Historical Revision Agency

The Historical Revision Agency was created on June 16th 2048, following the invention of working time travel six months previously. The founders, Mr. Joseph Krass and Mr. Henry Fitzgerald, made a very good case for the agency’s existence before governing bodies such as the UN and the WHO; both of whom were a bit sceptical on the issue.

The idea was a simple one: use time travel to prevent bad events from happening and to make sure that good ones do happen, or happen sooner. In theory it sounded fine.

In theory. Two things suddenly became apparent to those working in the HRA. One: changing the timeline is often impossible without out-rightly killing a large number of people, and two: even as events are forced to happen or denied existence, new events always take their place and, usually, make things worse.

The first problem was easily sorted. The UN and other such bodies allowed the HRA to have a limited arsenal of modern weaponry to supply their field agents. This came about by travelling back in time and replacing the previously incumbent members of the UN with members of the HRA. Thus, the legislation was easily passed.

The second was much more difficult. The HRA tried, and frequently failed, to make things better for the people in the present. A team of HRA mathematicians and historians worked around the clock to determine which events or people were the most important to meddle with. Their calculations often proved misguided however.

The HRA killed Hitler, for example. Good. But with no WWII, the EU was never formed, leading to many more European wars. Bad. So the HRA retroactively set up an EU. Good. But without the camaraderie of the Allied powers, the USSR quickly took over all of Europe and entered a full-scale nuclear war with the US in the early 60s. Bad.

This was the general pattern in all events the HRA meddled with. Finally, in the year 2061, the HRA mathematicians and historians concluded, in a unanimous vote, which event would improve history the most if stopped. The denial of this one event would undoubtedly create a better world for everyone.

The time machine was readied and the agent chosen was given his equipment: a handgun loaded with two bullets. The capsule was closed and the date was input: June 16th 2048.