The Bubble Telescope confirmed another planet with a tachyon signature, but hyper-scans suggested nothing more than a stone age civilisation that died out tens of thousands of years ago.
The evidence was mounting. There were echoes of technologically advanced civilisations. Wormhole signatures briefly appearing, then vanishing.
Dr Kim sighed. There was only one theory that explained it all: Every civilisation that discovers time travel ends up going back in time and obliterating itself.
It only had to happen once, of course, no matter how many times it was successfully averted. She put down her half-full mug of coffee and considered her options.
“Breaking news: Dr Barbara Kim, renowned for her work on quantum gravity, was found dead earlier today. Suicide is suspected. Dr Kim seems to have destroyed her life’s work, smashing servers and burning down her office, before taking her own life.
“She is the fourth theoretical physicist to commit suicide in the past few years. After the break, we’ll be asking experts if these scientists all discovered something so terrible that it pushed them over the edge. Whatever it was, we’ll find it eventually. It’s only a matter of time.”
