There is atomic-powered, robot-crewed foreign commerce. Also, pilgrims visit Sancisco where the guru Duago Samito had his revelation because they hope for insight from oneness with heaven, earth and water while standing on the hills above the Bay. Thus, Havig and Leonce blend with foreign visitors.
Householders, in small, isolated houses with holographic communicators, earn virtue from hospitality to pilgrims. Thus, the time travelers need no credit account.
In the morning:
the family chants and meditates for an hour;
the father cultivates vegetables for psychological rather than economic reasons;
the mother works on a paramathematical theorem;
the children engage with an electronic educational network, possibly planetary and telepathic.
The Star Masters:
come irregularly to trade ideas and knowledge more than goods;
thus, could be time travelers of the Eyrie;
when present, occupy ultra-mechanized, energy-flashing bases and enormous flying machines;
otherwise, leave their spires and domes empty, protected by invisible barriers;
influence Earth subtly but pervasively until a new civilization or post-civilization arises;
are described as sometimes human, sometimes not.
Havig and Leonce:
walk to a Star Masters station;
find it empty;
time travel forwards;
glimpse an approaching flying machine;
stop and watch;
see men, women and extraterrestrials exiting the vessel;
flee back to the past.
Despite their flight, this is their first glimpse of a future that they will create. They capture the Eyrie Phase One and drug the Sachem so that he believes whatever he is told. Then they can put on a show for him whenever he visits the future. They build Phase Two, Polaris House, to be used for research and development towards interstellar travel. Time travelers in slower than light ships can reach other planetary systems in hours or minutes.
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