Time Machines

Time Corps Briefing Document. Version 1
Copyright © 1997, 1999 Chris Halliday
All Rights Reserved

This section will focus on the technology of time travel itself, providing an overview of the different types of temporal technology available, as well as giving some of the more historically notable examples of each type. Also in this section, we will take our first look at the temporal transportation employed by the Corps, with a detailed examination of the PTT, or Timeglider.

 

Personal Temporal Transport

Colloquially known as a Timeglider or a PTT, this is the single most important and expensive piece of equipment any agent can be assigned. Timegliders are personal time and space transports, able to move the pilot to any world in any parallel, at any moment in that world's history. The backbone of the Operations Section, the Timeglider is the key to the continued success of the Corps. Though usually single seat devices, PTT’s are also available as two-seaters.

Similar in appearance to the motorcycles, ski-mobiles and jet-skis of the late 20th and early 21st Century, Timegliders are equipped with twin graviton drive nacelles on either side of the main body, endowing the vehicle with flight capability. Behind the pilot’s seat is the circular torus casing, which contains the time drive and polybdenum fuel cells.

Every active agent in the Operation’s section is assigned a Timeglider, and agents above the rank of Sergeant are accorded the privilege of personalising their machines. It has become traditional for agents to name their machines, and add personal insignia to the aft systems access panels, similar to the "nose-art" painted on Allied Bombers in WWII.

Weight: 0.85 mt (0.8 t)
Length: 2.7m (8.8 ft)
Width: 1.57m (5.1 ft)
Height: 1.5m (4.9 ft)
Duration: 15 years
Crew: 1
Passengers: 0
Armament: None
Defence: Class 1 Deflection Shield


Operation: - Equipped with an onboard AI, Timegliders are relatively easy to operate, utilising simple controls and a holoplate computer interface that configures itself to the pilot’s personal preference. The AI can accept chronospatial co-ordinates in a variety of different forms, including colloquial descriptions.
 

Security Systems: - The Timeglider is security keyed to the quantum signature of the authorised pilot, and will not accept commands from anyone else. Should the machine detect tampering without the correct deactivation codes, it will automatically enter Cloak Mode until recalled by the pilot.

Cloak Mode is engaged when the Timeglider must be left unsupervised, whether there is a perceived risk of discovery or not. When this function is activated, the Timeglider slips out of temporal phase, travelling exactly four picoseconds ahead of the temporal horizon, rendering it unreachable from the present moment. Further attempts to tamper with the machine will result in a controlled fusion cascade within the drive torus, triggering a warp field detonation and ejecting the Timeglider and everything within twenty-five metres into phase space.
 

Fuel: - The drive mechanism is powered by a temporal flywheel, which draws power from the passage of time, in much the same way as a water wheel draws power from the passage of a river. Though the power of the drive is theoretically infinite its use is limited by the need for polybdenum crystal rods, inserted directly into the drive torus through ports in the outer rim, as focussing emitters for chronon/anti-chronon interaction. Each successive use de-phases the crystal until it can no longer focus without re-processing. A Timeglider may hold ten such rods at any one time, each rod good for two jumps, though they are rarely equipped to their maximum capacity due to the extreme scarcity of polybdenum crystal.
 

Navigation: - Timeglider pilots have a unique problem. They need a system capable of guiding them through phase space (which technically does not exist) to any point in space and time with pinpoint accuracy, and then back again. The complexity of this task can be made clear only when it is understood that not only is the Timeglider itself in motion, but the planet, galaxy, universe and parallel of both destination and origin are also moving. The Timeglider’s navigational AI is aided in this task by a suite of sophisticated sensors that enable it to calculate its exact Omniversal co-ordinates (relative to parallel Zero-Prime).


Movement: - The Timeglider’s real-space motive power is provided by twin graviton thrust generators located on either side of the machine. These thrusters are capable of moving the Timeglider at a maximum speed of mach 7 within a planetary atmosphere, and can lift two tonnes in addition to the mass of the Timeglider and its pilot.
 

Defence Systems: - Derived from the spatial distortion bubble generated by the graviton thrusters, the Timeglider is capable of generating a one-way kinetic deflection field capable of repelling both small arms fire and low-to-mid range energy weapons. This field is primarily intended to protect the pilot from extremes of wind and cold during high-altitude flight, but may also be used in combat. As a matter of Time Corps policy, Timegliders themselves are not armed.
 

