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Timeline (novel)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, an eponymous film based on the book was released in 2003.

Plot
In Corazon, Dan Baker and his wife are lost and driving through the Northern Arizona desert when they come across a man in his seventies who looks like a priest. They pull over to help him, then take him to a hospital in Gallup, New Mexico. They learn that the man works at ITC and has unexplainable growth abnormalities in his blood vessels. The man dies less than twenty-four hours later.

In the Dordogne (southwest) portion of France, Archeology Professor Edward Johnston leads a group of relatively young archaeologists � Chris Hughes, Kate Erickson, and Andr� Marek � as they study the fourteenth-century towns of Castelgard and La Roque. Professor Johnston travels to New Mexico because he has reason to believe ITC, their funds provider, is guilty of foul play. During his absence, his students discover several disturbing sights, including the lens to Professor Johnston's glasses and an inexplicable message from him. Chris, Kate, Andr�, and a computer specialist named David Stern are whisked away to ITC Headquarters in New Mexico by the company's vice president John Gordon.

Once there, ITC CEO Robert Doniger informs them that Professor Johnston has traveled to 1357 using their undisclosed quantum technology. The students decide to venture into the past to rescue the professor. Stern chooses to stay behind, realizing that the time period is probably extremely dangerous.

Immediately when they arrive in 1357, they are attacked by knights. Their ITC guards are murdered, and one activates a grenade before he is fatally wounded, and inadvertently initiates his return, causing the return pad in the present to be severely damaged. Stern and the ITC employees then struggle to repair it so the students can return home.

Kate and Andr� find Professor Johnston; Lord Oliver of Castelgard is keeping him under arrest as he is convinced Professor Johnston knows the secret passageway to the otherwise impregnable castle of La Roque, which Oliver controls. Arnaut de Cervole, Lord Oliver's arch-nemesis, plans to attack Lord Oliver's domain, and Oliver wants the secret to defend it.

Meanwhile, Chris inadvertently tells a boy-in-disguise that he is a nobleman, and the boy is revealed to be a woman named Lady Claire in disguise. She takes Chris to Sir Guy de Malegant, her fianc�. Chris and Andr� (who has since found Chris) meet Guy, who challenges them to a joust: Chris's proclamation of nobility and his flirtations with certain women have turned him into the enemy of several men. The two escape thanks to Andr�'s intelligence and knowledge of the area.

Oliver orders the students� deaths. They escape Castelgard and are pursued by Guy and his knight, Robert de Kere, while Oliver and his retinue relocate to La Roque, taking Johnston with him. In order to rescue Johnston, the students look for the secret passage to La Roque. Chris and Kate focus on the secret passage while Andr� gains entry into La Roque by posing as Professor Johnston's assistant. Andr� learns that the professor is helping Lord Oliver build a weapon to defeat Arnaut's incoming forces, believing that Oliver will lose the siege as he is supposed to.

Simultaneously, Chris learns that another future-person is helping De Cervole's forces. The man is revealed to be de Kere, who is really Robert Deckard, an ITC worker who has undergone so many time travel trips that his structure is tampered and weakened, much like the seventy-year-old man the couple in Arizona found at the beginning of the novel. Deckard plans to take the next trip to the future for himself.

Chris and Kate use the passage to enter La Roque. Arnaut begins the siege of La Roque, and emerges victorious after apparently using the passage to sneak in. During the battle, Kate runs away from Guy and sends him falling to his death. Andr� and Chris free Professor Johnston from a dungeon. They see Arnaut battling Oliver, which ends with the latter being trapped in a deep pit. As the time travelers flee, Chris is attacked by Deckard, but kills him by setting him on fire with gunpowder supplied by Professor Johnston.

Stern and the ITC employees repair the machine just in time for the students' return. Andr� realizes that he has longed for this life, and convinces the others to return to the present without him.

Back in the present, the team is confronted by Doniger, who, having had little concern for their safety, intends to exploit the quantum technology for his own monetary gain. Fed up with his boss, Gordon knocks him out and uses the machine to trap him in 1348 Europe, during the Black Plague.

The novel concludes with an epilogue. Chris and Kate are now married and expecting their first child. While digging through a site one day, they come across the grave of Andr� and Lady Claire. They are pleased to know the two led a happy life together, and that Andr� never forgot them.

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