“Print, or film?” 

“Print all the way!” Paige said. Her gray eyes lit up in excitement when an assistant handed her several books and research papers to borrow. 

— 

My name is Paige McWright, and I wasn’t entirely honest with the library assistant when she asked me that question. There’s something about the written word on paper that’s just timeless! I have a personal peeve about film, but some of my annoyance is because of a rival of mine. She said I wasn’t getting with the times, but I said not every book can be made into a good TV show or movie adaptation!

My internal monologue continued until I reached the checkout desk. I handed over the books, which had return dates stamped into them on a slip of paper. I adjusted my glasses and thanked the worker, and carried the books and papers with me out of the library. It felt like a different place at night. 

--

Paige looked back at the library. From its windows, light shone through them, but the light was somewhat dim, and flickered. The streetlights were the brightest source of light, but scarcely by much. She looked up at the night sky. It was dark and mostly clear. It was the night of the new moon. More stars were visible in this part of downtown because some of the street lights burnt out, and had yet to be replaced. 

She walked to the bus stop that was a very short walk from the library. It was illuminated merely by a flickering street light next to it, but it was bright enough for her to start reading one of the papers while she waited. 

A few minutes pass, and a couple of people were standing near the stop. A few more minutes, about 10 minutes after she arrived there, the bus pulled in front of the stop. She put away the papers, walked up the stairs and paid her fare, and looked for a seat by the window.

From her bus ride home, she walked up a few flights of stairs, brought out her keys from a pocket on her overcoat, and unlocked the door to her apartment. She closed and locked the door, and promptly went to her home office after she brought out a drink from the refrigerator.  

She turned on a desk lamp, and put the books and papers on her desk next to her computer while she waited for it to boot, and threw the empty bag onto her bed. 

After a few moments she stared at the small black and white screen of her computer, with a gray desktop background, and a couple of folder icons on it. She put a floppy disk in the spare drive and waited for the program in it to load, and picked up one of the books. 

— 

The new history books that were written after a time traveler went back to 1884 to change the past don’t go into all that much detail… It seems odd on first sight, because this event in 1884 is one of the most important in the S.O.C’s history! Change the outcome of it, and it’ll change everything for better and for worse!

It’d be reasonable for the Academy to prohibit any time travelers from visiting this time period, but there’s always research to be done, witnesses to interview, accounts to explore that had been left out. Time travel is risky even for small changes,  because they can cause the butterfly effect. A cascade of unintended changes, but before you know it, one things leads into another, and the future is unrecognizable! 

For this reason, the Academy seldom approves missions to change the past. The time traveler who did this is a master of persuasion who got them to approve this, or she’s a renegade who did this without their approval, and risked everything for it. She risked… severe punishment from the Academy, but also risked a lot of other people and events being affected from her actions… Whether she’s heroic is debatable. 

——

Paige looked from the sections of the book she was reading, and back at the computer screen. A word processor displayed on its crisp black and white screen. She took a sip of her drink, put it back on her desk, and started taking notes, pausing to occasionally save the notes, and look back at the next pages of the paper she was reading. 

——

Before I continue reading and taking notes for the night, I’m going to finish this internal monologue! 

Time travelers have to be trained like detectives, and as experts on cause and effect to control every variable that they know before they can begin to visit other time periods. However, there’s always a risk of unintended consequences. 

We can’t all be that bold, to take part in changing a major historical event… You reckless time traveler, but without you, I wouldn’t have these records to begin exploring the events that were left out from the history books!