Timemaster

by Robert L. Forward

  "Well, my real problem is terrorists," said Randy. "How can I use a 'time telescope' to protect against them?"

  "That's going to be tough," said Steve, pulling thoughtfully on his mustache. "You could have someone keep an eye on them and report the instant they did something suspicious. Even though normally there wouldn't be enough time to bring in the police to stop them, if you could use your advance knowledge to warn the police ahead of time, they could be there in time to stop them."

  "Not very good. Besides, we don't really know which ones are the dangerous ones until they strike."

  "Yeah ..." said Steve, still thinking. "Even if you know who they are, you can't just go around arresting people because they might do something."

  "And if you let them make the attack so you have the reason for arresting them, you aren't accomplishing what I want to do—which is stop them in the first place!" said Randy in frustration.

  Steve stroked his chin for a moment before he said, "Let's think this through. Rule one: You can't change the past."

  "But what exactly is the past?" asked Randy. "Perhaps the solution to our problem lies there."

  "Whatever you have lived in your present timeline and whatever you can observe through the timelink connecting you to some future timeline," said Steve.

  "Can observe, or have observed?" said Randy. "Suppose I have a timelink to the future. Certain pieces of information come over that timelink, such as the animal activists launching an attack on someone. I can't change the fact that they launched the attack, because it has already happened, and as you said, you—"

  "—can't change the past."

  "But because of the limited bandwidth of the timelink communication channel, I don't know everything that happened in the future past," continued Randy. "For instance, unless someone tells me, I don't know the attack was successful. It could very easily have been thwarted instead."

  "Hmmm," said Steve. "You might have a good idea there, Randy. Normally, one would think that either the attack succeeded or it didn't. Whether or not you personally didn't know about the success or failure shouldn't have any effect on the actual result. But it could be the situation is like the paradox of Schrodinger's cat—who was neither dead or alive, but in an undecided state, because no one had looked in the box to check. And since the wave function for the attack event can couple back on itself through the timegate, what actually happens could depend upon what parts of the wave function were allowed to come through the timelink communication channel."

  "And I will be controlling what goes through that channel," said Randy. "If I let myself know that an attack has taken place, but not what the outcome of the attack was, then maybe I can feed back a warning about the attack and make sure it fails!"

  "I'm not sure that's going to work ..." said Steve, his mustache crooked over to one side of his face as he puzzled the problem through. "I'll have to think it over."

  "You do that," said Randy, dismissing him. "In the meantime, I'll give it a try." He turned to Andrew.

  "I want you to refit my ship as soon as possible for another interstellar trip," he said. "Add a good deep-space laser comm system that will allow me to get wideband data from our new warpgate station around UV Ceti. As soon as I get close enough to UV Ceti, I'll have a time telescope that will let me keep a future eye on those animal rescue Vikings."

  "If you head directly for UV Ceti, you'll start getting future news from the UV Ceti warpgate in about six months," said Steve.

  "Not much profit in going to UV Ceti," said Randy. "Nothing much in that star system to develop. I'm not taking off on a long boring trip between stars just because I'm angry—I intend to make a profit off the journey. It would make better sense for me to head for Tau Ceti where we know there's future business potential. I'll take along an extra Silverhair mouth to leave there. That way we'll end up with a direct warpgate between Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti, and cut down on the traffic passing through the Sol gateway station."

  "Good idea, Randy," said Steve. "Since Tau Ceti is in the same general direction as UV Ceti, it'll still only take about six months of travel before you can access the future through the UV Ceti comm link."

  While Steve and Randy had been talking, Andrew Pope had been thinking. "It will take us only a week to insert an extra chamber to Spacemaster to hold the second Silverhair, Mr. Hunter," said Andrew. "I'll just reassign a Silverhair containment chamber designated for one of the negmatter spacecraft being constructed at the space station."

  "Good," said Randy. He then turned to the silent group of executives sitting around in his living room and dining room. "Sorry for the interruption, ladies and gentlemen," he said expansively. "Duncan? Please continue with your briefing."

  He suddenly had another thought, and held up his finger.

