Free Fugitives of Time: Sequel to Emperors of Time by James Wilson Penn

differently. 
    But Hopkins had known that the Emperors would be planning
another alternate timeline.  He had taken the opportunity, in the brief
amount of time when the timeline was set back to normal, after the teens had
fixed it by dismantling the bomb back in 1916, to gather information about how
history was supposed to go. 
    The fact that there was a window of time there at all
confused the teens at first, because there was no time differential for them in
their time.  But Hopkins had explained that since he was from the same
time as Dr. Russell and the other Emperors, he would not see changes until the
Emperors jumped back in time to make them and spent enough time there to
complete them.  In contrast, for the teens, they were already events in the
past as soon as they materialized.  Tim had to admit that he was still a
bit unclear on the specifics, but he decided to leave the science of it to
Hopkins and just try to remember the history as well as he could.
    Hopkins had put all the information on a data card that he
was able to take with him in his pocket when he time-jumped and could access
anytime he was near a power source like they had in the 24th century. 
This was all useful, though it had given Tim a lot of stuff to memorize.
    Hopkins had also been able to go back in time to the year
after the target year to meet all the people they’d be impersonating, see what
they looked like, take covert pictures, and record their voices, so that they
would know everything they needed to about how to make them convincing on a
physical level.  The harder part would be blending into society and
knowing everything that their characters were supposed to know.
    “Yeah, lucky he’s already a walking history textbook,” Julie
said, quickly flashing a grin at Tim.  Tim smiled back tentatively. 
He still wasn’t sure what to think about his friendship, or relationship, or
whatever it was, with Julie after his abortive attempt to broach the subject
nearly a week ago now.
    “But Hopkins has been keeping us so busy it’s no wonder we’re
still going to have to do some cramming tonight.  Can you believe that
we’re going to be going back tomorrow?  I feel like it’s so different this
time, knowing so far in advance what’s going to happen to us and everything,”
Tim said.
    “Yeah, last time it was more of a get-in get-out
thing.  Just a few days.  This time, it could be weeks depending on
how long it takes us to figure out who all is being controlled,” Billy said.
    Julie picked up a blade of grass next to her leg and started
fiddling with it.  “I still don’t quite believe I’m going to be living in
1854 by this time tomorrow.  But then, I’m not sure I’m totally over the
fact that I’m living in the 23rd century right now, so making another change
shouldn’t really matter much, should it?”
    “I think it’ll really sink in for me when I can look in the
mirror and see a person from the 19th century looking back at me,” Rose
said.  “It’s almost creepy!”
    “Oh, it’s definitely creepy,” Julie countered.  “But I
hope I’ll get over it once it’s happened.” She shook her body in a way that
suggested trying to shake something dirty off.  To judge from her facial
expression afterwards, she hadn’t quite succeeded.
    Tim slipped his cell-phone out of his pocket to check the
time.  Their phones had run out of battery days ago, but Paul had fooled
around with some electronic supplies he apparently had lying around and was
able to connect them to a power source.  The phone’s clock function was
the only thing that worked on it this far underground, but he didn’t have a watch
to check.
    “Speaking of which, you think we ought to get heading over
there now?” he asked.
    Julie took a deep breath.“  Yeah, I guess so.  He
said we can reverse it right away when we finish up back there, right?”
    “Right,” said Tim, as they got up and started walking back
out of the indoor park