Sicilian Normans stole the Rover, a time machine, from its owners, sometimes referred to as "the Builders":
"'I wonder if the Builders ever will find us,' mused Don Miguel.
"'Hardly,' said Olga. 'Or they'd have been here before now.'" (p. 97)
There are two possibilities. If the Builders had any way to ascertain that the Normans had traveled to a particular time, call it t1, in the American Oligocene (intending to build at that time and place a base from which to plunder other times and places) then surely they, the Builders, would also have traveled to t1 and immediately apprehended the thieves and retrieved the Rover. If that line of reasoning is valid, then the mere fact that the Oligocene base, "the Nest," has endured for ten years is sufficient proof that the Builders have no way to know where or when it is and are not going to find it. A lesser possibility is that the Builders have some way to search randomly through time, that by this means they will find the Nest when it is more than ten years old and will intervene at that stage. In any case, before anything like that can happen, the Nest is terminated by its own internal conflicts.
See:
And for similar reflections on time travel issues, see:
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But the Nest lasted a lot longer than ten years! Duke Hugo is described as an aging man with adult grandchildren. So the Nest lasted about forty or fifty years?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
OK. maybe it was just that Trebuen had been there 10 years.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That is far more likely.
Ad astra! Sean
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