  "Wait just a second, Duncan." He leaned over to talk to Andrew. "One other thing ..."

  "Yes, Mr. Hunter?" said Andrew.

  "Find someone with a can of paint and have him change the name of my ship from Spacemaster to Timemaster."

  EIGHT DAYS later, Randy was lying on the acceleration couch, head encased in a virtual helmet and arms in virtual gauntlets. The virtual screen in front of his eyes contained the icon of the revised persona for the computer of Timemaster. It was a kindly-looking old German gentleman dressed in an open-necked shirt and a rumpled sweater, with a busy mustache under a bulbous nose and wise eyes under a high forehead crowned by an unkempt mane of bushy white hair.

  "The spacecraft is ready," said the icon in flawless German. "Shall I initiate the acceleration profile?"

  "Nein, Herr Professor Doktor Albert," replied Randy in German. "I am paying for it, I get to drive it."

  Randy raised his virtual left arm up to the screen to press the acceleration control icon on the virtual screen. The icon of Albert shrank and moved to the upper left corner while the acceleration icon grew and took the center of the screen. The acceleration icon contained the cylindrical shape of Timemaster centered in a large three-dimensional cage of concentric spheres, each sphere representing two light-years. Off in the distance, just at the outer twelve light-year sphere, were two stars, Sol and Sirius. Closer in were three stars within the six light-year sphere, 40 Eridani, UV Ceti, and Tau Ceti—his target.

  Randy rotated the imaginary joyball with his virtual glove until the icon of Timemaster was lined up with the faint green line that was his desired path. He pulled up on the joyball and the acceleration rose until the ship reached a steady three gees. Using his virtual left hand, Randy pushed the drive icon to the edge of the screen, and the icon of Albert grew and moved to the center of the screen to take its place.

  "You were not quite correct in your choice of word for 'drive' in your last sentence," said Albert in English. "That is more properly used for driving automobiles along the autobahn, not piloting spacecraft through space. Would you like a lesson in colloquial German?"

  "Ja," replied Randy. "Anything to pass the time."

  SIX MONTHS later the icon of Albert rode up on his bicycle while Randy was in the midst of a virtual stroll around a small lake on the planet Rose. High in the sky was a bright new sun, the first of one thousand Reinhold-built, one-hundred-kilometer-wide reflectors that would hover over the dark side of Rose, capturing sunlight from Epsidani and sending it down to warm up the planet and unfreeze the oceans. Blades of a hardy grass from the northern plains of Mongolia were just poking their first shoots out of the ground.

  "We are approaching the Cauchy horizon," Albert said as he circled his bicycle around Randy.

  "The what?" asked Randy, turning his head around to follow him.

  "Where the news from Earth via the UV Ceti laser link is about events that happen in the future time of the news from Earth via the direct Silverhair link," said Albert. "Alan Davidson is in the timelink-control room back on Earth and would like to converse with you."

  "I'll be right there," said Randy. "Reduce the acceleration level to zero."

  Randy took off
his virtual helmet and gauntlets, and sat up on the acceleration couch. When the ship's acceleration stopped, he floated over to the pilot's chair and activated the viewscreen. There were two images of Alan Davidson there, side by side. One came from Earth via the video comm link through the warpgate in the Silverhair down in the hold of Timemaster, while the other went from the same camera through the warpgate to UV Ceti, where it was then sent by laser beam over the five-light-year distance between UV Ceti and Timemaster. Randy could talk with the direct image, since there was no time delay in the communication link through the warpgate in Timemaster directly to Earth. But any attempt to converse with the indirect image involved a long time delay because of the nearly five light-years back to UV Ceti.

  The direct image of Alan was looking him straight in the eyes and waiting patiently for him to speak, while the indirect image was obviously not seeing him, but was talking to Albert's icon instead. The mouth in the indirect image was moving very rapidly because Timemaster was moving toward UV Ceti at a good fraction of the speed of light, causing a strong blue shift in the signal and a speed-up of motion. The ship's computer couldn't do much about the rate at which Alan's words came, but it could downshift the frequency of Alan's ultrasonic voice to the range where Randy's ears could hear it.

