"Tut, tut!  You can't interfere - the one impossibility that permits all else to be possible; I tried to tell you that when you arrived.  But don't let it fret you; you are eternally permitted to try.  Your orders will include a loop so that you will check back at here - now without any loss of temporality.  Now fly away and get cracking; I have work to do." Foster turned back to where he had been interrupted.  Oh, yes, a poor soul temporally designated as "Alice Douglas" - to be a goad was a hard assignment at best and she had met it unflaggingly.  But her job was complete and now she would need rest and rehabilitation from the inescapable battle fatigue... she'd be kicking and screaming and foaming ectoplasm at all orifices.