"That's just great! A serial killer that stole a time-traveling mechanism." The detective sighed. "Could it get any worse?"
Except that conversation never happened. The killer changed so much of history that the authorities didn't look for them. Only they knew the changes in the timeline, as per one of the Zhang Laws of Temporal Mechanics: 'Only the traveler will remember the differences.'
But Rebecca Lopez, an astrophysicist, developed a mathematical model in her basement lab and shared it with her trusted colleague, Eugene Williams, a fellow physicist.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"I'll tell you this secret, Eugene," she uncovered a chalkboard, "but you must never share it; I'm not even sure how to implement it."
"What is it, Rebecca?"
"Do you see these quantum fluctuations along the timeline?" She circled them on the chalkboard.
"Yes." Eugene scratched his chin. "Aren't those gravitational wave-induced remnants of the Big Bang?"
"No, not really … Time travel."
Eugene chuckled. "That's not even possible.” He waved his hand dismissively.
"It is, Eugene, and those quantum fluctuations occur in spikes. There's a time traveler out there preventing anyone else from making this discovery, and they may come after my own. Those spikes happen in what I call the 'meta-structure of time,' impacting every possible multiverse bubble."
But that conversation never happened, either. Eugene made sure of it.