by Tanya Allan
“Firstly, you have to grasp something wholly new, for most of this centre exists outside of time.”
I started to say something, but he waved me to silence.
“Yes Ed, I know. Time, the one barrier that man repeatedly attempts to conquer, and yet continually fails - Time, the great destroyer, the great leveller, the final victor. Well, there are those who have conquered time, after a fashion, and they continually attempt to alter events for their own benefit. Fortunately, they are very few, and we are many. Their activities are obvious, and for the moment, they are detectable and preventable.
“We do not fully understand the technology that makes this centre possible, or even the technology that allows us to send our agents to their destinations. We do know that man was not the manufacturer, but merely the agent and the heir to the legacy of those ancient builders.
“Strange as it may seem, we are a law enforcement agency dedicated to preserving the laws of human history intact, so for many centuries, that very activity has been a full time job. Our main adversaries are from the distant future, so we have yet to meet them. They, like us, utilise the construct agent system, and so we have no real idea who the enemy are, or indeed, from when they originate. Their agents are snatched from different eras, very much in the same way as we recruit our officers.
“We want you to become an agent of The Time Protection Agency, and serve a different organisation as loyally and courageously as you served the United States of America.”
I sat for a moment resisting the urge to laugh. This really was weird, but then, it made some sense, in a silly sort of way. I thought about everything he had said, but all my questions were scrapped, as I fought the fog, and thought of new ones.
“You said, construct agents, what does that mean?”
“It is physically impossible to send anyone through time, either forward beyond the year 2250, or back before 1950. No one knows why, but we suspect that this period is when the centre was constructed, so we can literally step through the walls of time into the centre from any moment within that short time-frame.
“We are in a place outside the time-frame continuum right now, but you and I are still ageing. Say, for example, you wanted to go back to J.F. Kennedy’s assassination in Texas on November the 22nd, 1963. All you have to do is go to the Despatch Centre, select the date and step through a door in the fabric of time and, hey presto, you’re there.”
“Where would I end up, exactly?” I asked.
“Ah, that depends on where you’re going, but either in a deserted and secure place or a safe house. We have safe houses dotted around the world, so you would end up in one of them with a local liaison officer to assist you if necessary. Incidentally, we have a permanent officer in Dallas at that time, as the enemy seem quite keen on altering that event in history. Initially, we thought the whole event was one of theirs, but our investigation proved that it wasn’t.”
There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but he held up his hand.
“Let me continue. Outside that small period from 1950 to 2250, time is still an impenetrable barrier for man to pass directly. However, our technology has a way round the problem. Based on the genetic codes of each agent, we construct humans actually in the target time, clones of sorts, and transmit the agent’s memory, intelligence and personality to their new body, so once there they act as agents until their time is up.”
“You mean until they die?”
“The only way for an agent to return is to die. But only the construct dies, remaining as a corpse in the target time. The agent’s non-corporeal aspect returns instantaneously to his or her original body, which is kept here in a stasis field.”
“What about memories, shock, trauma and the like?”
“Good question. The system has a mental buffer. You, for example, would have a construct designed and prepared for, say, the first century AD. Your body is placed into stasis, while everything about you, your memories, your DNA and genetic construction, absolutely everything that makes you an individual is downloaded into the buffer zone. There your mind is prepared by the computer system, all the additional languages, customs and skills required are also downloaded, so once complete, your mind and personality is sent to the newly constructed body at your target date and location.
“On death, the reverse is true. You are retrieved, or as we call it, ‘pulled’ to the buffer, your new experiences are downloaded, so you are mentally returned to the exact moment you left. Your last memory prior to closing your eyes is still with you, but you have no memory of your task whatsoever. Then comes your debriefing, where, in your handler’s presence, your memories are opened so you both share the experiences. This way, any lessons that need to be learned are shared in a controlled environment. Sometimes, it may be deemed appropriate for you to be returned straight back to deal with the type and nature of your death. At other times you are re-assigned to a new time frame, should you so desire.”
“These constructs, what are they?”
“Exact replicas of the agent, genetic clones with certain modifications.”
“Modifications?”
“It has proved necessary to improve certain attributes, to aid survival and extend durability. Thus the construct, if uninterrupted, may live for forty or fifty years beyond normal life expectancy. The bone structure is stronger, more flexible and the whole body is more efficient. It can last longer on lower nutrient intake; it will heal very quickly, and can withstand extreme temperatures and noxious substances. Pain thresholds are modified to allow greater tolerance to pain, with no loss of efficiency. You can’t poison a construct, as it has an enhanced immune system to combat disease and infection.
