Time Travel Problems

It’ll work this time.

Khafra smiled to herself, placing her hand over the amulet on her necklace. Protection through hardship was her patron’s purvey, and more than ever it was needed.

“All systems green. Reverse-Probe ready and awaiting completion of the circuit.”

Her Commander looked to her through the reinforced glass wall, nodding in approval through a wide smile. Gods only know what he had to do to get the outer systems to agree to the project, but whatever it was, she was infinitely glad for it. She nodded back, the boxy helmet transparent but lit with varying projected displays, making sure she was aware not only of the state of her surroundings, but of her self as well. The chamber, bare as it was, had passed the inspections with flying colors, finding no faults in any of the seals as well as a perfect isolation ratio per the testing device, and probably higher. The greatest contemporary minds had come together to crack this mystery, and her equations were what made it a cohesive whole.

Years ago she had noticed the anomaly in her studies. A supposed ‘hiccup’ in recorded data – very much a hoax, yet obviously so. Even then, it was deep enough in the records that only a history major would think to be looking, or even notice the discrepancy in the first place. What had kept her looking was when she saw it pop up again, further back. Then again, and again, each time sequentially further in a repeated pattern. She had a party the night she realized it didn’t terminate, but rather, WOULD do so shortly. That found her first collaborator.

The Commander of her academy saw her interest and immediately recognized the curious nature of the signal, getting her in contact with a friend in the deeper parts of their intel. A defunct archive was found to have noted a similar pattern, but well before the last few instances, having noted their supposed dates as well. It all lined up too perfectly to ignore, and with a formal inquiry underway, Project Binary was born.

Time travel was recognized as inherently different from teleportation, insofar as teleporting can be done via destruction and reconstitution, yet while that may work for different places, different times require a proper bridge. Power considerations, material needs, all manner of exotic restrictions prevented it from being feasible before civilization had seeded the stars. Yet confronted with multiple independent hints that there may be ways to yet make it feasible on a personal, stable level, or at least to send some sort of message, a plan was drafted to build a sealed pair of rooms and establish a literal gate between them, then having a party present at that point to verify the transit had taken place. Simultaneously, they would send a probe with a set of plans to build a similar device, as well as a miniaturized variant that would merely monitor its original point and allow verification of successful arrival.

“T-Minus Thirty seconds to completion of the circuit.”

Power arced in the vacuum between the two panes in the window separating the rooms, a fierce plasma filling it to opacity. Khafra took a tentative step forward, her suit bulky yet comfortable.

“T-Minus fifteen.”

The plasma began to clear,  the room on the other side flickering.

“Ten. Nine.”

She stopped at the door itself, glancing at the probe in the far end of the room, suspended within its chamber. Oblong and sealed, it reminded her of a pill more than anything else.

“Three. Two.”

Time to give Mother Nature her Medicine.

“One. We have full power.”

With a pop, the probe slipped into itself, sneaking into the past as the windows simply filled with a complete and total blackness. She furrowed her brow and looked to the handlers, who checked their pads in a hurry before whispering something to the commander. He leaned forward and spoke into the microphone provided.

“We have a successful ping from the probe. The lights appear to have failed at some point in the future. Proceed with caution.”

Khafra touched her amulet once more, turning back to the control panel and grasping the toggle. With a deep breath and against all better judgement, she opened the floodgate.