Hello, friends! Welcome back to the A to Z Challenge! For this year’s challenge, I’m telling you more about the universe of Tomorrow News Network, my upcoming Sci-Fi adventure series. In today’s post, V is for:
VIEWLINK
Imagine yourself in the distant future, living on some far flung colony world. You’ve completed your work shift for today. You’re sitting in your prefab housing unit, watching the news on the viewlink, when you see this:
But before the anchor-bot can say anything, the viewlink cuts to static.
The Tomorrow News Network is a news organization run by time travelers. Their slogan is “Bringing you tomorrow’s news today since the year twenty billion.” And that is precisely what they do. It’s the reason Tomorrow News Network is the galaxy’s #1 news source: they’re always a day ahead of the competition.
At some point, you may have wondered how the Tomorrow News Network can do what it does. What about the laws of physics? What about causality? But ever since the discovery of inverted space, people have known that time travel is possible. As for causality, the Tomorrow News Network has a self-censorship policy.
If a news report from the future is about you, or if it involves you in any way, then you won’t be able to watch. Tomorrow News Network’s signal will be scrambled. If there’s any possibility that knowledge of the future could allow you to change future events, then the viewlink will cut to static.
So all across the galaxy, people are watching Tomorrow News Network. People are seeing your future. People are finding out what is going to happen to you and the colony where you live. But none of those people can help. None of those people can change the future they’re witnessing.
As for you, all you can do is sit there in your prefab housing unit, staring at the static on the viewlink.
Next time on Tomorrow News Network: A to Z, who won the Battle of Waterloo?
Planet Pailly 
static communication – sounds like real life.
Great Sci-fi .
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In a way, I suppose it does. My old T.V. used to lose signal all the time.
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Oh boy, such a dilemma, to know or not to know…
V is for Visual Texture
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It’s difficult. In some ways, maybe it’s better not to know. At the same time, though, I couldn’t help but feel curious.
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Daaamn, this wicked. Wickedly cool!
Predicting tomorrow’s new through time traveller.. cut to static to prevent changing future.. holy next level!!
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Ha, thanks! I’m so glad you’re enjoying this!
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Hmmm. What stops someone on planet A, seeing a TNN broadcast about planet B, from sending an email to their friend on planet B?
Or an underground network, let’s call them “the Society for Temporal Self Determination”, from re-broadcasting TNN’s signal to the affected party?
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I like this question
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They don’t have instantaneous communications in the T.N.N. universe. So by the time the warning from Planet A reaches Planet B, it’s too late. If Planets A and B are in the same system, they probably both fall within Tomorrow News Network’s censorship zone.
As for an underground network that’s trying to break the Tomorrow News Network’s rules, consequences to the timeline be damned… I can neither confirm nor deny that such an organization exists.
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It would be quite scary to be that person! You know there is trouble coming, you know a lot of others know about it, but your hands are empty! Yikes!
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It’s not a comforting thing, when the viewlink cuts to static like that. That’s for sure!
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I want to read this book SO MUCH.
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Soon, my friend. Soon. I got some good news just this morning. For now, that’s all I’m going to say.
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But… and people never communicate? How do the network know that someon who could watch the news, won’t tell to the people who couldn’t?
@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter – Living the Twenties
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Good question! I’m sure people try, but space is really big, and it takes a long time for messages to reach their destinations.
So if you were the subject of a T.N.N. report, your neighbors and all the other people on your planet probably couldn’t watch that report either. The only people who could watch are on other planets in other star systems. They’re all far enough away that their warnings wouldn’t reach you in time.
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