Chapter one

It was late in the 22nd century, all those years ago, when the phenomena of time drag was first discovered. Well, scientifically it was refered to as Spatial Time Contraction or STC but people just called it time drag. Once something entered an STC zone it was as if it accelerated rapidly into the future not unlike vehicles in the ancient sport of drag racing.

Centuries of continually improving observational data began to show that periodically the Earth would pass through pockets of space where time appeared to speed up. This was not evident to those who would periodically pass through these pockets because it could only be measured from outside of the pocket.

The first human experience with time drag occurred in 89 SNT (Sol New Time) or 2289 CE in old speak when Mars Base colonists noted an odd difference of 37 minutes between Martion Local Time and the equivalent Earth Local Time, which was supposed to be synchronized. It turned out earth had passed through an incredibly localized Spatial Time Contraction Zone which slowed time relative to Mars placing the red planet and its residents 37 minutes into the “past” so to speak.

Over the next few decades scientists learned how to measure the size and attributes of a time drag event through the clever use of Sol Synchronous Satellites (SSS or S3) placed strategically throughout the solar system as well as new advanced Galactic Synchronous Satellites (GSS) further out in space surrounding the solar system.

These satellites had two key pieces of technology that allowed them to function – advanced ion propulsion drives and quantum communication devices. The ion drives allowed for vast distances to be travelled and the quantum communication breakthrough of the early 23rd century (2nd Century SNT) allowed for measurement data to be sent almost instantaneously to earth.

The network of S3 and GSS satellites allowed earth to be alerted to the existance of time contraction zones, their size, the time contraction quotient (how fast time moved within the zone relative to earth time outside the zone) and the general trajectory toward a zone.

The zones themselves appeared to be locked within the fabric of space-time as opposed to every other element of the universe which was shown to be part of a rapid expansion process moving outward from point zero getting further apart from every other object.

Essentially things moved through the time contraction zones while the zones themselves remained stationary and oblivious to all things. To this date no one could explain how the universe moved through the zones although theories suggested the zones we proof of a broader meta-universe within which our own had started and was expanding.

More recently scientists had begun to theorize the existance of Spatial Time Dilation (STD unfortunately) zones where time actually slowed down rather than sped up, but as yet, there was no measurable evidence supporting the idea.

The average time contraction factor was approximately 1:4 meaning for every minute inside of the zone four would have passed outside. This was based on measurements of hundreds of time drag zones over the past two hundred years since satellite deployment began.

The average size of a time drag zone varied but typically they were somewhere between the size of a pea and a grapefruit. The earth-sized event that led to their original discovery was an anomaly – until this week.

Late in 2753 and satellites had been tracking an emormous time drag zone approximately one and a half times the diameter of earth and 27 times the length. Based on earth’s trajectory around Sol, Sol’s movement around the galactic centre, and the galaxy’s movement through the local cluster as well as universal expansion trajectory etc. earth would pass through 92 percent of the time drag zone along its longest axis.

Additional data suggested that the time contraction ratio in this zone was unusual as well at an astounding 1:876,000. One hour spent outside of the time drag zone would equal one year spent inside the zone.

The ramifications of such a zone were already being explored. Could rapid advances in Earth cultures compared to other contemperories be explained by the planet having partially passed through a time drag zone? Possibly. How would Earth’s rotation have allowed this? Who knows?

Earth and its moon-based population would begin passing through the zone in approximately 18 months. The Central Gaian Government (CGG) council, made up of representatives from earth, the moon and Mars and led by an autonomous governing AI, had decided that Martian colonists would be evacuated to earth but a small research team of 150 people would be left as a reference point.

Further to this the CGG had agreed it was best to limit space travel and communication to within the zone for the century-long period to avoid unusual experiences of time drag and to ensure the Martian research was not compromised by unmanaged travel to and from the zone. The only exception would be communication with the S3 and GSS satrellites but even interpreting that data would be odd, given the quantum communication method no one knew the effect, if any, on such communication between the outside and inside of a time drag zone.

For now, and over the next 18 months as Mars was being evacuated and reaearch experiments were being designed for the Martian team. Of course the team itself needed to be selected. Surprisingly, it was not as hard as originally thought to find 150 people willing to essentially time travel 100 years into Earth’s future in the course of a single Earth hour outside of the zone.

What would the results of the experiment be? What would it be like to empiracally measure change over a century in such a near instantaneous period? Only time would tell.