222

You are taken to the Speaking House, a building neither more nor less grandiose than any of the Others, and given the chance to speak to those who have volunteered to play a part in governing the planet. There are twenty-seven of the Danikoi who recline on plush couches that float in the air. They elect one called the Disputer to argue against you. You have no choice but to tell them you are a Time Traveller and the reasons you have journeyed to their world and time. Your own people on Earth and the Federation will be killed if they allow Mechanon to be turned into a lasting monument to their technological knowhow. They hear you out without interruption and when you have finished the Disputer says that they have no plans to build a factory planet anywhere. You reply that they will begin building on Mechanon in five thousand years. There is a general hum and one of the Danikoi asks you why their descendants should wish to do this. You reply, 'I know only that they will choose to do so. In my time, fifty millennia from now, it is history.' The hum this time is louder. The Disputer stands and asks you to prove that you are a Time Traveller. Will you:

Call up CAIN and ask him if there is a useful prophecy you can make? Turn to 363
Lead them to the Strike Fighter, show them the Variac Drive and explain the principles of time travel? Turn to 21