Zuzu's Petals — Stephen Donald Huff

Zuzu is a futuristic time clipper, a spacecraft capable of zapping backward and forward in time. As it embarks on its latest combat mission, one of its crew smuggles a forbidden keepsake onboard. This is a rose-shaped medallion given to him by his youngest daughter. After a spectacular military victory, he finds the petals missing, along with the entire population of his home world. Can he alter space and time to return his family to the present? The smallest things count in large amounts, given sufficient time. Worry for the tiniest details of a thing, for these trifles sometimes bury the truth.