"Come here, everyone!" Professor Borusa says and guides all the junior students to a tall machine.
The machine looked to be advanced technology; every student knew it was. The Time Lords were known throughout the entire galaxy to have advanced technology in every way. Even the young and not fully educated Time Lords in the room had a mind that could out-smart some of the toughest minds of other species. But this tall machine with hundreds of wires and buttons and leavers, and a big screen on the left could not bring any idea to any of the young Time Lords of what it was.
"This," Borusa said, radiating with passion for the huge machine. "is a Time Viewer. It can show you an alternate time of an object. See, if you use, something called a Pioner 68 000 to travel though time, but not with you - not like a Time Capsule - only sending the Pioner 68 000 to another time, like a camera, you can see the future or the past, but not go there yourself. "
Borusa is full of excitement towards the students and all the students are also listening closely. Some are even taking notes.
"Time Lords consider this, Time Viewing a much safer way to explore history. Because this way, we can see and listen, without interfering and causing paradoxes. And as you all know, paradoxes are extremely dangerous. It is the ideal alternative to a time capsule, considering the Non-Interference policy."
Borusa is wearing a scarlet robe with orange details to the look. Of course, this is what he always wears, considering he is a proud professor of the Prydonian Academy, and all the young one gathered behind him is his prydonian students, at least some of them. Out of Borusa´s robe, he brings out a book. It is coloured red and is clean and new. The edges are sharp and the papers are newly printed.
"This book is one of your schoolbooks, correct?" Borusa´s asks the crowd, and the crowd nods.
"And when was this made?"
A red-headed boy speaks first. "Ehm, professor, I don´t think anyone told us that before."
Behind the boy, a girl with long, brown hair says: "It was only made a couple of months ago, Professor."
The red-headed boy turns to look at her, but she only shrugs. "I read it ones." To many species it would have been incredible to have such a memory, but to these Time Lords, it came as no surprise.
"Indeed, very good, Fesha. This book is a new one, and it doesn´t look very old, does it? But does this one look old?" Borusa puts the book at the base of the machine, he pushed a could of buttons, set a setting to a wheel. Then he pushed a finger to one last, big, orange button, and a picture showed up on the screen.
The picture showed a book, the same book in which now laid at the bottom of the box, only the red on this one was darker and the edges were roughly worn out. Some of the pages were ripped apart and the words were almost impossible to read. On one of the pages, a dried, red stain showed in the corner of the paper. It was laying open on a desk, with its words free for reading, though no one was.
"Is that the same book?" The same red-headed boy asked.
"Yes, Engling, it is. It is the same book, only fifty years into the future."
Wow!, some students mumbled silently, fascinated by the image.
"Now," Professor Borusa said after a moment of astonishment. "Come here, Engling."
The boy steps forward, closer to the machine.
Borusa removes the book, causing the image to disappear. He dials a bit with the buttons and then tells Engling to stand inside the machine.
Engling hesitates a bit, but then does as he´s told. He steps inside the machine and waits for more orders.
"I would not be surprised if some of you had one question come to mind while I showed you this. 'Why is this machine so tall if it only shows history of books and objects?' Well, dear students, it doesn´t. This machine is not nearly as limited. It can tell the difference of much more. But fifty years is nothing, is it? Not in a Time Lord´s life at least. So, why don´t we turn the years a bit?" Borusa grabs hold of the wheel again and turn it around several times. "A hundred years? Two hundreds? Fife hundreds? No, that´s a bit dull, isn´t it? I know a reasonable number." Borusa keeps spinning the wheel for a while until he holds and lets go.
"Say hallo to the thousand-year-old Engling."
Borusa pushes the orange button and waits for the calculation of a thousand year to complete and the image to appear. He keeps waiting and his look turns more and more into a frown. Something is wrong.
Suddenly, a picture showed up on the screen. But is wasn´t of Engling, it was a text saying: No records found.
All the students began to whisper, mumbling things. Most of them presumed that there were just some minor faults, but seeing Borusa speechless made them begin to wonder. Borusa knew what this meant, he knew what those words were actually saying; there was no thousand-year-old Engling.
Of course it would come as no surprise that some of these students would not live through a thousand years. It´s sad, but it´s true.
"There is nothing to worry about", Borusa said. "This can sometimes happen, it is perfectly ok. Denieldar, would you take Engling´s place?"
Denieldar did as he was told, and Borusa pushed once again on the big orange button. But the same thing happened again.
No records found.
Borusa take a hold on Denieldar and moves him off the panel of the machine. "Fesha." He didn´t say more. He started to get frustrated, because he knew this was not normal.
The orange button was pushed and the screen answered with the same words yet again: No records found.
