Zero Second

In 1951, a pair of scientists at Cornell discovered time-travel. With the specter of the atomic bomb in the immediate background, they decide not to replicate Einstein's mistake of suggesting what might be a weapon to the political authorities. Instead, they decide to set up a clandestine research program, swearing all those who work on it to keep the secret.


Then, in 1991, a time traveler returns from 2031 with a disturbing message: no traveler and no message has ever come farther back from the moment in time when he left. No one knows why. All people know is that something happens on April 4, 2031, to prevent any news of the future.


This is the story of what happens next... if "next" is the right word for a narrative which, in the way of things, is necessarily non-linear.


Zero Second is the first story in Retcon: A Mosaic Story, which is to say a story composed out of other stories, with recurring characters and overlapping plots all forming a larger picture. Retcon will be arranged in three movements, each made up of nine stories of approximately 15,000 words, which will be published as ebooks on a monthly schedule (with a brief break between movements).