Some of the early technology that was used to help Glitchers time travel to specific moments in the past was unnecessarily hard on the human body. It was a similar problem to what astronauts faced when they traveled in space; the journey wreaked havoc on the fragile internal balance of bones, muscles, and nerves. As a result, he had the same longing in his eyes that so many of my professors had when we talked about our training. Some of them missed it so much they ruined their own health to do just one more jump. It was one of the reasons that the deactivation injection was now required as soon as you were done with your Glitching career. The students who didn’t make it through the Academy for one reason or another received the same thing, and I’d always wondered what that would be like. Would it feel freeing, or like you’d let everyone down? Regardless, it was common knowledge that you could find many of the Academy staff in the simulation rooms after hours, reliving their glory days over and over again. Mom was in the same boat, although she was too busy with me and being the commander of the entire Academy to mess around with recreational simulations.

I glanced at her now, seeing a similar look in her eyes as she watched Officer Salzburg relive some of their most famous jumps together. For a while there, certain pivotal historical events had been almost overrun with Glitchers and Butterflies, to the point where it was hard to tell who was actually a part of history and who was trespassing. The very idea made my brain hurt. It was hard enough to spot one Butterfly, let alone worry about the other ten at the event that weren’t your business. Thankfully the Academy had developed some technology to help Glitchers stay focused on their target. It was something I was sure Elliot would start learning about after he broke my mom’s record and became the youngest cadet to level up. I studied my mother as Salzburg rambled on. She’d been the best Glitcher to ever grace the steps of the Academy, a fact that had quickly catapulted her up the ranks until she was named the first female commander in chief. But, just like Officer Salzburg, she’d reached her Glitching limit and been deactivated. Any more time traveling and her health would have started declining until she looked like one of the fragile Glitchers who lived in the nursing home on the edge of the Academy.