My ally had about 300 drillers at an outpost, and for some reason, 9 hours into the future, there was this massive blue ripple graphic coming out from that base, even though there was no combat.
Coincidentally, an enemy base was about 8 hours away from it, also with hundreds of drillers. Then, an hour later, sure enough, the enemy launched their fleet at my ally, which would arrive at exactly the time that I saw the blue ripple in the time machine.
So, I think the time machine factors in other players' scheduled orders here where it shouldn't.