Shatner Barnes is the protagonist of Fractured Echoes, an experienced time travel agent whose internal moral conflict is the core of the story, pitting his duty to humanity against his personal ethics.
Shatner presents as a capable, seasoned operative who is physically and mentally prepared for the rigors of time travel and retrieval.
The “Good Guy” Agent: He consciously sets himself apart from his colleagues, considering himself “one of the good guys in the retrieval business”. He avoids the intimidation and manipulation tactics used by other agents, stating that the presence of corrupt men is the only reason he remains in the job to ensure someone acts differently.
A Man Under Pressure: Though physically fit, his “aging body” is capable of sprinting and fighting, he is tense, alert, and often cloaked in shadows, reflecting the secret and dangerous nature of his work.
The Loyal Partner: He has an immediate, deep seated trust in his partner, Don, accepting unbelievable information about his own death and a massive time shift without question, due to the gravity and urgency in Don’s manner.
The Jester: Despite the severity of his profession, he uses dark humor and pop culture references, joking that his own name (Shatner) makes his entire life a pop culture reference. He attempts to use this levity to mask the “fear building inside him”.
Shatner is defined by a deep and worsening emotional exhaustion due to the moral compromises of his job.
Emotionally Consumed: The pressure of the Time Retrieval Center has been “building, pressing down on him,” and he admits the work “emotionally consumed him”. He suffers from disturbed and fragile sleep, often remaining “half aware” and caught in an “uneasy” layer of consciousness.
Crippled Spirit: He is haunted by the necessity of returning retrieved people to their historical deaths, a process known as “returns” that “destroyed him”. He explicitly states this process is “crippling Shatner’s spirit”.
Moral Weight of Duty: His faith in his mission was severely damaged after he was forced to return an innocent newborn baby girl to the 1960s, knowing it meant her death. He had entered the job believing he was saving the world, only to realize he was often handing over innocent people to their fate.
Shatner faces both the foundational moral challenges of his profession and an unexpected, existential threat.
The “Murky Moral Zone”: He operates in a world where time travel is used to forcibly retrieve women from the past to solve a population crisis, an operation governments established in a “murky moral zone”. This constantly forces him to reconcile his ethics with the rules of survival for the human race.
Corporate Corruption and Betrayal: He and Don filed reports against their boss, Mr. Ramses, who was turning a blind eye to ethical violations and manipulating the system for the benefit of “The Club”. This placed Shatner directly in opposition to the elite power structure within the agency.
The Time Shift and Assassination: The primary, immediate challenge is the realization that his retrieval mission on a specific day was a “setup” orchestrated by Ramses to have him “clocked out”. Shatner must navigate a reality where his past self has died, history has been reset, and he is now a target in a dangerous, unfamiliar timeline.
