Francesco “Frank” Giordano was born February 14, 2000 in Brooklyn, NY. Although he was a Valentine’s Day baby, Frank’s childhood was not full of love and devotion. His father, Alberto, who was out of work more often than not, was a vile man who regularly beat his wife, Luciana, when he was drunk, which was most of the time. No one was surprised when Alberto was killed in a on the streets a week before Frank’s sixth birthday, forcing Luciana to go to work to provide for herself and her three children: Frank, and his siblings Giada (9), Eduardo (“Eddie”, 7).

With no marketable skills, Luciana held a long series of short-term, minimum-wage jobs until she died in 2019. The absence of parental supervision left the Giordano children mostly alone; the results weren’t ideal. Giada had three children before she turned 18 (in 2015). They have now all left home, while Giada still lives in Brooklyn, occasionally with a boyfriend, more often alone. Eddie joined the South Brooklyn Boys gang in 2016, age 17. A year later he disappeared, and is presumed dead.

In May 2015, just 15, but big for his age, Frank followed Eddie’s lead by becoming a South Brooklyn Boy. He sold drugs on the streets and at school, but was arrested five months later, in October 2015. He was convicted of possession with intent to sell and sentenced to the Crossroads Juvenile Center, in Brooklyn for 18 months, including time served.

At Crossroads, Frank attended classes, but did very poorly and failed practically every subject. He was released in April 2017, having served his full term. Frank, now 17, declined to return to school, opting instead for taking up full time with his new gang “family”. His do-anything attitude impressed the senior gang members, and Frank was soon firmly established as a rising South Brooklyn Boys star.

A year later, he took part in a drive-by shooting. Fortunately for Frank, nobody was injured in the attack, but unfortunately, an off-duty police officer was nearby to start the process of moving Frank into the Riverview Medium Security Correctional Facility in Ogdensburg, NY—his new home for the next 2-10 years.

He was 16 months into his term when he heard of his mother’s death from lung cancer. That news and the efforts of Jonathan St. Pierre, his prison counselor, brought about a sudden and remarkable change in Frank, who developed a burning desire to turn his life around. He took high school equivalency classes, and in August 2020, earned his GED. He then went on to take college preparatory tests, and, then online classes through the State University of New York (SUNY) as an undeclared major. The evident sincerity with which he pursued his studies and the testimony of Mr. St. Pierre were significant factors that led to his being paroled in October 2021, after 43 months of incarceration.

Having nowhere else to go, Frank returned to his childhood home and began commuting to attend classes at the SUNY campus in Stony Brook, NY, eventually choosing to major in Criminal Psychology. Although a mediocre student at best, he worked hard, studied diligently, and succeeded, receiving his BS in June 2025.

He applied for a student grant from the State to pay for his postgraduate schooling. The application was granted with the proviso that he serve as a psychological consultant intern to the New York State Department of Correctional Services (DCS). Frank readily agreed, and in September 2025 began attending postgraduate classes and counseling prisoners throughout New York State.

While he studied, Frank, a prison convert to the joys of reading science fiction, began to expand his interest into “real life science fiction”. At this point, he became aware of a U.S. government think tank known in science journals as “The Hastings Institute” (THI). THI was conducting research in a brand new science – Temporal Physics—time travel, in layman’s terms.  Much later it turned out that THI was a fictitious entity, created to conceal the researchers’ actual leadership (see below).

By June 2027, when he received his MA in Clinical Psychology, he had established a regular holo-mail correspondence with the primary researchers at THI, becoming familiar with the advances in—and arguments for and against—time travel.

While Frank pursued his PhD (achieved in November 2031), his correspondence with THI lapsed, as little of real interest appeared to be happening in the temporal field. In reality, this was a hugely interesting period for the temporal researchers, given the discovery and ensuing measurement of the Tau. But these developments occurred behind veils of strictest secrecy, so Frank, along with the rest of the public, was unaware of these advances. Instead, he spent the majority of his non-study time in one of three primary hobbies, listed in order of time he devoted to these pursuits:

1. Holo- and virtual-blogging – His best-known blog, The Temporal Conscience, contained vociferous admonitions about the need for caution in pursuing time travel due to the uncertainties of its effect on people disassociated from a linear time-line for extended periods. Despite, or perhaps due to, its educated approach, The Temporal Conscience had a substantial following. Though its articles were primarily cautionary, many temporal researchers viewed his blogs as attacks on their profession and their goals.
2. Tinkering – he is an avid amateur inventor. Although he never achieved any success through the patent office, he did apply for several patents. They were all rejected because they were too similar to other recently submitted (in one instance by only two weeks!) applications.
3. Shooting – He practices strictly holo-hunting and supervised target shooting at public ranges, because as an ex-con, he is not allowed to own firearms.

After his graduation, he spent the remainder of 2031 completing the requirements for his Psychologist’s license. He passed the National Exam in August, and spent three months getting the Board to accept that his supervised work with DCS satisfied the experience requirement. By December, he was a fully certified Clinical Psychologist.

After the holidays, he sold his mother’s old apartment and bought an office with an attached apartment on Flatbush Avenue. He worked long hours getting his practice up and running. He also voluntarily continued working with DCS, a practice he excelled at, having an unnerving ability to be able to detect when someone was being “less than truthful”, a talent occasionally used by New York’s finest as well.

When he finally re-established his interest in Temporal research, he discovered that a couple years previous, in December of 2029 to be exact, the Temporal research community had delivered two bombshells in the form of articles published by leading physicists. Although the articles were overlooked by most of humanity, they foretold the end of the world before mid-century; not in mysteriously vague and veiled references; but in concrete, understandable, provable, scientific terms. In a word, they promised Armageddon, and they were terrifying.

The articles lead Frank to an inescapable conclusion missed by most who read the articles. The only way for the researchers to have reached the conclusions they did was to have sent something into the past to take measurements. In short, that they had achieved actual time travel. Progress was apparently not quite at the standstill that it had appeared. Frank immediately tried to re-connect with his old THI contacts, only to receive bounce-back holo-mails from them all. Furthermore, holo-web searches turned up nothing, despite the Frank’s most concerted attempts. In short, THI had apparently disappeared completely.

The new reality of time travel, combined with the information in the “apocalypse” articles (as Frank had dubbed them), the disappearance of THI, and the logical connections between them, caused Frank to return to his holo-blog with vigor. He also began speaking at conferences, conventions, etc. His exhortations were the same as before, only expressed more passionately, with an added focus on the morality behind any type of time travel. His ideas were laughed at or ignored by most, but his well-reasoned, solidly supported arguments, together with his lack of vitriol or histrionics, earned him a small but steadily growing followership.

When the earth was rocked by a series of 9.4+ earthquakes in late 2031 and early 2032, his holo-blog and speaking engagements posted record attendance with each new appearance. Frank’s reputation was becoming increasingly popular, his thoughts, dangerously close to becoming mainstream. The temporal community realized it had to act. Fortunately, it had just received the means to do so.

In July 2033, Frank was contacted by a Dr. Juan Mendoza-Chavez, representative of the Time Alleviation Program (TAP), the real entity behind the fictitious THI that Frank had corresponded with for years, with a request that given his well-documented interest in the well-being of personnel involved in time travel, that he join the ranks of WARP as a field psychologist and research fellow. Frank didn’t have to consider for long before accepting.