky; scudding clouds; rain in  the west; inland - sedge, pools, distant forest, a brook, a marsh, a hamlet.

On this beach, Everard, disguised, hopes to meet Veleda and Heidhin:

"...instead of simply tracing the ship across the water, backward through time. They dared not charge blind into what might well be the source of the instability, the obscure and easily annulled event from which an entire future could spring. Here, they hoped, was an opportunity to learn something beforehand at minimal risk." (pp. 574-575)

Of course, the obscure event will be their own arrival but they have to go there to learn that.

When a Time Patrolman travels into the past, it is always possible that he will return futureward into a different timeline. In this story alone, that possibility is described as a fork or divergence in time.

If Carl Farness, appearing at the showdown fight between his descendants and Ermanaric, had helped his descendants, then he would certainly have traveled forward into a different twentieth century. And if all Patrol agents returning from earlier times had returned into the timeline in which Odin did betray his followers, then they would never have known what Carl had done. In fact, there would be two Carls. When Everard in 1935 told Carl that he must return to 372 to betray his followers, they were in a timeline in which a version of Carl had appeared in 372 and betrayed his followers. Thus, if the Carl who traveled back after his conversation with Everard had decided to go against Everard's advice, then he would have initiated another timeline that Everard would have no knowledge of.

Like A Match In The Wind II

See here.

All of this discussion of time travel is relevant to several works by Poul Anderson, of course, and Anderson explores every option. The two basic premises are "the past can be changed" and "the past cannot be changed." The "can be changed" premise causes endless confusion and can be rationalized in several different ways. See here.

Anderson's Time Patrol series:

is superb historical sf;

presents the circular causality paradox within a causality violation scenario;

in fact, shows the Patrol completing causal circles in order to prevent causality violations;

is subtle in its presentation of paradoxes so that any incoherencies are not immediately apparent;

is ambiguous - is there a single discontinuous timeline or a single mutable timeline or are there divergent timelines?

Everard's language alternates between discontinuity and mutability but, in "Star of the Sea," he refers to a fork in events, which implies divergence.

Back in Nantucket:

"...presumably they were still - the word made no sense, but English grammar wasn't well adapted to time travel - all right, up in the twentieth."
-SM Stirling, Against The Tide Of Years (New York, 1999), Chapter Three, p. 39.

The Nantucketers need the Time Patrol language, Temporal.

A Northern Civilization

"Star of the Sea," 10.

Manse Everard reflects that, because the Roman Empire converts the barbarians to Christianity:

"...the new Western civilization comes to birth where the old Classical one did, on the Mediterranean shore, not along the Rhine or the gray North Sea." (p. 552)

This thought flits through his mind. It is important. There is a fork in time and the potential for a Northern matriarchal monotheism challenging the Mediterranean patriarchal monotheism. The prophetess, Veleda, is the key. The Time Patrol has been regarding the North as:

"...the barest footnote to history." (p. 548)

Now they must intervene.

Crisis

"Star of the Sea," 17.

Wind often hoots but here is an occasion that we have missed so far.

Janne Floris as the goddess, Niaerdh, addressing the prophetess, Veleda, recites "olden wisdom," (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8) then uses it to urge a new message of peace with Rome instead of continued war. However, Veleda's oath with Heidhin will not allow such an about face.

During the silence in which Floris subvocalizes to Everard that there is a crisis:

"Light had left the window and cold crept inward. The wind hooted." (p. 615)

Darkness, cold and hooting wind all agree that there is a crisis. The characters approach their fork in time.

Destiny's Garden

"Walk any path in Destiny's garden, and you will be forced to choose, not once but many times.

"The paths fork and divide. With each step you take through Destiny's garden, you make a choice; and every choice determines future paths.

"However, at the end of a lifetime of walking you might look back, and see only one path stretching out behind you; or look ahead, and see only darkness.

"Sometimes you dream about the paths of Destiny, and speculate, to no purpose.

"Dream about the paths you took and the paths you didn't take..."

-Neil Gaiman, The Season of Mists (New York, 1992), Episode 0, p. 13, panels 1-4.

I immediately thought of three major works by Poul Anderson -

choices determining future paths: the Time Patrol;

darkness ahead: the shadow of God the Hunter across the future in the Technic History;

paths not taken: the alternative history novels.