Drive Systems: - Located within the torus casing behind the pilot's seat, the time drive is sealed to prevent tampering or study by non-Corps personnel. The casing is rimmed with ports for the insertion of polybdenum crystal rods.

The principle of the drive system is simple and more easily explained than achieved. On activation, the time drive begins two processes simultaneously. Firstly it opens a quantum scale wormhole in the fabric of reality, tunnelling out into phase space and opening the other end at the target site. Secondly, it warps local space around itself, effectively rotating itself out of real space and into a ‘bubble universe’. This bubble, of sub-atomic size on the outside, is considerably larger on the inside and can be moved through the open wormhole safely, thereby avoiding the problems of the Hawking radiation effect. The Timeglider steers the entrance to the bubble universe through the wormhole tunnel and out into the desired space-time co-ordinates, before unfolding the bubble universe and rotating itself back into normal space.

The complexity of the drive system accounts for the relatively large size of the Timeglider. Though it is possible to create much smaller and more fuel-efficient time machines, these can generate significant levels of temporal fallout and damage to the timestream, making them almost as great a danger to the timeline as historical disruption.
 

Sensor Systems: - The Timeglider is equipped with a powerful high-resolution sensor array, capable of gathering navigational and scientific data over an area equivalent to a quarter of the Earth’s surface. Combining optical and wide-band EM scanners with virtual tachyon spectrometers and short-range neutrino resonance detectors, the system is configurable to any search parameter the operator desires and may even be slaved to the pilot’s personal scanner unit. However this may not be used while the craft is cloaked.
 

Environmental Systems: - The Timeglider maintains an optimal environmental bubble around itself and its pilot at all time, protecting the pilot from extremes of temperature, gravity, pressure and radiation, as well as from the physiological and psychological effects of time travel. The environment bubble is defined by the field generated by the graviton thrusters, as is incapable of supporting more than the designated number of passengers for long.

 

Dual Temporal Transport

More often referred to as a "Chronopod", this is an enclosed time vehicle slightly larger than a Timeglider, capable of carrying two persons. Equipped with the same basic drive and systems as the Timeglider, it is nonetheless capable of transporting greater mass across time, and may be fitted with external cargo modules for greater capacity.

Due to the popularity of these machines, the term "pod" has now become accepted Corps slang for any kind of small, enclosed time transport.

Weight: 1.25 mt (1.2 t)
Length: 8.41 m (27.5 ft)
Width: 4.57 m (14.9 ft)
Height: 3.12 m (10.2 ft)
Duration: 10 years
Crew: 1
Passengers: 1
Armament: None.
Defense: Class 1 Deflection Shield.

 

Temporal Shuttle

Similar in design and appearance to the Chronopod, the "Chronoshuttle" is considerably larger and is normally found in service with Auxiliary Services, being used to ship staff and supplies between Corps facilities across the Omniverse.

A multi-environment vessel, the Chronoshuttle is equipped for use in most planetary environments, and is capable of short-range interstellar flight. The interior of the Chronoshuttle is modular in design, allowing easy reconfiguration of the interior space and systems depending on the mission objectives.

Weight: 3.4 mt (3.3 t)
Length: 7.04 m (23 ft)
Width: 4.95 m (16.2 ft)
Height: 3 m (9.8 ft)
Duration: 10 years
Crew: 2
Passengers: 4
Armament: 2 Heavy Plaser Turrets (one above, one below)
Defense: Class 2 Deflection Shield
Range: 157 ly
Maximum Speed: Mach 10 (in a standard planetary atmosphere), C100 (space)

 

Temporal Assault Craft

The Assault Craft (sometimes referred to as a "Striker") is a machine designed for high-risk combat situations. Heavily armoured, it is equipped with a zero emission stealth drive, allowing it to clock in without triggering alarm systems or alerting the temporally sensitive. It is designed to deliver up to 20 heavily armed agents in full armour plus additional equipment, but like the Chronoshuttle it can quickly be reconfigured for other missions. The craft is also equipped with a sophisticated phase shift defence system and holographic cloak, allowing it to hover over target areas in real space without detection. The Striker’s command centre allows officers to remain in full contact with ground forces at all times via real-time hyperwave link.

The control and drive systems of the Assault Craft are virtually identical to the Timeglider, with the exception of the powerful deflector shields and the hull mounted weapon pods. It is however, far less efficient than the Timeglider, utilising almost five times as much polybdenum.

