The Gordian Protocol by David Weber & Jacob Holo

Author:David Weber & Jacob Holo
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Action & Adventure, Time Travel, General
ISBN: 9781481483964
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2019-05-07T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

DTI Chronoport Pathfinder-12

non-congruent

The chronoport existed slightly out of phase with the normal flow of time, but the absolute flow of time marched on within its hull and in sync with the True Present. Because of that, Katja Hinnerkopf did what she could to stay busy and stave off the boredom of watching 2005 and its surrounding years.

She floated in the cramped space that now served as her office, surrounded by virtual charts while her PIN tensed and relaxed muscle groups as part of her daily exercise regimen. She pushed one chart aside and pulled the next one in front of her before the PIN finished her abdominal sets and moved up to her arms. The raw chronometric data would have been indecipherable to most, just a jumble of terrifyingly high numbers, but she saw the patterns emerging from the chaos.

Everything Kaminski had said was true. This universe was doomed if they did nothing. But was the only solution what he had suggested? Was there another way to untangle the Knot and halt the deluge of foreign chronotons flooding into their universe? Was there a path that canceled the death sentence and preserved the Admin?

She didn’t know if she’d be the one to find that solution, but she would start the search. After all, the Admin had over a thousand years to find a way. If it existed, then she or her successors would discover it.

She truly believed that. Or at least wanted to believe it. And she would have believed…except for one small detail.

Time was becoming scarred.

The scarring manifested only behind the storm front, but she couldn’t deny it. Something was happening to the underlying chronometric structure of the universe. Within the boundaries of the storm, the timestream could be changed, and that malleability equated to weakness. Indeed, if her interpretation of the numbers was accurate, it couldn’t not be changed by an extratemporal interaction. Kaminski had already made some changes in 1986, and she could see the damage in the data she’d requested from Pathfinder-8 as well as the analysis of her own intrusion into 2049.

How much more abuse could time take? Was there an upper threshold where this part of the timeline could no longer be altered without permanent consequences? What would happen when they exceeded that threshold? Would the Knot then be impossible to unravel? Would something worse happen?

She didn’t have the answers, but she knew where to find them. The universe guarded its secrets well, but data was the gateway to truth, and so she poured over the numbers with almost religious reverence.

“Wait a second,” she muttered and zoomed in on a ripple in the chronoport’s dish replay. The anomaly was almost assuredly noise given its amplitude and the level of accuracy she could expect from the equipment, but something about it looked familiar. Why was that? Had she seen the same pattern before? If so, then where?

She frowned, shifted the chart aside, and thought for a moment. If this truly was nothing, then a quick check of the auxiliary array should clear it up.

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