The GLMZ Surveyor Corps maintains a network of precision timekeeping stations across the metropolitan zone, synchronized to the atomic standard at the GLMZ Municipal Clock. In October 2199, the station at Muskegon — on the Michigan lakeshore, 180 kilometers north of GLMZ — began returning timestamps that were 11 minutes and 7 seconds behind the atomic standard. The station's clock was checked. It was correct. The atomic standard was checked. It was correct. The clocks agreed with each other. The timestamps disagreed with both.

Subsequent testing revealed that the anomaly is not in the clocks. It is in Muskegon. Events observed at the Muskegon station occur 11 minutes and 7 seconds later than simultaneous events observed elsewhere. A light activated at the Muskegon station is visible to a remote observer 11 minutes and 7 seconds after it is activated according to the local clock. Radio transmissions from Muskegon arrive at receiving stations 11 minutes and 7 seconds after the local timestamp indicates they were sent. The speed of light has not changed. The speed of radio has not changed. Time at Muskegon is running at the same rate as everywhere else — it is simply 11 minutes and 7 seconds behind.

We have verified this with nine independent measurement methods. The results are consistent. Muskegon is in the past. Not the deep past — 11 minutes. Everything that happens there has already happened everywhere else, 11 minutes ago. Residents of Muskegon do not notice because they are inside the effect. Their clocks read correctly from their perspective. They experience time normally. They simply experience it slightly after everyone else.

We do not know when this began. The Muskegon station has been in operation since 2183, and archival analysis suggests the drift has been present since at least 2191. It may have been present longer. We have not disclosed this finding to Muskegon's population of 12,000. We are not certain what we would tell them.