The Striker is much beloved by Corps agents, and its distinctive elliptical shape and resemblance to the many alien craft seen in the skies of Earth before First Contact has led to it being called the ‘flying saucer’ by many.

Weight: 12 mt (39.3 ft)
Length: 20 m (65.6 ft)
Width: 20 m (65.6 ft)
Height: 3.15m (10.3 ft)
Duration: 5 years
Crew: 2
Passengers: 20
Armament: 4 hull mounted Plaser Cannons, 2 Omnidirectional Heavy Plaser Turrets (top and bottom), 2 Plasma Torpedo launchers (top and bottom), 50 Plasma Torpedoes.
Defense: Phase-Shifted Deflection Shield
Range: 389 ly
Maximum Speed: Mach 10 (in a standard planetary atmosphere), C1000 (space)

 

Temporal Transports

By far the most popular form of temporal technology due to the freedom they bestow, temporal transports generally fit the popular image of the time machine; a conveyance capable of transporting itself and its occupant to a different time. Many different examples of this type of device exist, many of them using entirely different methods of time travel. For the most part however, these machines share a number of similar characteristics; they are normally open, single seat vehicles, driven by a temporal flywheel or similar mechanism and derived from the work of Sir Lesley Sinclair. Capable of being built from the simplest of materials, these devices show up with alarming frequency once the basic principles become known, and are by far the most common form of time machine encountered by the Corps (indeed, the Corps own timegliders function on the same principles). Though many of these devices are capable of time travel only, remaining in the same relative geographic location, by far the majority can travel in space as well as time, and a few have been demonstrated to be capable of parachronal travel.

Not all temporal transports are vehicles. Included in this category are wearable devices like the timebelt, the Chronopac, and Jump Armour. Rarest of all is the Omnihedron, a psionically controlled crystalline device of unknown origins that has been encountered in forms small enough to be implanted beneath the skin, worn around the neck or mounted in a ring.

 

Example: The Sinclair Device

In 1884, in his home in London, the amateur scientist and philosopher Lesley Buckner Sinclair created what is regarded by many as the first functional Terran temporal vehicle. Derived from theories inspired by Kelvin’s unpublished notes on extra-temporal space and hints contained in Da Vinci’s notebooks, the design of the Sinclair Machine is simple, elegant and efficient. Though initially limited to time travel within the same relative location, Sinclair eventually made the intuitive leap that allowed him to take his machine to any place and time on Earth.

A baroque assembly of polybdenum-doped quartz and copper and brass tubing, the Sinclair Machine is aesthetically pleasing as well as functional, and is the first example of temporal flywheel technology, in that it derives its power from the passage of time itself.

 

Time Gates and Portals

Gates and Portals are static devices, usually derived from early mistakes in the development of transmat technology, that can generate a two-way passage between time periods. Gates are limited by the fact that they can only establish a conduit to another operating gate device, while portal devices have no such requirement are capable of opening a "return door" almost anywhere within their temporal and geographical range. Gates are usually used by those already in possession of another form of time travel in order to simplify the transition of materials between time periods, though one notable example had the destination gate set up by an individual who had been put in cryogenic suspension for several hundred years.

Like projectors, both gates and portals are relatively simple to construct, and the technology is normally developed early in a parallel’s history of temporal technology.

The risks involved in using gates or portals are large. Aside from the logistical problems of arranging a safe location where the return door may be opened, there is also the risk of discovery by contemporary observers. Also, since most portals operate from within the same timeline as the travellers, there is a risk of temporal deletion due to disruption, stranding the travellers in the past. There is also a risk of temporal feedback, in that it is possible for a wave of disruption to feed back through an open portal or gate, deleting travellers in the past and effectively bypassing the Law of Temporal Preservation.

Typically, a gate or portal consists of a large metallic hoop standing on its edge, attached to a control apparatus and a power source. The size of the apparatus and the power source depends on the era the device originates in. Since gates are normally open passages between time periods, the potential for disruption is enormous, and the damage done to the fabric of the timestream can be severe. In the early days of this technology, they were large devices, often weighing several tons. However, later versions have been encountered that can be folded up, placed in a pocket or concealed within hand luggage.

 

Example: Projekt Scythe

The brainchild of physicist Vladimir Penkowski, the Projekt Scythe device, code-named Der Blitzstrasse (the Lightning Path), is the earliest Terran example of portal technology. Built during WWII and named for the localised weather disturbances generated by its operation, the Blitzstrasse is a sophisticated time portal, made possible by developments in the Nazi nuclear research program. Utilising the most advanced computing devices of it’s age, the portal is decades ahead of its time, and is able to transport men and materiel anywhere on the planet within a range of one hundred years, and retrieve them accurately. However, due to an error in Penkowski's initial calculations, the portal cannot be made to open into the past.

