Description

Unlocking the Gate

Objectives:

• Persuade Mary
• Use Samuel's argument
• Use Fyodor's argument
• Use Arthur's argument

Dialog

Splendid. Just to reiterate, 1314-Mary has the time travel crystals in her possession. You need three of them, and you have to persuade her to give them to you since she is there to prevent them from being abused.
Then you have to find the gate. I think Io knows where it is, but that's a matter for later. Worry about the crystals first.

• Okay.

Hello.

• Do you have any good arguments to persuade Mary?

Ah. Yes, she is quite picky about it. It is in her programming to be cautious, in order to prevent abuse.
You could tell her that I believe that the destination is not in this timeline, but in a parallel universe or timeline. Hence there is no risk for any paradox loops to appear.

• Are you sure?

I'm sure. The lost Elysians are already at that time. If it was on our timeline, and if paradoxes were possible, we would already have felt the effects of those.
Hence there are two possibilities: either time including time travel is predestined, which is against Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle; or they have arrived to a different timeline.

• Thanks. I'll try that.

Hello again. How can I help you?

• I need Mary to give me time travel crystals. Do you have any arguments that could help persuade her?

To me it is quite obvious. If Elysians are lost, it is our duty to make sure that they arrive here safely. Furthermore, they could be at risk, so lives are at stake.

• Thanks, I'll try that.

Oh. Hello. Feeling somewhat at home yet?

• Not really. I need to persuade Mary to give me some time travel crystals. Do you have any arguments that could help persuade her?

Is that really necessary? I mean, she's a robot. I don't like to think of them as such, but fact is that although she may look like a human, she's really a robot modelled after a dead 19th century novelist. She is built for a purpose.

• And what's that purpose?

To build and prepare Next Island for the arrival of the people from Elysium. If they don't get here, then her purpose is forfeit. Wouldn't that be against her programming?

• Okay. Thanks. I'll try that.

I'm afraid I cannot release the time travel crystals to you. I'm sorry.

• But there is no risk of paradox. Either time is predestined, which is against... physics, or the destination is in another universe.
• But people are at risk! It is important to save human lives!
• Wouldn't that be against your programming to deny the Elysians the possibility to get here?
• Bah.

If you choose "But there is no risk of paradox....":

That is a hypothesis only. Time displacement mechanics is a field of physics that is not particularly well explored, and there are several competing theories. So I have to pose the question "what if you are wrong?".
Even if the probability was small, the consequences of your hypothesis being wrong would be immense.
For that reason, I have to deny your request.

• Bah.

Or if you choose "But people are at risk!...":

Yes, that is a problem. However, there is another problem. You would be an invading superior culture into the past civilization. To understand the consequences, consider Fransisco Pizarro and the Incas. Some 200 conquistadors brought down the mighty Inca empire using horses and gunfire, things never seen before by the Incas.
This is one example of the kind of problem that most civilizations would encounter just once, and which they tend to encounter much in the same way as a sentence encounter a full stop.
And, I'm afraid, if you were to travel in time, you would become that problem for the civilization at the destination.
Hence I have to reject your request.

• Bah.

Or if you choose "Wouldn't that be against your programming..":

If you put it that way... yes, it's true that my purpose is to prepare this place for the arrival of Elysians, and that purpose would be forfeit if I denied them the possibility. Since preventing scientific abuse is my secondary purpose... I guess that the primary purpose overrides it. I will give you the crystals.
Do you plan on leaving immediately?

Choices:

• Yes.
• I have a few things to do first.