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Watching the Clock

NOVEL
DTI: Watching the Clock

Attribution
Series:	Department of Temporal Investigations
Author(s):	Christopher L. Bennett
Publication information
Publisher:	Pocket Books
Published:	paperback - May 2011
Pages:	512
ISBN:	ISBN 1451606257
Chronology
Date:	2364-2365 2366 2368 2369 2372 2376 March 2381-February 2382

Watching the Clock is a Star Trek novel by Christopher L. Bennett, published by Pocket Books in 2011. The novel is the first in the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series.

DescriptionEdit

There's likely no more of a thankless job in the Federation than temporal investigation. While starship explorers get to live the human adventure of traveling to other times and realities, it's up to the dedicated agents of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations to deal with the consequences to the timestream that the rest of the Galaxy has to live with day by day. But when history as we know it could be wiped out at any moment by time warriors from the future, misused relics of ancient races, or accident-prone starships, only the most disciplined, obsessive, and unimaginative government employees have what it takes to face the existential uncertainty of it all on a daily basis . . . and still stay sane enough to complete their assignments.

That's where Agents Lucsly and Dulmur come in—stalwart and unflappable, these men are the Federation's unsung anchors in a chaotic universe. Together with their colleagues in the DTI—and with the help and sometimes hindrance of Starfleet's finest—they do what they can to keep the timestream, or at least the paperwork, as neat and orderly as they are. But when a series of escalating temporal incursions threatens to open a new front of the history-spanning Temporal Cold War in the twenty-fourth century, Agents Lucsly and Dulmur will need all their investigative skill and unbending determination to stop those who wish to rewrite the past for their own advantage, and to keep the present and the future from devolving into the kind of chaos they really, really hate.

SummaryEdit

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IEdit

Stardate 58188.4 - 58193.8

At the San Francisco branch of the Department of Temporal Investigations, Special Agent George Faunt suffers a breakdown, and holds researcher Rani Mohindra hostage, a situation resolved by Special Agents Marion Dulmur and Gariff Lucsly.

The USS Everett (NCC-72392) arrives in the Regulus System to rendezvous with the Verity, a civilian transport ship that had arrived in the present, having unwillingly travelled fifteen years into its future. During their investigation, Dulmur and Lucsly discover that upon discovering the devastation of the previous Borg attack (ST novel: Lost Souls), the crew and passengers decided to travel back to their original time, in an effort to warn the Federation of the attack. Teresa Garcia is beaten by the others in an attempt to sabotage the return journey, being the only one onboard who voted against it. Adding to damage the Verity had already sustained during its intial time-travel, Garcia was successful, and the ship and those on board remain in their future.

IIEdit

Stardate 41697.9 - 41906.7

Dulmur, working as a detective for the Chandra Detective Agency on the Nehru Colony, is thwarted in his efforts to catch a thief named Daisen Hamor by the effects of a temporal experiment by Dr. Paul Manheim, and as a result was fired by Chandra. Dulmur sets out to find Manheim and ensure he is brought to justice, but he is intercepted by DTI agents Borvala and Lucsly. When Dulmur learned of the DTI's mission, he expresses his interest in joining.

IIIEdit

Stardate 58281.1 - 58365.9

Clare Raymond, works as a counselor for DTI's Temporal Displacement Division. As someone displaced from her original time, this makes her ideal for the job. She and Teresa Garcia are discussing their experiences.

Garcia is now a recruit training to join DTI. She is taking classes with other recruits at DTI's headquarters located at Greenwich, UK, at the Royal Observatory.

After a period of time, other recruits have dropped out, but Garcia remains. Apparently humans are a minority in DTI. Her training covers temporal physics, investigative techniques and combat. The Temporal Cold War is touched upon as well.

IVEdit

Stardate 42692.8 - 42704.5

Dulmur now a junior agent is paired with Lucsly to investigate an incident at Warlock Station.

The station experienced a temporal event and later was destroyed. It was located in the sector with a singularity called the 'Black Star' which is suspected as the cause for multiple temporal events in the past. The station's purpose was to monitor the anomaly.

The incident that happened at Warlock Station, also happened to the Enterprise-D in the past.

Later on they find a way to predict when another of the temporal event will happen. Dulmur realises the common connection. The Enterprise was involved in the temporal event caused by Paul Manheim and his temporal experiments. That experiment and the later incident affecting the Enterprise, both Manheim and Picard reported a consciousness of some kind.

Dulmur thinks that Manheim's dislike for certain people was 'impressed' onto whatever consciousness his mind was touched by during his experiment.

And this consciousness has now being attacking those people. Dulmur is proved right.

VEdit

Stardate 58699.8 - 58738.9

VIEdit

Stardate 58699.8 - 58738.9

VIIEdit

Stardate 43731.5 - 43738.6

VIII-IXEdit

Stardate 58746.7 - 58806.9

XEdit

Stardate 45703.8 - 46008.2

XI-XIIEdit

Stardate 58923.8 - 59046.6

XIII-XIVEdit

Stardate 49572.0 - 50912.6

XVEdit

Stardate 59061.4 - 59087.2

XVIEdit

Stardate 55049.0 - 55089.5

XVIII-XXIVEdit

Stardate 59087.2 - 59155.0

EpilogueEdit

Undisclosed date

Lucsly meets with agents from the temporal agencies of the Typhon Pact, Klingon Empire, Vomnin, Sheliak and Regnancy of the Carnelian Throne in secret. Dulmur has by this point been promoted to a desk job. At the meeting, Lucsly notes that the attendees are unimportant - they are not starship captains, presidents or heroes; they are middle-men, and so will be mostly ignored by history. This puts them in a perfect position to create and deliver a massive project - the Temporal Defense Grid - entirely in secret. It will be the work of decades if not generations he notes, but says that it can be accomplished - and kept out of the history books - by those who take a sufficiently long view of time.

ReferencesEdit

AppendicesEdit

TimelineEdit

Chronological Order
Previous adventure: Not yet placed	Memory Beta Chronology	Next adventure: Not yet placed

Production historyEdit

Published Order
Previous story: Over a Torrent Sea	Stories by: Christopher L. Bennett	Next story: *Most recent Star Trek* story**

BackgroundEdit

The book was first announced by the author in March 2010 with the working title Star Trek: DTI ^[1]. The full title was announced in Star Trek Magazine #154; Bennett elaborated on his blog that he considered Star Trek: DTI on its own too vague and giving the full title Star Trek DTI: Department of Temporal Investigations - Watching the Clock too unwieldy, so went with the acronym and subtitle combination as comfortable compromise^[2]. Despite that, the first cover released for the book did indeed sport the expanded title Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations - Watching the Clock^[3].
Bennett's aims with the novel included generating a unified theory to explain the various ways time travel has been portrayed in Star Trek. To that end he researched every instance of time travel in Star Trek and the use of time travel in other fiction.^[4]

External linkEdit

Christopher L. Bennet's website with detailed annotations of much of his work.
Watching the Clock article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.

Retrieved from "http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Watching_the_Clock"

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