Located in the Nordhausen research complex beneath the Harz Mountains of Thuringia, the first Blitzstrasse is a vast device, requiring the full output of three nuclear piles. Using the device is a laborious process, as the calculating machines used to derive target co-ordinates are extremely primitive. However, with the aid of modern computing techniques and a more stable power source, the Blitzstrasse could be a formidable device and the simplicity of it’s construction mean that a similar device could be constructed at almost any time after the start of the industrial revolution.

 

Retros

This is the name given to any device that turns back time when it is activated. Named after the first truly successful example of this device, retros literally turn the clock back by a pre-set amount of time. Everything resets to the specified time, with the exception of the users, who find themselves as they were, but with full knowledge of what occurred in the previous version of history. The Corps frowns heavily on use of retros, as they cause considerable temporal stress, and overuse can cause spontaneous ATSD (Alternate Timeline Stress Disorder) in sensitive individuals close to the site of operation as well as random causal anomalies.

Most retros encountered by the Corps are relatively small devices. Some temporal criminals have been known to wear a retro strapped to their body beneath their clothing, and at least one example has been recovered that activated automatically if the user was injured in any way.

 

Example: Project Retroactive

Built in Nevada, on the site of the failed Tube Project, Project Retroactive was begun as an experiment designed to create an artificial curvature in spacetime. When the initial experiments proved that a localised temporal inversion could be achieved using a comparatively small amount of power, Drake began work on a much larger device with the intention of creating a temporal projector. Like many early time machines, the Retroactive device was a static installation with a powerful appetite for computing power, and the bulk of the Tube site was given over to it. Due to a flaw in Drake’s model of the inversion’s temporal geometry, the large-scale device produced an entirely different effect, rolling time back by just over 30 minutes. Everyone within 20 metres of the device experienced perfect recall of the "previous" 30 minutes, while for the rest of the world, those 30 minutes had yet to occur.

During the life of the project, Drake succeeded in extending the range of the device to almost a week, but he remained unsuccessful at finding ways to reduce the size of the device, and the project was shut down when Drake suffered a psychotic episode and destroyed his notes.

 

Scoops

These are devices used to pluck entities from their rightful place in time, and transport them elsewhere, usually to the location of the scoop. Several versions of this technology have been developed throughout history, many incorporating time viewers as a targeting aid, but all of them are uniformly disruptive. The sudden removal of an individual from the timestream can have incalculable consequences to causality, and Corps agents have standing orders to destroy any examples of this device they might come across.

 

Example: The Long Arm

An alien device, originally created by the Sebalar Confederacy, the Long Arm is a highly complex device that allows the user to obtain almost anything they wish for. Worn as a bracelet around the wrist, the Long Arm reads the user’s surface thoughts when activated by voice command, then scans its memory for anything similar to the item demanded by the user. When the item is located (which can take up to 5 seconds), the Arm literally scoops it out of its native spacetime and deposits it either in the hand of the user or within his reach.

Though the Arm is constructed of alien materials, its design is so elegant that it is relatively easy to reproduce. Temporal criminals have been know to create tailored Arms, keyed to weapons dumps or equipment caches, allowing them to access the tools of their trade at any time. At least one criminal has been inventive enough to implant his Arm under his skin, and several examples of Arm equipped cyborgs have been encountered.

 

Projectors

Related to scoops, these are the simplest of time machines to construct. Projectors are usually static installations with large power requirements, designed to send an entity through time to a predefined location and time. The very fact that projectors are usually one-shot machines indicates that those who use them never intend to return to their home time, and are therefore unconcerned with the long term effects of their presence in an alien time period.

Though they are normally one-way devices, some machines have been encountered that combine scoop and projector technology, and use transtemporal broadcast techniques to enable remote control.

 

Example: The Krupmann Device

Created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Dr Heinreich Krupmann, the Chronometric Projection Platform, or Krupmann Device, used opposing di-polar magnetic fields, contra-rotated around a central staging area, to generate sufficient sub-atomic torque to rotate the subject out of normal spacetime and into the target spacetime. One of the most advanced examples of this type of machine ever developed, the machine’s waste energy provided limited protection against the effects of temporal disruption, negating one of the largest risks involved in the use of projectors. Unlike many projectors, the Krupmann device was capable of retrieving a subject from a pre-arranged time and place.

