I saw the genuine look of pain on Patrick’s face. The three of us stood there silently for a moment, out of respect.
“I’m sorry, Bobby,” Patrick finally said. “Your uncle was like a brother to me. I’m going to miss him.”
I nodded. Wherever Uncle Press went, no matter how many lives he touched, he always made friends. With everybody but Saint Dane, that is.
“Just before he died,” I said, “he told me it was the way it was supposed to be. I have a tough time buying into that.”
“I know,” Patrick said softly. “But Press believed it. And sure as we’re standing here right now, I can’t remember a time when he was wrong about anything.”
I nodded.
“We need your help, Patrick,” Gunny said, getting to business. “I thought you could take us to that library place.”
“Absolutely. Hop in.”
Since this was my first visit to Third Earth, Gunny got in back and I sat next to Patrick. My new Traveler friend hit the accelerator and we zipped ahead.
“Have you ever been to the New York Public Library in Manhattan?” he asked me.
“I’ve been by it,” I answered. “The place with the big stone lions in front, right? Is it still there?”
“Yes. But, well, things have changed a little.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” I interrupted. Patrick laughed. “I’ve been to First and Second Earth. I hear you,” he said. “But there are still many links to the past. There’s a strong sentiment that history should be respected and honored. You’ll see what I mean.”
Saying that things had changed was the understatement of all time. New York City, as I remembered it, was gone.
This was once an area where every square inch was cemented over or built on. It was clogged with traffic and people and noise and air pollution. I’m not saying it was a bad place, but it was definitely a busy place. What New York had become in the year 5010 was very different.
We drove our silent car along a winding road through the country. Trees lined the nearly empty roadway. Off to either side were beautiful, green, rolling hills. Every so often I saw another of those odd, boxy buildings where people lived, but besides that you would think we were driving through Vermont. There were even a few farms with rows of lush fruit trees. When we passed one, I got the definite smell of apples.
“Where is everybody?” I asked.
“I’ll give you the short version,” Patrick said. “By the mid-twenty-first century, we were running out of natural resources. Pollution was worse than ever and overpopulation was beyond serious. Governments had to start getting smart or it would have been disaster. From then on, Earth functioned as one planet, as opposed to a group of countries with different agendas.”
“So they went underground?” I asked.
“That was one solution. It began with manufacturing and energy. There are power plants close to the center of the planet.”
“Unbelievable,” was all I could say. ”It took more than a thousand years, but by the year 4000, every commercial enterprise was moved underground. From factories to the Gap stores.”
“You still have the Gap?” I asked.
“I think that sweater you’re wearing came from there.”
I took a closer look at the sweater. It didn’t look much different than what I could have gotten on Second Earth. Good old Gap. Gotta love ‘em.
“The only businesses that stay above ground are farms and some solar power facilities,” Patrick explained. “Most of the big power sources are out West in areas that are unpopulated.”
“Makes sense,” I said.
“Then people began relocating underground as well. There are vast housing complexes just below the surface, all interconnected by a train system.”
“Isn’t that a little claustrophobic?” I said.
“Not as bad as it was on the surface. We were running out of space. That’s what prompted the other move. We not only went down, we went up.”
“Up?”
“Space colonies. It started with Space Station Alpha at the turn of the twenty-first century. A few larger orbiting space platforms soon followed. From there we could jump out farther. The next step was the moon. There were colonies of a thousand people each, living on the moon by the year 3000. Mars was next, followed by Venus and two of the moons of Jupiter. By last count there are one hundred and fifty-five million people living off-planet. Combine that with the fact that people finally started getting smart about family planning, and we finally achieved zero population growth.”
This was a future that could only be imagined by science fiction writers in my time. ”Are there colonies under the sea as well?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, that too,” answered Patrick. “But that’s not significant. Maybe only a few million people are in underwater habitats.”
“A few million? Not significant? Amazing.”
“I’ll tell you what was amazing,” Patrick said. “Once man began to pull back from the surface, nature began to take charge again. Pollution was reduced. The air and water gradually cleaned up. Forests reemerged, starting with the rain forests in South America. In a lot of ways it was like the world took a giant step backward.”
“But what happened to all the stuff? I mean, most of the buildings and roads are gone. Where did everything go?”
“It was all slowly dismantled. It was like a giant recycling project. Much of the material from the surface was retooled and used below to create the underground cities. There were billions of tons of material that couldn’t be re-used, like road surfaces. Not to mention all the material that had to be dug out to create the cities below. Most of that was broken down and used to create new terrain. The rolling hills you’re looking at were made from the streets and buildings of New York that were demolished. The whole idea was to heal the surface and preserve our resources for the future.”
“But some people still live on the surface?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. There are still cities all over the world. My guess is that it’s about half and half, surface dwellers and below grounders. But the below grounders spend a lot of time on the surface, too. People still take vacations to the ocean, or the mountains to ski, and pretty much do most of the things they did on Second Earth. If you want, we can go to a Yankees game.”
“There’s still a Yankee Stadium?” ”Of course,” Patrick answered with a smile. “There are some things that shouldn’t be changed.”
“It’s like…perfect,” was all I could say.
Patrick laughed. “No, nothing’s perfect. But it’s better than the direction man was headed.”
We rode the rest of the way to the library in silence. Of course I had a million more questions, but I wanted to stop thinking so much and take in the surroundings. Gunny was right. It was a good feeling. It took a while, but it seemed as if mankind had finally figured out the right way to get by.
We sped along the roadway, headed for Manhattan. The closer we got to the island, the more I realized what Patrick meant about preserving the past. Though most of the terrain had been returned to its natural state, there were still a lot of structures on the surface, like the bridges over the rivers that circled Manhattan.
And the Empire State Building was still there. But it now had a shiny, steel surface that made it look like high-tech Empire State. I wasn’t sure if it was the exact same building from my time, but it was definitely a huge reminder of the past. Very cool. In general, Manhattan was a little more built up than the Bronx. There were more streets and a lot more of those boxy apartment buildings, and it felt more like a city. Still, it was all very relaxed and civilized.
But something was wrong.
As I saw more of this reborn world, I began to get an uneasy feeling. I couldn’t put it into words just then because I wasn’t sure what it was, but I was feeling strangely unsettled. I didn’t say anything, but a nervous vibe was definitely tickling the back of my brain.
