For a Limited Time Only (The Time Traveler's Passport)

by Peng Shepherd

“Explain it to me again,” I’d said after our third beer. “You think you can get me an interview, but the company doesn’t exist yet.” “Right,” she’d replied. “Not until 2070.”

The reality is, you just can’t do that. You can’t change things. Try, and the whole system collapses. In the models, it looks like a cake pulled out of the oven too early. We have three research labs dedicated to those calculations, to working out exactly how much you can alter without destroying the universe, and it’s this. It’s Oracle. Just substituting one product for another.

Humanity actually invents time travel—and all we can use it for is optimum product placement and unbeatable competitor intelligence.

As long as I don’t put it into words, everything is fine. None of it has happened yet.