On being handed her mission, Tani's eyes widened.

She knew all about the Time Rebels and their attempt to plant an incendiary device in the Gyro. The rebels had been stopped on their way through the village, but the explosion had killed 327 of the villagers.

It'd happened on her eighth birthday.

Her father had been amongst the dead.

It wasn't good to have personal links to a mission. She should have reported it, but Tani kept quiet. Evacuating the villagers before the blast would be her biggest challenge yet. And she would get to save her own father.

The rotation of the Gyro started gaining momentum and everyone headed away from the axis room, along their allotted corridors to the outer rim.

Here the force was the greatest. Here was where the magic happened.

Patting her zippi-pocket, Tani confirmed that her ID pass was safe, ready for her return trip. The Gyro was spinning faster now. Everyone would soon black out.

She awoke in a field, head throbbing, blood trickling down her face. Had she collided with something during the leap and been knocked unconscious? She pulled her tablet from her backpack. Its screen was cracked, but she could see enough to know that she was late. Pressing the comms button, she tried to establish a link with the receiver pods worn by every villager, but the damage to her tablet was too severe.

The village was just ahead, at the foot of the hill. There was no time to lose. She had to warn them somehow.

Running as fast as her legs would carry her, Tani started shouting at the villagers to flee the area. Her grey, badged overalls confirmed that she was a time-agent, so nobody argued. They immediately began to scatter into the surrounding crop fields.

Tani plunged deeper into the village, searching for her father.

She found him by the tunnels. He was engaged in a heated conversation with a group of men.

'We all have to leave,' she yelled.

The men took one look at her uniform and did as she said. Her father was about to follow them into the tunnels, but she grabbed his arm. 'We'll be safer in the fields.'

He spun to face her, but his anger quickly abated. A flicker of recognition crossed his bewildered face.

'Trust me,' she reassured him. 'The rebels had a bomb, but they never got to blow up the Gyro. Somebody stopped them doing that. The village is almost cleared, so everything's going be alright.'

The explosion was earsplittingly loud.

Tani was puzzled. The village appeared undamaged.

The blast had come from the other side of the hill.

Then a terrible realisation hit her.

The men who ran into the tunnels, they were the rebels. Her father was meant to stop them, but she'd just prevented him from doing that.

The massive wheel-shaped Gyro had been destroyed and time-travel had ended forever.

Millions would now die.

And it was all her fault.