In a cold war race for time travel, reminiscent of the space race, the Soviets successfully launch a crew fifty years into the future. In response, the US attempts to launch a crew 100 years into the future. Three U.S. time travelers, known as "tempunauts", attempt the journey. However, they become convinced that they're stuck in a time loop reliving events over and over again. The tempunauts decide to cause a fatal implosion upon re-entry to try to kill themselves and end the time loop. On the way to cause the implosion, one of the tempunauts, Addison Doug, receives an urgent message from the scientist behind the time travel efforts saying that intentionally causing an implosion will guarantee that they get stuck in a never ending time loop. Addison lies to the other travelers about what the scientist said and causes the implosion anyway, locking them into an eternal time loop where they are visiting and re-visiting the national day of mourning for their deaths. The story ends with Addison reflecting that he has given the people of his country a gift, the "dreadful and weary miracle of eternal life" as the world is forever stuck in the time loop around these events.