Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(37)
When it was his turn, though all his peers were already well aware of Cole’s infraction, Levin summarized it once more, priding himself on his passive, unemotional delivery. Whether Cole was his nephew or no, Levin Javier-Oberon was still the high auditor of Earth, and he intended the rest of the Chain Council to be aware that his diligence and dedication were intact.
“Very well.” Lynch nodded when Levin finished. “Off to the space sectors. Auditor Rowe?”
The high auditor of Space Sector Six spoke. “A Tier-5 chronman by the name of Bond, less than two months from achieving the Tier, recently tried to jump back to 2377 and prevent the outbreak of the first Gas Wars from happening. Her initial job was to return to 2335 for a minor plutonium shipment recovery, but she changed her jump setting at the last second. Fortunately, her handler caught the violation and pulled Bond back before she could do any harm.”
“Consequences?” High Auditor Marn of Ganymede asked. That was what anyone here really cared about. Nobody on the Chain Council cared why the chronmen did what they did. Everyone had their reasons—personal, political, religious, or self-righteous. In the end, the only thing the men and women who dedicated their lives to ChronoCom cared about was whether the time line remained intact, and what was the potential impact of forever losing that chronological location.
“Modest,” Rowe continued. “The location was the Dione Skirmish; the sixth one. Affected jump region was the battle between two now-dissolved Pangaea patrol ships and a Valta Corp transport. Anticipated potential recovery of one hundred thirty-one units of recoverable power.”
Lynch grunted. “Not insignificant. Root cause action?”
“Bond’s ancestral family had significant shares in Pangaea. Seems after they lost that war with Valta, it impoverished the family. We believe Bond joined the Academy expressly to accomplish this coup.”
There was a low muttering among the council. This was uncommon but not unheard of. Every year, there were always a few fools who believed they could change history for one reason or another by joining the Academy and becoming chronmen, not realizing the extent the checks and balances the agency wielded in order to prevent such occurrences. Most of these crimes were cut off at Hops. The handlers had the ability and full authority to retrieve their chronman at will if they believed Time Laws were being broken. Still, isolated incidents did fall through the cracks once in a while.
“We need more stringent psychological standards and testing at the Academy,” Levin said, memories of Cole fresh in his head. “We should have had issues like this weeded out before these unqualified candidates are promoted to the tier.”
Joellen, the Academy auditor, rolled her eyes. “We already have difficulties replenishing our current ranks. You want to make it more difficult to promote to the tier? By the abyss, we lowered standards twice now in the past six years and we’re still not making minimum quota.”
“You put waste on the line and that leaves more cleaning for the frontline auditors,” said Levin, knowingly walking dangerously close to calling out her ability to administer her stewardship. To accuse another auditor of waste was as grave an insult as one within the chain could give.
Joellen bristled and laid into Levin defensively. He didn’t blame her. The Academy auditorship was a difficult position, probably second only to that of Earth. However, Cole might still be his nephew if the Academy had adequately weeded him out as it should have. And Ilana might still be his sister.
“That’s enough,” Lynch said, finally interrupting them after allowing Levin and Joellen to have their say. Both auditors immediately became silent and bowed to each other. They were still colleagues, after all. Lynch’s gaze drifted from Levin to Joellen. “Joellen is correct. We’ve had to become more flexible with standards on every level in order to fill our Academy quotas, which we’re still not hitting. Those have been deemed acceptable compromises. However, due to recent events, Levin is correct as well. The mental state of our chronmen especially cannot be lowered. Raise psychological standards and mental trials back to the standards pre-2505. Agreed?”
“As you wish, Highest Auditor,” said Joellen.
Levin nodded. “Thank you, Auditor Lynch.”
“Moving on,” continued Lynch.
The next case was a more interesting one. High Auditor Marquez of Mars summarized a situation where Tier-3 Chronman Taylor actually succeeded in preventing the Enipeus Vallis Colony from being destroyed in the 2472 Mars Famine. It seemed many of Taylor’s family had lived in the colony. Fortunately, the auditors were able to detect the ripple caused by Taylor’s action before that ripple reached the present. Marquez sent Auditor Sykes back to Enipeus Vallis twelve days after Taylor committed the infraction and destroyed the colony himself, healing over most of the time line.
By that time, though, Taylor had smuggled his family members off Mars. It took Sykes six more weeks of tracking him down before he located Taylor and his family on Proteus. He had to kill Taylor and fourteen of his family members in order to fully restore the chronostream. Auditor Sykes was meticulous on that job, and the ripples caused by his actions did not last out that year. Levin had a feeling Sykes, already a fast climber in the chain, would one day join the Chain Council. The man deserved his place among them.
The list of jobs and crises continued. Even though the auditors were vigilant in guarding the chronostream, not everything could be prevented. It was up to the auditors to implement corrective action in the time line before ripples reached the present. If that happened, then that time line became present, the chronostream was irreparably altered, and there was nothing that could be done. The auditors of ChronoCom could count on one hand the number of times a significant event had ever altered the chronostream.