Justice In The Age Of Time Travel
Prompt Lost
It shall be unlawful to transmit or cause to be transmitted any information into the “past” as defined in Article II of the Penal Law, whether such information is transmitted intentionally, recklessly or negligently. Tranmission of information into the past is an A Felony punishable by banishment. P.L. Article II, s.1.03 – “Definitions”: “The Past” shall be defined as any period of time coming before the present.
P.L. s.345.02 – “Transmission Of Information Into The Past – A Crime”:
“The chain of causality must be jealously guarded.”
That’s the first thing every law student hears in Criminal Procedure class. Deleware v. Jonas, case # 38-2145. The Chief Justice, in a 9-0 decision, affirms the penalty of banishment imposed by the state of Deleware on Mark Jonas for his brief foray into the past. “No matter the wisdom and foresight of the traveler, no matter the virtuousness of his intentions, man must not be allowed to traverse the inexorable boundary of time freely. All that we know and understand depends on this axiom.”
Hard to argue with that, if you look at it like a robot. It’s the old butterfly effect. Here’s a particularly asinine example my crim pro professor was fond of. John Doe goes back in time, looks around, steps on a bug, and leaves. A little kid stops to look at the dead bug, gets hit by a horse and buggy. The kid is Winston Churchill. John Doe returns to a world ruled by Nazis.
Or some such bullshit. Legal and temporal scholars love throwing around these ‘what ifs’. I’ve found that Judge’s love to spout them during sentencing hearings.
Of course, it makes perfect sense. You can’t just allow people to go back and change shit all the time. Even a child could see how that might be problematic.
But try telling that to one of my clients, desperately sad, totally adrift, and keenly aware that a single handwritten letter to the past could change their present completely.
Take Mr. Harris. I’ve changed his name of course. Mr. Harris was married for three decades. He and his wife built a life together. Traveled the world. Had three beautiful children.
Then Mrs. Harris becomes ill. Gravely ill. Pancreatic cancer. They find it too late, and within four weeks, healthy, happy Mrs. Harris is dead.
Mr. Harris is destroyed. ‘If only they’d known sooner,’ the doctors tell him, totally oblivious, ‘it could have been treated.’
But, of course, they could have known sooner. Mr. Harris had the means to ensure they knew sooner. A simple four word letter placed under his wife’s pillow six months earlier and Mr. Harris would have his life back.
So kind old Mr. Harris finds his way to the darkweb. He does his research and sells his home, empties his retirement fund, liquidates every asset. A wire transfer is made to a Romanian hacker, along with a name, time, date, address and the four all important words.
And then, the next day, Mr. Harris wakes up next to Mrs. Harris, recovered from a surgery months earlier. The hail mary play worked. His bank accounts are full again. All is right with the world.
Until the SWAT team arrives and FCDs are rummaging through his home. Until old Mr. Harris is dragged from his bed and placed in stasis to await trial.
Until Mr. Harris meets me, or one of my colleagues, and gets the real bad news: that the FBI has him dead to rights; that the Romanian hacker completely failed to cover the ripples of his causality shift; that his options are trial by Temporal Tribunal or a plea – 30 years banishment into the distant future.
Mr. Harris takes it all pretty well, better than most. He asks after his wife. ‘She’ll be fine’ I tell him, ‘but you need to make a hard choice.’
And so he does. They send good Mr. Harris forward, ahead of the rest of us, to a place beyond the cresting wave of causality in which you and I reside. Technically, one day, he may be permitted to return. But, at his age, that isn’t likely.
So goes justice in the age of time travel.
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