Time travel doesn't work. You can't go backward or
forward; you're stuck at "now". What you can do is travel
sideways, to the same "now" in another timeline where
history turned out differently. So far, only our home
timeline has figured out how to do that. We use it to
conduct discreet trading operations in
less advanced timelines, selling goods just a little bit
better than the locals can make. It's profitable, but
families who work as Time Traders have to be careful to
fit in, lest the locals become suspicious.
Justin's family are Time Traders. The summer
before he's due to start college, he goes with them to a
different Virginia, in a timeline where the American
states never became a single country, and American history
has consisted of a series of small wars. Despite his
unease, he accompanies Randolph Brooks, another Time
Trader, on a visit to the tiny upland town of Elizabeth,
Virginia. He'll only be away from his parents for a few
days.Beckie Royer thanks her stars
that she's from California, the most prosperous and
advanced country in North America. But just now she's in
Virginia with her grandmother, who wants to revisit the
tiny mountain town where she grew up. The only interesting
thing there is a boy named Justin--and he'll be gone
soon.Then war between Virginia and
Ohio breaks out anew. Ohio sets a tailored virus loose on
Virginia. Virginia swiftly imposes a quarantine, trapping
Beckie and Justin and Randolph Brooks in Elizabeth. Even
Crosstime Traffic can't help. All the three of them can do
is watch as plague and violence take over the
town.It's nothing new in history,
not in this timeline or any other. It's part of the human
condition. And just now, this part of the human condition
sucks.