Backswipe

By the end of the 25th Century few had as storied a career as Doctor J. Burke. An historian who used quantum superluminal teleportation to mingle among her forebears through twenty different decades making discoveries and recovering lost artifacts, she was the last of the Historical Archive Collection's 'big three' antiquinauts. The physical effects of the profession had grounded jovial Ike Chernovich in old San Francisco, companion Braham Lilienthal had vanished without a trace three years before, and the indifference of the Minders from the future, who were best positioned to help, left Burke with a weary cynicism. Only the promise of a special mission, the brainchild of rookie archivist Nathan Rialto, brought her back again.

It was Burke's specialty, the recovery of a glamorous old airliner from 1951 using a revolutionary new teleport, and in California as well. She would gather her trusty team of specialists, teach the rookie the ropes and perhaps contemplate a different kind of future afterward with Ike.

Almost from the moment it began Burke felt as if the whole mission had been created just for her...and that was only the beginning of her problems!