(Author's note: The idea for this series grew out of a writing challenge I posted on the Author's Hangout, here on Lit. It began as a basic premise of being a government agent who travels back in time to fix changes made by an unknown group called the 'Rectifiers,' and blossomed from there.
The TMA – Temporal Management Agency – is a multi-national organization under the auspices of the United Nations, operating from a hidden base in Nebraska, USA. TMA agents are charged with stopping the Rectifiers whenever and wherever they strike. For unknown reasons, the Rectifiers have targeted moments in history, changing events to suit their own unguessable plans. Little is known about the Rectifiers other than the nature of their agents. They come from the future, that much is certain; beyond that, little else is known.
The agents of the TMA utilize a device called the Temporal Probability/Redundancy Field Generator – commonly referred to as the 'Tap' – to look into and travel to the past. The Tap has several limitations: there is a limit as to how long a person can remain in the past – thirteen days – as well as a limit as to how much mass – 220 kilograms –the Tap can sustain at any certain point in time.
This series uses the premise that time travel is only possible into the past, because finding a point in time to travel to also requires that we know where in space the Earth existed at that moment. It cannot be accurately predicted where the Earth will be in the future, so traveling forward along the timestream is not feasible.
Technical details aside, this series addresses the idea of time travel and what could and shouldn't be changed, if one was able to do so. There are several other authors who have their own series of stories based upon this common idea; I encourage you to look for them in the listing of Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories.)
From the Files of the Temporal Management Agency
Agent Dylan Moon, Case #1
"Director, there's a problem."
Radha Naveen sighed as she blinked open her eyes.
Too much to think that I could get away with a fifteen-minute nap,
she thought. She eased up from the curved leather couch in her office – a gift from her therapist – and swung her legs to the floor. Tired eyes regarded the young Swede in the blue jumpsuit uniform.
"This better be good," she said.
The young man, impressively tall and muscular, nodded quickly. "Dr. Jasper was, um, pretty animated about it." He spoke with only the slightest Scandinavian accent.
Despite her sense of annoyance, Radha could not help but chuckle at the sentry's words. "Jasper is
always
animated," she commented. She pushed herself to her feet, wincing at the tightness in her neck. Rubbing the base of her shoulders, she followed the sentry into the halls. The circular tunnels, dug deep below ground, had been painted in soft hues of amber and ochre, the floor green to remind the occupants of the base of grass. Radha had always considered the color scheme of the TMA headquarters a noble, but ultimately useless, gesture.
Respectful greetings met her ears as she followed the sentry. To each salutation of "Director" or "Colonel Naveen," Radha merely nodded, or muttered a non-commital return. She was well-known for her brevity and curtness; no one was insulted by her short responses.
It took only a few turns and a single level's descent before the sentry lead Radha to Looking Glass, where numerous large screens were arrayed about a central hub. Technicians in their grey uniforms were at work upon their terminals as they monitored the flashing images. More so than usual, the activity on the screens seemed very chaotic to the Director. She flinched at the erratic display.
Darting from one terminal to another, and snapping his head back and forth from one screen to another, was Dr. Phineas Jasper. The quintessential mad scientist, Jasper was a tall, lanky man with short-cropped hair the color of a blizzard – which was the best way to describe how the man acted and thought.
"What's going on, Phin?" she called.
He shot up a cautionary hand, not looking to Radha, but acknowledging her presence. "Just a moment," he said, and snapped a few words to the technicians. It was all a ramble of techno-babble to the Director. Mustering her patience – not an easy thing for Radha – she crossed her arms and waited.
Finally, Jasper looked to her, a flustered expression on his face. For Phin, that was normal, but in the five years Radha had known him, she had learned to notice the subtle differences in the doctor's expressions. "It's a major event, Radha," he said. Jasper was one of the few within the Temporal Management Agency who addressed her informally. "We're getting total cascade failure throughout the timestream."
Her surprise was not telling upon her face, save for the raising of a single, thin eyebrow. "
'Total
?'" she asked.
Jasper huffed. "It's incredible! Ridiculous! Dozens of events throughout time, simultaneously changed!"
Now, Radha did show some concern, stepping forward. "How is that possible?"
"Dr. Jasper," interrupted one of the technicians, a pudgy Argentinian named Cuellar. "We're getting time-locks on every event."
"WHAT!" cried Radha in alarm.
Jasper slapped his hand to his forehead in relief. "Oh, thank God," he sighed.
Radha's flabbergasted expression was clearly readable as she glared at the senior scientist. "What the hell do you mean, 'thank God!'" she snapped. "Time-locks prevent us from heading back to correct the anomalies!"
Jasper chuckled under his breath, planting his hands on his hips. "Think about it, Radha," he said. "What is the only thing that causes time locks?"
Radha frowned, thinking. Then realization spread across her features. "The presence of an agent."
"Exactly," said Jasper. "An agent of the TMA. One we haven't taken on board yet, otherwise we would have been able to figure out who it was through a simple head count."
Radha pursed her lips. "So the Rectifiers have killed a future agent," she mused. "That doesn't make any sense. By killing him, they've erased every mission he'll ever complete. No wonder there's a total cascade failure. So many events in history changed . . . no doubt some of them contradict other events."
Jasper nodded again, observing the scenes. "Well, the good news is that we have thirteen days to find and save him."
Radha gritted her teeth a moment. "And the bad news is, if we don't find him, reality as we know it is going to end."
"Actually, it will have never happened," corrected the scientist.
Radha frowned. "I hate it when you do that," she said.
