Created by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane on Aug 16, 2016 @ 2:18pm

TEMPORAL MECHANICS

TEMPORAL MECHANICS is the scientific study of Time and its effects on the space-time continuum, including the exciting but dangerous possibilities of travelling through Time.

Thought to be impossible until more advanced scientific methods emerged during the 22nd century, time travel is theorised to be possible by several dangerous methods, such as travel through a black hole or warp speed breakaway factor (using the gravitational force of a star to slingshot a starship into the dimension of Time), and there have been many recorded incidents of Time impacting on the continuum in some way, such as through temporal causality loops, vortexes, and paradoxes. Although Time is a dimension, not a particle, it is known that significant build-ups of chronoton particles usually presage some important Time-related phenomenon.

In the 25th century, more evidence and information is emerging that Time travel may be possible. Aware of the deadly consequences should history be changed, the Office of Temporal Investigations was set up by the Federation in an attempt to catalogue and monitor possible disruptions to the timeline, but the science is still in its infancy.

The USS Pendragon, an Excalibur-class explorer, has been the Federation's most recent brush with time travel. After discovering a mysterious chronoton artifact on Nimbus III and using it to travel unimaginable distances for almost thirty years, the Pendragon achieved time travel in 2429, after using this chronoton artifact to jump back in time from 2448.

As technology advances and the ability to tinker with Time becomes easier, so the likelihood of its unscrupulous use rises. It seems likely that the Office of Temporal Investigations will need to be expanded at some point in the future in order to protect three centuries of Federation history.