Suppose you have participated in a great battle at the edge of the Solar System that you believed had been a huge defeat for the invading aliens from the Deneb Star System. But suppose, when you returned to the Combined Headquarters on Mars, everyone believed the battle had been lost. The senior officers told you that, the after-action reports reflected that and the history, as it was written, confirmed that. But you, as on officer who had been there, knew better.

This was something that you could not understand. You had seen, with your own eyes, the smashing defeat of the enemy fleet. How do you reconcile that in your mind? Could you be so deluded that you couldn’t face the reality after the sacrifice of so many of your fellow pilots and crew?

When all logical answers have been eliminated and there is but a single conclusion left, do you accept it? Did the enemy manipulate the outcome by manipulating time?

And if that is the answer, how do you defeat it? They can guarantee the outcome of any battle or any war. If you don’t have the capability to do the same, then the final outcome is a foregone conclusion.

But Captain Jack Ellis and a tiny group of scientists might have discovered a way to counteract the enemy advantage. It just requires a small change in human history… BUT, of course, they enemy could always change that too.