Paige out of Time
A Case Study
Kronosis Management Case Study
Paige Jenkins — Traveler Active from the Year 2019 (in this timeline)
Distributed by CHRONOS Dept. of Educational Affairs, New York, NY USA, 2105
Introduction
This case study was first developed in the year 2100 for a local CHRONOS management course. Our purpose was to educate employees around the onboarding of travelers; and to outline our company mission in response to public concern regarding the safety of time travel, particularly time travel for a profit. We hope to outline here a case that depicts early problems in the time travel industry, and how we’ve come to fix them. New employees are encouraged to engage with this material in order to more fully understand how our company has developed, and why it matters that we protect our travelers and honor our clientele.
This case has been organized using general time terms (the present, before, a while back, etc.) to clarify its arc through the timeline. The commercial environment described was very typical of what existed for travelers in the year 2019. The problems are not difficult to spot, but can you see why they happened? And what was done to fix them?
The case study will be followed by a set of questions organized by education management. You may use the case study and questions as you wish, subject to copyright limitations.
The Present
Occasionally, Paige fell through time(1). She didn’t like to disclose her condition. It was a bit embarrassing that she couldn’t stick to one timeline without help, and took such effort to explain. So she’d never told Nick. They had only been friends for a year, and besides, they
had better things to talk about, like the terms of their newly sexual relationship, and
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1 Timeslip is a common symptom of Kronosis, an umbrella term covering several types of chronic time conditions, including but not limited to: ability to time travel, ability to sense people through time, and (in one most notable case) the ability to see into other timelines entirely. It is uncertain whether there are more variations on the disease.
the way that sex felt.
“Nick, oh my God,” Paige gasped. She leaned back to dig her fingers into his thighs as he moved.
“Yeah? That good?”
Paige grinned up at the ceiling, then looked down at Nick. He was grinning back, red in
the face with his hands on her hips. “Yeah,” she said. She arched forward, pressed her
fingers against his jawline. “Yeah,” she whispered. Her breath was warm on his lips. And
then she was gone. Not gone to passion, just gone. Out of thin air. Out of Nick’s lap. Fifty
years back into 1969. It was a familiar night. When Paige slipped, this was almost always
when she ended up(2). Her first designated time travel had been to the day of the moon
landing. She could remember that trip with stark clarity. The way things looked, felt,
smelled. No wonder she kept falling back to it.
She was standing in someone’s backyard. A house loomed over the patchy lawn, with sliding doors that opened onto a living room full of people, all jostling and murmuring.
Paige heard the staticky drone of an old TV. Well, a new TV for this time. Paige took in her surroundings. Beyond a picket fence, a drying line sagged with laundry. As Paige clambered
to her feet and made her way across the wet grass, she heard a collective gasp, but she
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2 Many travelers say that when navigating the folds of timespace, the time is much more difficult to get a hold of than the space. We all know time is tricky. Every human is bound to complain about it at some point: it either moves too fast or too slow or doesn’t seem to move at all. That’s why we write these case studies, to better understand what we’re dealing with.
didn’t look up. It wasn’t about her. Paige couldn't always control her trips but she did have a
superb sense of time(3). She knew it was 3:56 AM on July 20th, 1969.
She listened carefully as she stepped up to the fence. It was relatively low. She placed her hands between its spikes and began to hoist herself over. As she went, Paige murmured
along with Neil Armstrong on the television: “One small step for man…”
She missed the next line in a sudden tumble over the fence and found herself sprawled on the neighbor’s lawn. This one was pretty and green. Less brown patches. The house was dark, probably because the family had gone next door to watch the moon landing with their friends. Paige made her way over to the clothesline. She couldn’t hear the television from this distance. She took her time picking out a dress from an array of damp options and picked the one that felt the least starched. It hung too wide on her frame, but that would have to do. This wasn’t the first time Paige had fallen through time unprepared. Not even the first time she’d done it naked. But it still left her exhausted. Paige looked up at the moon
and took a deep breath.
She hadn’t looked up the first fifty or so times she slipped. It had seemed appropriate to stand at the back of a crowd and watch alongside everyone else as the moon’s surface played out in grainy black and white. Eventually, she realized that once she got back to the future, she could watch it remastered, and perhaps it was more interesting to stare at the actual moon while the men were still up there. At least it would give her something to do until she got her strength back. So she watched the sky, and listened to make sure no one
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3 Another side effect of any form of Kronosis is an incredibly keen sense of time. As you might imagine, this can be excruciating. To notice each moment as it passes, recognize every tick of the clock.
would come outside and notice her, and wondered about Nick. He would probably be
worried.
(Image used with permission of CHRONOS c. 2019)
A While Back
Paige Jenkins sat in the lobby of her place of work(4), reading over the familiar poster on
the wall. She read it once, and again, and again. Then she let her mind wander as her eyes
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4 Many companies have capitalized on the existence of Kronosis patients. In exchange for regular treatment and assistance in managing their conditions, travelers are asked to complete research for those wealthy enough to pay.
drifted off to trace the familiar blue trim along the wall. She tugged on her necklace(5). The
bench she sat on was usually reserved for customers waiting on appraisals, not employees.
But she wasn’t going to be an employee for much longer. She was trying to get used to the
idea.
“Paige!” Lacey called. She had only recently taken up the receptionist position, and she was good at it. She kept things well organized and her smile was almost as disarming as her wide, observant eyes. “The boss will see you now.”
Paige stood up and dusted off her pants. They were new. It felt strange to walk around
CHRONOS in clothes she owned rather than something the agency had provided her with.
As she made her way past the front desk she quirked her lips in an awkward smile at her friend. Lacey offered an encouraging look. Paige made her way over to the elevator bank and used her key card to get in the employee car.
An hour later, Paige had retired from her work with CHRONOS. She lost her pay, her agency-assigned housing, and any assists for travel through time. This included clothes,
language and history education, and access to spotters(6). She was sent back to the lobby in the guest elevator. She paused long enough to give Lacey a hug. Outside, her hand went to
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5 One perk of working for time travel agencies is called a “tether.” These are objects that anchor time travelers to their home era. Personal tethers were very expensive in the early days of our industry, and most travelers relied on company-provided supplies
6 Along with tethers, travelers work with agency-trained spotters. These are people with a minor case of Kronosis that does not allow them to move through time, but rather to sense other people as they do. With proper mindfulness training, spotters can reach out through time and draw travelers back to their home era as needed.
her throat to feel for her necklace, but she’d handed that over too. She stuffed her fists into
the pockets of her coat.
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