QIA

Sarah Cunnington is an agent with the QIA.

That is the Quantum Infraction Agency. 

The headquarters for the QIA is a building belonging to Beale's Appraisal and Brokerage Services in Chelsea, an "unassuming, unmarked building that blended seamlessly with the rest of the buildings on [a] relatively quiet road". It was, she thought, the kind of structure she would have easily missed if she had not been looking for it. It is run by a distinguished looking man named Director Brent Hall.

A moment after Cunnington was told the name of the governmental department for which she was unknowingly being interviewed for employment and before she would inquire what that name implied, she was told by Hall that it dealt with 'time travel'.

She was, understandably, dubious. She was also polite but a tad short with the man, thanking him for his time and preparing to leave. Not surprisingly it would be necessary for Hall to provide some proof of the existence of time travel capabilities and he does so with a very simple yet, IMHO, quite impressive stunt. It would not seal the deal but it kept her in the room.

Cunnington is 26 years old when we first meet her, working as a typist for Corby Cosmetics in their head office in Wimbledon, London. Her position there was terribly underwhelming for one of her skillset, specifically the fact that languages were as easy for her it would seem as breathing and she had an excellent knowledge of 20 of them. Her boss there is the man who gave her the address for the QIA and sent her there to do some translation work to earn a bit of extra money.

During the interview with Hall she is told her phenomenal ability with languages would be very useful to the QIA. She was also told she had been chosen because she was a Natural. When told this, she asked, "natural what?" Soon she will be informed what being a Natural meant and while we are also told, it is a bit technical but it boils down to a Natural is someone who already has the ability to time travel and have actually unconsciously done it. The short 'trips' she has made over the years coincided with a mental problem of blackouts she has endured.

Back to the purpose and mission for the QIA. Hall explains that going back in time to change history, even for what would seem obviously good intentions, would be potentially disastrous in the present. "for better or wose, [what happened in the past is] the history we have and if we try and change that now, it could give us a bright and wonderful future or it could make things a thousand times worse. It's commonly known as the butterfly effect. Our job at the QIA is to prevent any changes to the timeline. We keep the status quo."

As a soon-to-be fellow agent tells her, ""We stay away from the limelight of history. We keep to the shadows and we go unnoticed. We keep to the shadows and we go unnoticed. Otherwise it would get really crazy."

Now, it is important to point out that there are numerous other agents in the organization and many of them play very important roles in the recorded adventures so Cunnington does not hold center stage all the time. She does, IMHO, hold it long enough to deserve starring role credit.

I have been a huge fan of time travel ever since I read H.G. Wells' terrific The Time Machine so long ago it was like another life. In fact, even before I read the book, I was hooked on the storyline from the terrific movie starring Rod Taylor and - who would not be in love with - Yvette Minieux.

Combining spy-fi and sci-fi and using time travel as the motif, I was naturally inclined to enjoy this series. Toss in a terrific character in Sarah Cunnington just to be sure. And then put the icing on the cake in the form of my recently acquired love of short stories and novellas. A lot of them! Oodles. 

What's not to like?