[ WP ] You work as a help desk attendant for a time travel tourism provider . Your job is to assist people stuck in the past .

Tuesdays are the worst. Too slow, weekly reports are being typed up and emailed hither and yon, whole wheat bagels in the break room. I sat at my desk and flipped through today's Patel discrepancy report. Sarah Patel was a smart cookie; when the time fluctuator was being developed, it was her idea to send a supercomputer back in time, as far as possible, with zettabytes of information built into it. Newspapers from every time and place imaginable, tv shows, zoological surveys, election results. The whole sum of human history as best as we could reproduce it. We sent it to a cavern in Norway that seemed to have little activity in thousands of years, the farthest our technology could reach. And now, with hundreds of the world's wealthiest romping around in the past, we are their concierge. 
 
 My job is Entertainment Specialist, I find events that rich people like. Want to see Beethoven conducting his Eleventh Symphony in Vienna? I just happen to have two tickets. Woodstock? No one would pass that up. 
 
 But Tuesdays are the worst. See, Sarah Patel made two of her computers with exactly the same data, and only sent one back. Now, the one in Norway still works. And we have one here. So every Monday night we compare the data and look for changes: Patel discrepancies. Want to go back and kill Hitler? A: you're a walking, talking cliche. Two: Jack over in Sporting Expeditions will revoke that very expensive time traveller permit right in front of your face without blinking an eye. C: something like Hitler suddenly not existing will definitely come urrrrp on the Patel list. And D: if you succeed we'll have to send some poor intern back to stop you. Do you want to be the one to have to tell some fresh-faced college girl she needs to save Hitler's life? It is n't fun for anyone involved. 
 
 Anyway, I was reading over this week's reports. Just two problems in my department: some Wall Street hotshot missed his return flight from watching the 9-11 attacks, and a Saudi billionaire was trampled to death in one of the first Hajj ceremonies. Again. I dealt with this guy quite a bit; it was his personal mission to go on every single Hajj in history. Whatever floats his boat. He's a fantastic tipper, though. His name had popped up in a list of the dead he should n't have been in. But I decided to tackle the Wall Street guy first saying as he was still alive. 9-11 was forty years ago, so he'd be eighty one now. Living under an assumed name. 
 
 The process was typically easy, especially in the internet age. We tell our clients the same thing: if something goes wrong, write. it. down. Postcards are surprisingly effective because people keep and collect them, especially if you write one to a celebrity or politician. Newspaper classifieds are cheap, and will also show up on Patel discrepancies. Wall Street here had written a secret blog, unread by pretty much anyone. Hell, it technically did n't even exist until last weekend when he booked his flight. And it had all the information I needed: new name, address, phone number. I picked up my phone and gave him a call. 
 
 `` Hello, this is Steven, your flight concierge. I understand you've missed your flight scheduled for three p.m. on 11 September, 2011.'' 
 
 `` What the fuck took you so long?!'' he bellowed at me over the phone. `` That was forty years ago! I could've died waiting for you!!'' Sigh. 
 
 `` I do apologize for that sir, but if you recall our pre-flight safety briefing, it was explained that missing your return flight could prove catastrophic. We're sending a technician back to... It looks like your pickup spot was in Brooklyn; could you please describe the circumstances which led to your delay so that he can assist you better?'' I hate this guy already. Who goes to see thousands of people die as a vacation? Jerkoff probably had a hard-on when the first plane hit. 
 
 `` I was across the bridge, but the crowd was so thick that I could n't get to the checkpoint in time. Fucking commoners, I should've just started shooting them. Fucking proles.'' Oh yeah, just a pleasant person all around. 
 
 `` Not to worry sir, our technician will be able to track your past self by homing in on your safety beacon. In just a few minutes it'll be as if none of this had happened.'' As I submitted the retrieval request, I also flagged his assumed name for other departments to research. Finance would most likely find that he'd made very wise investments he should n't have over the past few decades. 
 
 `` But I have a wife and three kids!'' he shouted. `` What will happen to them??'' Just as he said it, I saw that Tech A-1738 had been sent back in time to find him. The lights in the room suddenly turned red: a timeline change was about to occur, pause all work and hope for the best. 
 
 `` Well saying as you're an enormous prick,'' I replied, knowing that in a few seconds this conversation would never have happened, `` it might be to their benefit.'' He swore at me profusely, calling me all 
 
 The man stepped out of the emergency booth, followed closely by Tech A-1738. I scanned both their emergency transponders and logged them in as'returned'. 
 
 `` The fuck took you guys so long??'' the man asked. `` I missed my flight because of the crowds.'' Charming. 
 
 `` We do apologize for that, sir, but as you can see we have retrieved you safe and sound.'' I scrolled through his file; apparently I had filed a Patel discrepancy on him. Looked like a good read for later. `` I do hope you'll consider us again for the next Hajj.'' 
 
 The thing about Patel discrepancies is that we do n't want them to disappear. When a technician has to go back in time for whatever reason, they first file a secured report by whatever means are available. Letters to a law firm with payment for safekeeping. Black boxes buried in strategic locations. Files uploaded to the internet. We try to learn from mistakes that, technically, never happened. It's bizarre and fascinating at the same time reading about a history that never happened. It really makes you think. 
 
 By the time I sit down at my desk its already 1030. The timeline must've changed. You get used to it after a while. I do n't have anything in the Patel discrepancies, just two reports of discrepancies I'd fixed already. No time logs; it gets confusing when you solve a bunch of separate problems at exactly the same time on three different timelines. I open up my internet connection and start reading. A couple from Virginia, lottery winners, want to see the Gettysburg Address. Not typically my department but George from Historical is out sick with Smallpox. Sounds like a nice vacation, Jefferson Davis was a Hell of a speaker. I book them with Costumes and a mandatory two-hour safety training. Then I close my eyes and try to remember something from the timelines that never existed.
