In a future, post-ecological disaster and economic collapse Earth, Minh is part of the first generation to move back to the surface from the underground refuges humanity built to survive, and has spent her career doing river ecosystems. Unfortunately, funding for that work has now dried up, following the invention of time travel. The main uses of time travel are tourism and historical research, but now, at last, there's a proposal to use it for past-state research on the Tigris and Euphrates river system. Minh jumps at the chance, putting together a small but very capable team.
It wouldn't be right, exactly, to say everything goes horribly wrong.
The people in control of time travel may or may not be better than Minh thinks they are. They may or may not be right, or honest, about the past time they enter being an alternate bubble that collapses back into the main timeline when the time travelers depart, leaving history unaffected.
And Fabian, the "tactical historian" from the time travel company, may or may not be getting his 100% safety record from what others might consider an unethical use of time travel.
It's both interesting and well-written, no question. It's just very much not for me, at all.
I received this story in the 2019 Hugo Voters Packet.
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