Ellis

**Ellis**: "*Why should I trust you?*"
**Grace Day**: "'*Cause without me, you'd still be writing shitty script prompts in a leaky dome like the grumpy, no-imagination, old bastard you are.*"
**Ellis**: "*[opening door] I'd recognize that tone in any century.*"
— Ellis and Grace meet in the 21st[src]

**Ellis** (**Traveler 0014**), played by guest actor Tom McBeath, was a farmer who was overwritten by a programmer. He created a backdoor code used to send data from the 21st century to the future and also built the quantum frame as part of a mission. He ultimately died when the Director used him as a messenger.

## Averted death

The host for Traveler 0014 was fated to die in a farming accident early one morning. A length of barbed wire was wrapped around an auger drill on a vehicle, while the other end of the barbed wire was caught on Ellis's clothes. Ellis mistakenly turned the machine on and was dragged toward the drill. He was overwritten seconds before reaching the drill, whereupon Traveler 0014 produced a set of wire-cutters and clipped the barbed wire.

## History

### 0014 Future History

Ellis and Grace Day have evidently known each other for years in the future. He is able to recognize her in the 21st century despite knowing nothing about her intended host. Grace claims to have helped Ellis develop his coding skills, asserting that he would still be writing sub-par code if not for her. At some point, Ellis developed a code that could send data forward in time - a technology not previously believed possible. He traveled to the past to prevent the Faction from obtaining the code.

Ellis was able to prepare a seven-course meal for the core Traveler team on his first day in the past, likely indicating he was well-trained in 21st century cuisine. Nonetheless, he did not know what bacon was, and cried for "a good five minutes" upon finding out.

### Host

Little is known about the life of Ellis prior to his possession. He was a farmer who owned an extensive plot of land (Trevor Holden claims there are "no kids around for miles" while on his property). Ellis lived alone, save for a Golden Retriever dog, and it is not known if he had any other family.

### Traveler 0014

#### Arrival

After overwriting his host, Ellis looked around at the new world in which he found himself and laughed with joy. He waited at the farmhouse to be greeted by other Travelers, all the while working on a second piece of technology in accordance with the Director's mission. He regarded Grace and Trevor with suspicion when they first arrived to greet him, but quickly recognized Grace and let the two in.

When the core Traveler team assembled at his house, Ellis and Grace explained the backdoor code. They intended to use it to send Marcy Warton's consciousness back to the future, then to the past once more so as to bypass the damaged areas of her brain. Marcy asked for time to consider her decision. Ellis sent the group away afterwards, informing them his shotgun would keep him safe (his farm was also protected by a space-time attenuator). Grace nonetheless used Ellis's backdoor code to overwrite Marcy without her consent. Unbeknownst to anyone - including Ellis - she was also using the code to reset the Director.

Grace and Trevor reunited with Ellis after a Faction assassin tried to kill Grace. Ellis admonished Grace for rebooting the Director, telling her: "that is too far." He revealed that he was the central figure in the Director's contingency plan. In the event of an emergency, such as the imminent threat of deletion or hijacking, the Director could send itself back in time by using a quantum frame device as a host. Ellis - along with unspecified Traveler teams who had been assembling the components for months - had built such a quantum frame in his barn.

#### Death

Later, while Ellis and Grace were standing guard, Trevor burst into the barn and revealed he'd received a text message ordering him to destroy the quantum frame. Ellis refused, claiming he'd received his mission from the Director personally and he intended to see it through. Grace disputed this, arguing that he'd received his mission before the reset: when the Director was still vulnerable to corruption. Ellis still refused to destroy the frame. When Trevor produced an ax, Ellis aimed his shotgun at his fellow Traveler. He did not back down when the rest of the core team arrived - not even when Carly Shannon and Grant MacLaren pointed their own guns at him. He finally lowered his shotgun when the group discovered a change in the timeline: in one version of the future, Shelter 41 collapsed due to design flaws; in another, the bunker survived and its inhabitants became founders of the Faction.

Ellis raised his gun once more when the farm's perimeter was breached and Trevor made another move to destroy the quantum frame. However, the gun discharged accidentally, piercing through Grace's abdomen and lodging inside Trevor. Ellis was visibly horrified at what he'd done. At Grace's request, he disabled the farm's defenses and lowered the space-time attenuation field in case the Director could help them. However, as soon as the frame powered on, Ellis was used as a messenger. The Director ordered MacLaren to destroy the quantum frame immediately. Ellis collapsed to the floor, dead.