The Depths of Time

Time is of the essence when you're stranded in the future. Humanity is running out of time.... The settled universe is filled with terraformed worlds linked by timeshafts--temporal wormholes in deep space. These timeshafts are the only way to travel the vast distances between the stars.... As passengers and crew are placed in cold sleep, their ships spend decades crossing the interstellar void--traveling the wormholes and arriving at their destinations just days after leaving home. The Chronologic Patrol is charged with guarding these timeshaft wormholes and preventing time paradoxes at all costs. But one critical mission ends in disaster, turning Anton Koffield, captain of theUpholder,into a dark legend....As ships carrying relief supplies to a crippled planet approach a timeshaft, they are mercilessly set upon by mysterious attackers--their crews are murdered, the sanctity of time itself is at risk. In response, Koffield is forced to do the unthinkable: He must stop the invasion by destroying the timeshaft. Marooned eighty years in the future, he lives as a cursed figure, the villain who killed a world. And his odyssey through time has only just begun.... Time has passed; man has not discovered new naturally occurring planets capable of sustaining human life. Terraforming has allowed for some colonization across the galaxy, but the only method for moving supplies to and from these far-flung worlds is the use of timeshaft wormholes. To safeguard the planets and these portals, laws governing the "who, what, where, when, and why" of time travel routes are strictly enforced. Suddenly, the Chronologic Patrol Ship Upholder--charged with enforcing these stringent precepts--is attacked at the Circum Central Timeshaft Wormhole in 5211 a.d. Unpro- voked and unprecedented, all rules are blasted away in that deadly encounter, and it will take heroic measures to restore balance to the galaxy. -->

Roger MacBride Allen is the author of seventeen novels and a number of short stories. He lived in Brazil for some years but now makes his home in Maryland with his wife and young son.