3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years (The Time Traveler's Passport)

by John Scalzi

And thus temporal tourism became a real, and really profitable, business.

When it comes to temporal tourism, the organization learned from the very best: cruise lines, which sell a base service—the actual travel by ship—and then pile on extra services for an additional cost. Drinks packages. Spa packages. Upgrades to cabins. Port attractions. If one is not careful, and cruise lines make it easy not to be careful, one can spend more on the extras than one pays for the basic service.

If they have not returned after ten seconds, we are also trained not to panic. That is because they are dead, and there is nothing we can do about it.

It is pleasant to work with, and for, pleasant people.

I know now, however, that whatever reality I am in, in the end, I carry only myself into it. Realities change, and I am the constant. I don’t know what it means. I feel I should have known it earlier. Perhaps I’ll understand it in my next reality. I’ll find out soon enough.