“Remember, many of the time zones in which we operate have little or no medical knowledge or expertise. It is essential that all our agents are as self-sufficient and efficient as possible. All known diseases and infections are therefore of no threat to a construct. In a world where peritonitis and food poisoning are killers, these attributes are vital.
“A construct is to all intents and purposes a super-human; capable of great physical feats and mental dexterity. Reactions and reasoning powers are enhanced by a factor of ten; and strength by a factor of five. Great care is needed to exist dumbed-down along side their ancient contemporaries.”
I sat and thought about everything he had said. My mind was in a whirl, as soon as a thought popped in, it disappeared and was replaced by another.
“I’ve experienced it myself many times, and have to say, one feels almost invincible,” he said, perhaps in an attempt to persuade me.
“You mentioned my qualities. I take it you meant my, my…”
“Gender identity disorder?” he asked, mentioning the previously unmentionable so casually as to make it sound like nothing more serious than acne.
I hesitated, but finally had to admit to something I never thought I would.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Quite.”
“Why?”
“It’s cultural, let me explain. Most, but not all the agents we recruit are male, for a variety of reasons. The primary problem is the cultural one. Traditionally, the male is the dominant figure in most ancient cultures, indeed, even up to and including my era, let alone the twentieth century. A man is capable of advancing in most areas of life and reaching positions of influence and responsibility, whereas a woman is often unable to do so, often only being required to conceive and bear children, and destined to look after them to adulthood. Remember, there was no contraception apart from abstinence or anal sex, so many women started having children in their mid teens and went on until what we call middle age.
“It’s therefore only natural that male recruits tend to select to be male in the field, so to speak. We are very short of female agents. We do have them, but often they find it harder to deal with the cultural differences in some of the more barbaric epochs. Bear in mind that what little prejudice and discrimination exists in the late twentieth and twenty first
centuries, are so slight in comparison with the blatant sexist attitudes of earlier epochs and comparatively barbaric cultures.
“The few we have are excellent, but they sometimes find it harder to return to the present once they form lasting attachments in their target date.”
“Surely that is a risk for anyone?”
“Agreed, and there are several agents who are living out their lives in very happy circumstances, refusing to return until old age or accidental death claims them.”
“So, what is it about me that appears so different?” I asked, not entirely understanding.
“As an experienced male, you have a wealth of skills and understanding about that aspect of your life. But, to have a burning desire to be female, this is something that makes you unique. You see, many transsexuals are content enough just to be the gender they achieve, they are far more accepting of the social mores of the specific era than genetic women, whom often become aggressively angry at the social injustices that females often face, comparing them to the standards they are used to. This anger and frustration can cause them real difficulties in maintaining focus on the task at hand. Some become so determined to improve the lot of women that they forget why they were there in the first place.
“Your quality is therefore a bonus, for you have the opportunity to select the gender of your construct. You have the advantage to assist in designing her physical form, within the genetic framework that your DNA allows, of course. There is an additional bonus, in that our opposition expects all our agents to be male, for the reasons I have given.”
“You assume I would choose to be female?”
“I do. Would I be in error?” he asked, one eyebrow arched.
I thought about this. I had lived as a male, and succeeded despite my hang-ups. To be given a chance to be female, and a high quality one at that, was a dream come true.
Or was it?
I had no experience at being female. I had fantasised and wondered, but I had never done it. I had never given in to the temptations and urges that drove so many to surgery or suicide. What kind of female would I make?
I expressed my fears to Michael, who looked surprised and somewhat shocked.
“I had never considered this. How strange. You constantly surprise me. I accept what you say totally, and you’re very sensible to consider it. But, I imagine you would have enormous fun finding out,” he said with a grin.
The grin was infectious, so I found myself agreeing with him. It would be exciting finding out. I had to agree.
“Let me just clarify a couple of points, which may affect your decision. Your construct will not be fertile, she will be perfectly normal, but unable to conceive,” Michael said.
“Deliberately, or incidentally?” I asked.
“I think it is something to do with the genetic code. No successful conception between a construct and a normal temporal human is on record.”
“How about between two constructs?”
“I don’t know. It has never happened. There are very few examples of two constructs cohabiting in the same time frame.”
“How about the opposition? You said they used constructs too.”
“Good point, but it has never been tested,” he said with a wry smile.
I thought for a moment, and then asked about the pay and contracts.
“Our contracts of employment are simple. You sign on for one job at a time. Each job is paid in the currency of your choice, to the value of twenty years of an average salary in the country and time of your origin. Thus, you would be looking at twenty times $50,000. This would give you $1,000,000 on successful completion of the job. Considering you would then be free to take up from the exact second you left off, not a bad day’s work.