  "WouldyoupleaseinformRandolphthatIwishtospeakwithhim, Albert?" said the indirect image of Alan in a rapid, staccato voice. The image then waited, and was still waiting in the direct image. Randy knew that Alan was always calm and composed, but in the sped-up indirect image, he looked like he had a bad case of the fidgets.

  A special, locked, timelink-control room had been constructed in the Reinhold space station around Earth for Alan's use. All communication in and out of the room was encrypted, along with the communication links. Randy didn't want to take any chances that something might leak into or out of the timelink that he didn't have control over.

  "Hello, Alan," said Randy to the direct image.

  "Are the two signals getting through?" replied the direct image of Alan at a normal rate. Even though Timemaster was moving rapidly with respect to Earth, there was no relativistic frequency shift or any time delay in this signal, since the communication beam came through a warpgate rather than through normal space.

  "The two links are working fine," replied Randy. "The indirect link is still showing what you were doing a few minutes ago, but at a very rapid pace. It should catch up with your direct image shortly."

  "Arethetwosignalsgettingthrough?" chirped the indirect Alan, now looking directly at Randy's eyes.

  "This is a momentous occasion," said the direct Alan. "Too bad we have to keep it secret. I wonder if I'll notice any difference when we pass through the crossover point."

  The direct image of Alan was interrupted by the indirect image, which rapidly repeated the direct image's first two sentences, and caught up with it in the middle of the second sentence.

  "There's the answer to your question," Randy said to the direct image. "I now see—"

  "Thatisspooky!" interrupted the indirect image.

  "—what you are doing in the future," continued Randy.

  "That is spooky!" said the direct image of Alan.

  "It sure is," said Randy, impressed and a little scared. "Now remember, I want to go into the future-prediction business slowly and carefully. My main purpose is to see if we can't thwart the violent activities of those Animal Rescue terrorists. It's going to be tough, since we can't change the past, so we can't undo any harm they do. I think I have a way to anticipate their actions so they can be stopped before they do anything bad."

  "Verywellsir," interrupted the indirect image of Alan. He got up, unlocked the door to the timegate-control room, and ran stiffly out, slamming the door behind him. Randy turned off the indirect image and enlarged the direct image.

  "Since I am the key element in the feedback loop, I'm going to assume that only what I know is what is important, not what everyone else knows. At least it's worth a try," said Randy. "The next time the Animal Rescue Front attacks someone, send me an electrofax through the indirect link with just the time and place of the attack. Don't tell me the results, and don't read it over a videolink. I might subconsciously glean something from the look in your eyes, or your tone of voice, distorted as they are by the blue shift. Remember, just an electrofax with the time and place of the attack. I will then inform your past self, who can pass the information on to the police. After I have had sufficient time to contact you in the past and pass on the information, send me another electrofax with the full details of the incident, so I can determine whether my intervention was effective or not. To make sure, wait a full hour."

  "Very well, sir," said Alan. He got up, unlocked the door to the timegate-control room, and strode slowly out, closing the door behind him.

  TWO DAYS later, Randy's cuff-comp buzzed. He pushed his sleeve back to expose the wide display screen that was held on his wrist by its diamond-studded, jet-black plastic catch. It was an encrypted message from the future Alan.

  "Street in front of Interstellar Transport, Trade, and Terraforming Division headquarters building in Los Angeles at 1715 Pacific Daylight Time, Friday, 9 May 2053." The message was sent at 1903 PDT on 9 May 2053.

  "That's a week from now," said Randy. He brought the icon of Albert up on the display. "Tell Alan to call me from the timelink-control room," he said. About ten minutes later, Alan called in through the direct link and Randy passed on the information.

  "I'll warn Interstellar Division security and tell the Los Angeles police," said Alan. "I hope the police believe me."

  "I'll soon find out," said Randy.

  AN HOUR later another electrofax came from the future. Randy's face fell as he read it.

