Z'ong has mastered the concept of time travel. As part of the process his beams of light rebound on the nucleus of passing comets which determine where and when the time traveller will end up. In his early tests he "picked up" a number of people from the past including Major Macquarrie who, being of good build, survived the journey into the future but died when he returned to warn the present world of a major threat. Indeed, the actual aim of Z'ong and his people is to escape the terrible world they inhabit in the 81st century and take over the current one. Basam Damdu seemed the ideal choice to lead them and was picked up by the beams of light just before his capital was destroyed by the Swordfish aircraft designed by Mortimer.