“Should you wish to take on several contracts, one after the other, there is a maximum of five without a break,” Michael explained. Even with my limited ability at Math, I worked out that came to $5,000,000. It seemed too good to be true.
“If I want to leave?” I asked.
“No problem. You can retain any memories you wish, or none at all. There is a mental block put in place, so that you would be incapable of divulging any details at all.”
“How does that work?”
“I honestly don’t know, as the science is not my field, but I believe that a command is structured deep in your subconscious, so no matter how hard you attempt to either say or otherwise impart the knowledge, you would always fail.”
“If I take a contract in the future, what is to stop me winning a fortune on a horse race or lottery when I return?”
Michael smiled, so I knew that this must be a frequently asked question.
“There are laws and rules. It is against the law, so should you attempt anything like that, you would find an agent, like yourself, blocking any attempt to do so.”
“How about my new identity, how do you select it?”
“You will be given the identity of an actual person from history, who, for whatever reason, no longer needs it. There will be risks, but in essence, it has proved to be more effective than creating new individuals with no past or record. We have a large research department scouring history, locating and verifying suitable identities and maintaining a database that we can utilise at a moment’s notice. It seems our enemies are not in possession of such a supply of ‘real’ identities to draw upon, so we are wary of people with no records. They use the new person method, so are easier to trace. They also tend to use agents that are only in a given era for a short time to complete one task at a time, like an assassination or similar. Our agents are deeply embedded in the time line for some time before the target event and often remain long after it. There are advantages to this, as they can operate as liaison officers for other agents in emergency situations, or they can deal with a series of events as and when they occur.”
I smiled, it all sounded so weird.
“So, say I go back and stop someone killing, say for example - George Washington when he was just a kid, what's to stop them sending someone else and then someone else until the job is done?”
“Two things. Firstly you'll be there at that precise moment, so they'd have to choose another time frame; secondly, it is enormously expensive in energy, resources and time to follow such a course of action. You see, our agents live in the time zone all the time, for the length of that agent's natural life, whereas the enemy drop in to do a job and then try to get out again. We know they have limited resources, so they normally only get one bite at any particular cherry, so to speak.”
“Surely they could go back to the day before I was there to stop them?”
“Yes they could, but you see, we'll know about it, and you or another agent would get prior warning.”
This was all too heavy for me, so I sat there trying to make sense of it all.
“Well?” he asked.
I thought about my life and everything that had happened to me to get to where I was. I had nothing to lose and, it seemed, only a lot to gain.
“Just as a matter of interest, how many agents are there?”
“In the field?”
“I don’t know, just agents, I guess.”
“In the field at any one time, we have in the region of about eighty to a hundred thousand, but off duty, so to speak, another one hundred and thirty thousand. There is a lot of time to cover, but once in an era, we can communicate with the agent if a new event should arise, even if it is before the one for which the agent was tasked.”
My brain hurt with the details. I didn’t know if that was a lot or not. I suppose when one looks at the enormous expanse of human history, it wasn’t that many.
“How many of the opposition are out there?”
“That’s a hard one. They have far less, as they’re the interlopers and saboteurs. We think about two thousand, but there may be more.”
I nodded, as even I could see that we had to be lucky all the time, yet they needed only to be lucky once. I smiled, as I already thought in terms of
the word, ‘we’.
“One last question.”
“Yes?”
“How do I know you’re the good guys?”
He burst out laughing.
“Wonderful. Oh, Ed, you are classic. The answer is simple. Our aims and objectives are set out in our charter and constitution. We exist to uphold the balance of truth and to maintain the laws of time. We are equipped and financed through a complex system, which has its origins lost in the mists of time. All employees are free to leave at any time, as our main concern is to protect the established time line from any interference or aberration. Those we oppose seek to alter history by murder and other criminal activity.”
“Do you have any contact with any legitimate government of any nation, like the President of the United States?”
“No, none at all, for the simplest reason that there will always be a temptation to manipulate our services for a particular national interest. So, for example, it may have been possible to go back and remove Hitler, but that wouldn’t have been in line with our charter, even though many lives could have been saved, we just can’t change history, no matter how much we would like to.”
“Surely our mere presence could be construed as interference?” I pointed out.
“Excellent point, Ed, I’m impressed you picked up on that. In a way, it is, but as you will see, all agents assume the identity of a real person, who has perhaps died prematurely, yet our research shows that they may actually have lived longer. This signifies that the life was concluded by an agent.”
This was all so weird.
I thought about my life as it was and my life as it was probably going to be.
What did I have to lose?
Nothing.
What did I have to gain?
I smiled and made my mind up.
“Where do I sign?” I asked.
“You don’t. We knew you would join. Welcome aboard.” Michael held out his hand, so I shook it.
