noon
Fawzi gulped . `` Yes . If Merlin says we ought to , we 'll have to do it . '' Toward noon , a telecast went out from Koshchei , on a dozen different wave-lengths . Conn , half asleep in a chair in the commander-in-chief 's office , saw Simon Macquarte , the young mathematics professor from Storisende College who had become one of the leaders of the colony , appear in the screen . The next moment , he was fully awake , shocked by Macquarte 's words : `` This is not a threat ; this is a solemn , even a prayerful , warning . We do not want to use genocidal weapons of mass destruction against the world of our birth .