时间线 (1999)

《时间线》（英语：Timeline）是美国作家麦可·克莱顿出版于1999年11月的“科技惊悚小说”。这部小说讲述历史学家穿越时空到中世纪的故事，而赞助这名历史学家的企业家，目的则在借助科技振兴历史景点的吸引力。克莱顿将古代历史、科技细节与动作要素结合在一起，写出关于量子力学和时光旅行的这部小说。

这部小说的关系，克莱顿创立时间线电脑娱乐公司（Timeline Computer Entertainment），研发了《时间线》的电脑游戏，2000年由Eidos Interactive公司代理发行。2003年这部小说的同名电影《时间线》在美国上映。

小说情节

小说主要描述了一群研究生在法国境内研究百年战争时期两座英法各自据守的城堡，却接连发生怪事，他们竟然在密闭数百年的遗迹中，挖出了指导教授的手迹，随即发现教授下落不明。惊觉事有蹊跷的一行人，此时接到赞助商的电话，原来在量子力学上的重大突破，这家科技公司制造出时光机器，教授已经回到中世纪考古队探勘的遗迹处，并且意外被困在过去了。于是一行人组成搜救小组，穿越时空，要将教授找回来，孰料天不从人愿，一连串的突发事件使得他们得在混战时代中，在英法对峙的夹缝里，倚靠丰富的历史知识，试着让自己活下命来，才有机会在时限内回到未来。

Timeline is a science fiction novel by American writer Michael Crichton, his twelfth under his own name and twenty-second overall, published in November 1999. It tells the story of a group of history students who travel to 14th-century France to rescue their professor. The book follows in Crichton's long history of combining science, technical details, and action in his books, this time addressing quantum and multiverse theory.

The novel spawned Timeline Computer Entertainment, a computer game developer that created the Timeline PC game published by Eidos Interactive in 2000. Additionally, a film based on the book was released in 2003.

Plot

In northern Arizona near Corazón Canyon, a married couple driving through the desert encounter an elderly man. They take him to a hospital in Gallup, New Mexico. Hospital staff learn that he works for the company ITC. After he dies, an MRI scan reveals inexplicable abnormalities in his blood vessels.

In the Dordogne region of southwest France, Professor Edward Johnston leads a group of archaeologists and historians as they study a site that includes the fourteenth-century towns of Castelgard and La Roque. Suspicious of the detailed knowledge of the site shown by their funds provider ITC, Johnston travels to New Mexico to investigate. During his absence, the researchers discover the lens to Johnston's eyeglasses in the ruins, and a written message from him that is determined to be over 600 years old. Four of the researchers—graduate students Chris Hughes and Kate Erickson, assistant professor André Marek, and technology specialist David Stern—are flown to ITC's research headquarters in Black Rock, New Mexico.

During the flight, ITC vice president John Gordon informs them that Johnston traveled to the year 1357 using their undisclosed quantum technology. The historians decide to venture into the past to rescue Johnston. Stern chooses to stay behind because the time period is extremely dangerous.

Chris, Kate, Marek and two ITC guards travel to 1357. After arriving, they are attacked by knights chasing a boy. The ITC guards are killed, and one activates a grenade before being fatally wounded and initiates his return, causing the present-day transit pad to be damaged by the explosion. Stern and the ITC employees struggle to repair it so the team can return home.

Kate and Marek find Johnston at a monastery, but he is soon taken captive by the soldiers of Lord Oliver de Vannes, an English knight and resident lord of Castelgard, who thinks that Johnston knows the secret passageway to the otherwise impregnable castle of La Roque, which Oliver controls. Oliver's enemy, French commander Arnaut de Cervole, plans to attack Oliver's domain, and Oliver wants the secret to defend it.

Separated from the others, Chris follows the boy and inadvertently identifies himself as a nobleman. The "boy" leads Chris to the castle of Castelgard, and is revealed to be Lady Claire d'Eltham in disguise. She is being pressured to marry Sir Guy de Malegant. Chris and Marek (who has since found Chris) are challenged to a joust by Guy: Chris's apparent nobility and him accompanying Lady Claire have turned him into the enemy of Guy. The two survive the challenge thanks to Marek's knowledge of medieval combat.