Nine Men in Time

"Nine Men in Time" by Noel M. Loomis is a science fiction tale examining the nature of ambition and the troubles that arise when messing with time within the walls of a struggling printing company. The story features J.J. Shane, a resourceful production manager who, to avoid the plant's shutdown, collaborates with an experimental physicist, Dr. Hudson, to create a time-travel duplication machine that sends workers back in time to correct mistakes. High-Pockets Jones, a unique employee, volunteers for the duplication experiment, leading to multiple versions of himself and producing comical chaos in the workplace. Shane’s initial plan to use this technology to save the company becomes complex, which forces the characters to question the ethical issues raised by their time manipulations before ultimately figuring out how to fix everything.