One of the most overused and inaccurate tropes about time travel is that you’re simply moving along a two-dimensional line and that things either happen or they don’t. There’s definitely a lot more to it than that. Events are almost always preceded by thoughts and nth level ‘rehearsals’ where the physical reality is nothing more than the superficially visible tip of the iceberg. So speaking of icebergs, going back and getting the Titanic to avoid *that* iceberg doesn’t prevent it from hitting one of hundreds of other ones. Trying to prevent a small common event in a relatively dull timeline is a herculean task. One that would trap most would be time meddlers in an endless forest of identical days with no landmarks or navigational aids.
As a result time travel is more an exercise in time shunting or time filtering, without specific dates or times being important until the final synchronization step. Having two people meet at a certain party is an ill defined goal. Having them strike up a relationship is Iess about where and how than a sustained application of force and intent.
In fact, anywhere (any-when) time is manipulated in an areas thing tend to go off the rails fairly quickly. Random things tend to happen in ever expanding rings of probability and consequence. It quickly becomes navigating a kaleidoscope rather than a simple timeline. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space becomes a meaningful statement when time becomes as adjustable, or more than, the spacial axis usually is.
Rather than seeing a definite future, one sees a likely future based on what other elements are let into the matrix for calculating the resultant waveform. The full complexity of things prevents a full readout of the future and any interference unhinges those from the future from their timeline.
Of course, a future removed from greed and envy and pointless human rulers eliminates the temptation of a lot of predictive information from being relevant or even existing. Specific details would be inconsequential or dependant on things that are still in flux. Anything not irrelevant would change rapidly under serious questions based on deeper questions and predictive followup.
As a result, the most useful method of contact was a double removed brain scan and/or interpretive matrix that could follow a fluid connection type rather than relying on specific people or devices overly much. Any equipment used had to be either excessively common, or old so that variations produced by the contact wouldn’t disrupt the workflow of the experiment. As a backup, several buildings could run parallel experiments with similar goals so that they could duplicate the signal and have a different team to fall back on if cascade changes caused too much interference.
It turns out that most people are a diamond mine of information and experiences, and focusing on one person really does produce an impossibly large tapestry of readouts and imaginations that would fill a library. By arbitrarily putting a projection point far enough in the past, one can produce several versions of the target ‘present’ that can all have micro incursions from a fixed future stabilizing the entire matrix. Like all standard procedures though there is time and place to ignore the common rules, particularly if the subject in question is adaptable and familiar with the subject.
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