  "At 1715 PDT on Friday, 9 May 2053, the steps and lobby of the ITT&T Division headquarters building were raked with bullets from an automatic rapid-fire gun fired from a highspeed vehicle. The target was Andrew Pope, who was supervising the placement of security guards at the entrance. Andrew was seriously injured and a security guard was killed. The police were not present and the killers got away."

  "It didn't work!" said Randy in frustration, shrugging the cuff-comp back up his sleeve. "You can't change the past. I'll just have to figure out some other way to stop those murderers."

  A little while later, Randy's cuff-comp buzzed again. It was another electrofax from the future.

  "The police are now asking me how I knew of the attack beforehand. There was even some suspicion that somehow I am involved with the Animal Rescue terrorists. As you instructed, I told the police chief about the timelink through your ship. He was very dubious, but semibelieves it because of your reputation. He said he would pay attention to the next warning, so I gave the second warning to him."

  "Hmm," said Randy, a chill running through him as he realized he was hearing about things he had done that he hadn't yet done. "I guess I'm going to try to stop them again. Wonder when? And will I be successful next time?"

  IT WAS four days later ship time, and nearly two weeks later future time, when the next warning came.

  "1440 GMT Thursday, 22 May 2053, receiving dock, Morocco Rotovator freight terminal. Box with bill of lading #A 12114930 for shipment to Reinhold Space Station from Arcorp."

  Randy passed the message on to Alan over the direct link.

  "Sounds like a bomb," said Alan.

  "Don't give the message to the police just yet," said Randy. "Wait until the Los Angeles police chief comes to visit you to discuss the first warning, then tell him about the existence of the timelink and give him the second warning. Let him pass it on to the Moroccan police, who are more likely to pay attention to him than to you."

  "The first warning didn't work, did it?" said Alan, guessing from the look in Randy's eyes.

  "You can't change the past," Randy said brusquely as he blanked the screen. The next hour crawled interminably, but finally the follow-up message arrived.

  "Success! Moroccan police officer in a
Reinhold Rotovator uniform was holding the bill of lading #A12114930 in his hand when two men walked in with large box from Arcorp to be shipped to Reinhold Space Station. The two men were surrounded and police asked them to open the box. One of the men started to open it, but the other stopped him, telling the police it would explode when opened. The two men were arrested and the bomb squad took the box away. The two men were both active in the Animal Rescue Front."

  OVER THE next few weeks, Randy and Alan foiled one attack after another by Animal Rescue terrorists. With the more violent of the activists in jail, the attacks became fewer and less violent. The Animal Rescue Front, its major source of funding turned off by a now careful Senator Barkham and its failures trumpeted in every newspaper, was essentially defanged.

  Unfortunately, news of the existence of the timelink leaked out during a press conference with the Los Angeles Chief of Police. Many people refused to believe it, but Wall Street became paralyzed by fear. Articles in the Wall Street Journal expressed concern over what Harold Randolph Hunter might do if he decided to use his knowledge of the future to get rich off the errors in judgment of other investors. Speculators deserted the market and it stabilized at rational levels.

  There were other repercussions as well. The headquarters office of the Reinhold Astroengineering Company was flooded with letters to Randy, asking him for predictions of the outcome of sports events or whether a certain person was alive or dead at some point in the future. Leaders of nations pressured Randy for access to the timelink to avoid future catastrophes. Scientists speculated on what the consequences of time travel would be on the world and future science. Scaremongers pointed to strange coincidences as evidence that Randy was already tampering with the future. Finally, Randy was forced to issue a statement through Alan to the press.

  "I never wanted to use the spacewarp concept to construct a timelink. I was driven to it by an attack on my family by the vicious and murderous so-called Animal Rescue Front. I vowed to put them out of business and I have. I have deliberately limited the knowledge passing through the timelink to that needed solely to stop the A.R.F. It is because of that limitation that the world has not changed more, except perhaps for the recent rational behavior of the stock markets, which in the past never behaved rationally anyway. I want to assure everyone that I have not used in the past, and have no future intention of using, the timelink for personal profit, and I will resist all attempts by others, including governments, to gain access to it."