Can You Think Like A Time Traveler? II

The Shield Of Time, PART TWO, 209 B.C.

Everard has completed the line of reasoning outlined in the previous post. He even adds that it is a good thing that the telephone has not been invented yet, the point being that the guards have to take time to report back physically and, more generally, that his enemies' communications are hampered by having to send messengers. Then comes the moment of realization:

"He slammed to a halt. His guts contracted. 'Oh, heavens to Betsy,' he groaned, for no swear word sufficed. Where was my brain? On vacation in Bermuda?" (p. 63)

Telephones have not been invented yet but time machines have. Informed of Meander's escape, Theonis would be able to dispatch a colleague who, seated on a timecycle, would:

travel far enough back in time to be sure of being at Hipponicus' house before Meander could have got there;

hover invisibly above;

observe Meander's arrival by the combination of moonlight, starlight and advanced opticals;

instantly space-jump down to stun the fugitive and carry him off.

When your antagonist has a space-time vehicle, you cannot, on foot, or even in a fast car or an FTL spaceship, reach a destination before he does. There was a similar moment in a Doctor Who episode although, of course, the logic got lost. The Doctor and his companion were on Mars where a radio signal had just been transmitted to detonate a doomsday device on Earth. The Doctor said, "It's not too late!," his point being that the radio signal would take time to cross the space between Mars and Earth. Thus, using the TARDIS, they could cross instantly to Earth and deactivate or remove the doomsday device before the signal arrived.

However, the finite speed of the radio signal is irrelevant. Even if that signal were to reach Earth instantaneously, the TARDIS, as a space-time vehicle, would have been able to arrive before it. Like Everard, the Doctor seems to forget that he is dealing with time travel.