Intro

In the year 3004, a man named Aster Hawking discovered the secret of time travel. Using the collected works of several authors, including H. G. Wells, Madeleine L'Engle, and many books written by his direct ancestor, as well as his 198 IQ, Aster finally put together what he hoped was a time machine.

He was right.

After learning of this remarkable discovery, the government awarded Aster Hawking with all the usual array of awards and prizes, like to the fame of the woman who had discovered the cure for cancer in 2667, and the man who had fixed the hole in the ozone layer in 2079, blah blah blah.

But underneath the press conferences, screaming fans, flashing light bulbs, and extravagant parties, there was something far more sinister going on. The government had posed a question that was now being whispered in every underground meeting chamber, every place of institutional meeting, and in every high-ranking official’s heart.

What if this had been done before?

What if some deranged genius living in the Alps had come up with this idea? And proven it? What if their ancestors before them discovered this secret? What then? If they used this time machine to alter their future...the events would be disastrous-the orderly government as they knew it could fall apart, be divided once again.

So there was devised a plan. A decree. A warding off of anything from the shadowy past that would want to topple this wonderful future. An answer.

Watchers.

Any child under the age of six years showing remarkable IQ for their age was to be taken. The Wardens assured the families that their child was to “greatly benefit the course of human history”, and that the families “would see their child again if circumstances allowed”. They never did.

These children were trained for many long years, until at last they had reached the age of eighteen, and the hours and hours of rattling off quantum physics theories, complicated math problems, and assorted facts from “The Book of World History: 1800-2900” were over. Then their real purpose began.

They were sent back in time. Four Watchers in a Tesser, two male, two female. Each Tesser was deported to a different time: starting in 1850, in 5-year increments. Their job was to make sure no human succeeded in discovering an advancement in technology before their time.

And they did it well.

Until the year 2010.