 

Slingshots

This is the designation given to that class of time machine that uses the elastic properties of space-time to accomplish temporal travel. Entities transferred using these devices are given a charge of temporal energy (positive or negative) which transfers them to the desired time period. Without an anchor device, the transferred entities revert to their point of origin as soon as the charge of temporal energy expends itself. Retrieval is as simple as deactivating the anchor device, but severe physiological problems can result from extended trips using this method.

Slingshots are typically "dirty" devices, frequently causing probability distortions as a result of their operation. Like projectors, they are normally large static installations.

 

Example: The Klein Projector

Developed for the US military by Dr Horst Klein, the Klein Projector was a large static device based around a large linear accelerator, which was used to shoot a capsule containing the subject through a massive phased di-polar magnetic field and into the past. Like many projectors, the temporal displacement was temporary, and the traveller was required to carry a temporal anchor in order to avoid being yanked back to their origin point. When the traveller wished to end their trip, it was necessary to return to the capsule, without which the traveller would be torn apart by temporal stress.

Despite its size, the Klein projector was a relatively easy device to construct, with most post-atomic industrial powers having the ability to construct such a machine. Though brilliant, Klein was also highly unstable, and marketed the construction details in an attempt to gain more funding for his continued research, singe-handedly creating the greatest period of temporal instability outside of the Time War itself. This threat prompting the United Nations of the day to create the very first Terran temporal security force.

 

Temporal Communicators

Though useful, these devices are a minefield of potential disruptions. Temporal communicators (or "tempcomms") use focussed tachyon bursts through micro-wormholes to communicate between time periods. Feedback from temporal inertia makes communication difficult between temporally close periods, though it becomes easier the further apart they are. Tempcomms require vast amounts of power to operate, and are easily traceable by the chronal fallout they generate. The Corps does not use these devices despite the tactical advantage they would confer, due to the damage they cause to spacetime, and they are considered a restricted technology. Remarkably, given the right atmospheric conditions, a functioning tempcomm can be constructed out of a wireless radio and some bent wire.

 

Viewers

As indicated by the name, a viewer is a remote viewing apparatus that allows visual scanning of past events, through the computer processing of returned tachyon emissions. Though early examples of this technology were extremely bulky, many police forces later developed examples small enough to be incorporated into a simple visor. Later generations of time viewers incorporated virtual reality elements, allowing the user to fully immerse himself in a past time without actually being there.

Because this technology works by bouncing tachyons off the target events through a series of micro-wormholes, there exists a very slight risk of historical disruption. Even so, the Corps only uses time viewers rarely, as over-use can generate timelock.

 

Example: Pastwatch

Developed in Japan in the late 21st Century, Pastwatch became an instant hit. Created by Tetsuo Pawley for the Sony Corporation, the technology was initially large and expensive, but quickly became smaller and cheaper. Pastwatch consoles could be plugged into a 3D set or flatscreen, and portable units were produced that could be viewed on visors or cortical implants. Despite guidelines for the use to these devices, users soon discovered that they could be used to spy on the very recent past. Limiter circuitry was introduced that prevented viewing of anything more recent than five years ago, but this was easily bypassed. The utter loss of privacy created by Pastwatch prompted Sony to withdraw the units from sale after 4 years, though tamper-proof units were still made available to research institutes and universities.

 

Eye-Spies


Eye-Spies are small remote drones, equipped with a limited use time drive and jumped into the target time period for reconnaissance purposes. Later examples of this technology incorporate a broadband tempcomm, enabling the drone to transmit and receive data across time. While Corps researchers do use Eye-Spies for information gathering in dangerous or sensitive areas of history, their use is generally restricted due to the disruptive technologies involved.

 

Example: Hugin and Munin

Named for the twin ravens who spied on the world for the Norse god Odin, these devices were specially modified outriders used by the time travelling thief Tanya Stone. Stone engineered the devices to act as bodyguards and lookouts, equipping them with neural stunners, a psionic link, limited AI and a short-range time drive. In combat situations, the devices would oscillate back and forth between the ongoing present and about 5 seconds in the future, providing Stone with a continuing preview of her opponents actions and giving her a tactical advantage that was hard to beat.

Though Hugin and Munin were unique, several other temporal criminals have attempted to duplicate them, with varying degrees of success.

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