‘Of course nowadays the scientific types among us are lining up behind the idea that there is some physical singularity, some kind of hole in space, that leads people here. As opposed to the old thinking that this place is at the centre of some kind of mysterious curse — or possibly, in the circumstances, a
‘Anyhow here we are, marooned, as it were, although I daresay no shipwrecked mariner ever arrived on a more hospitable shore. We can hardly complain. From what we hear from recent arrivals, our older folk are generally glad they missed out on most aspects of the twentieth century.’ Spencer sighed. ‘Some get here thinking that they have landed in heaven. Most arrive disorientated and sometimes fearful. But everybody who arrives here is welcomed. From newcomers we can learn about how all the other Earths are going. And we welcome any new information, concepts, ideas and talents; engineers, doctors and scientists are especially welcome. But I am pleased to say that these days we are growing our own culture, as it were.’
‘Fascinating,’ Lobsang murmured, as he carefully spooned chowder between artificial lips. ‘An indigenous human civilization, spontaneously forming in the reaches of the Long Earth.’
‘And a new way of travelling,’ Joshua said, feeling faintly stunned at this latest conceptual leap. ‘A way to cut out the step-by-step plod.’ In fact, he thought, thinking of Sally, thinking of the ‘stuttering’ she had mentioned,
‘Yes. The Long Earth is evidently even stranger than it seems; we may learn a lot about its connectivity by studying this place. But it remains to be seen how useful this new phenomenon will be.’
‘Useful?’
‘Less so if it is like a fixed wormhole, a tunnel between two fixed points…’
‘Like the rabbit hole to Wonderland,’ Joshua said.
‘We must learn all we can.’
Sally, meanwhile, was watching Lobsang eat, her mouth gaping. ‘Joshua … it
He grinned. ‘Wouldn’t it look odder if he didn’t, in this company? Nobody else is bothered. We’ll discuss it later.’
Spencer leaned back comfortably in his chair. ‘We know Sally very well, of course. Now, tell me about yourselves, please, gentlemen. The world is evidently changing, and the change brings your wonderful zeppelin! You first, Lobsang. You’ll forgive us our curiosity about your exotic presence particularly…’
For the first time in Joshua’s experience, here in this crowded, sociable place, and with trolls watching them like an audience at a cabaret, it seemed that Lobsang was flustered. This was one of those moments when Joshua genuinely couldn’t tell if Lobsang really was ultimately a human, or just an incredibly smart simulation that was adept at mimicking such subtle human aspects as being embarrassed.
Lobsang cleared his throat. ‘To begin with — I am a human soul, though my body is artificial. You are familiar, perhaps, with the concept of prosthetics? The use of artificial limbs, organs to sustain life… Consider me as an extreme case.’
Spencer looked totally unfazed. ‘Amazing! What a step forward. At my age you do begin to wonder why the universe places intelligence in such fragile receptacles as our human bodies. May I ask if you have any special talents to share with us? That’s what we ask all newcomers, so please don’t be offended.’
Joshua groaned inwardly, anticipating Lobsang’s reaction to that.
‘Special talents? It would be easier to list the exceptions. I am not very good at watercolours, as yet…’ He glanced around curiously. ‘Clearly this is an unusual community, with an unusual background of development. What about industry? You have iron, evidently. Steel? Good. Lead? Copper? Tin? Gold? Wireless radio? You have surely passed the telegraph stage. In addition, printing, if you have the paper—’
Spencer nodded. ‘Yes, but only handmade, I’m afraid. Since arrivals in Elizabethan times. We made improvements, of course, but we haven’t chanced upon an artisan who knows much about paper manufactory for a considerable time. We have to rely on the talents of those who drift here, haphazardly.’
‘If you can provide me with ferrous metals, I will fabricate for you a flatbed printing press utilizing waterpower — if you are familiar with waterpower?’
Spencer smiled. ‘We’ve had water mills since the age of the Romans.’
Again Joshua was struck by the depth of time represented here. Sally looked amused at his reaction.
‘In that case I can construct a robust alternator. Electrical current. Mayor, I can leave you an encyclopaedia of discoveries in medicine and technology to the present day — although I would advise you to take it a bit at a time. Future shock, you see.’
The crowd around them in the hall, drawn by Lobsang’s strangeness, murmured a general approval at this.
But Sally, who had been listening impatiently, said, ‘It’s very kind of you, Lobsang, but all this Robert Heinlein stuff will have to wait. We are here because of
‘Ah. The troll migration? Alas, Sally is right. There is clearly cause for concern. It is a slow-burning problem, you might say, but, we believe, it has serious repercussions across the worlds — the Long Earth, as you call it. But even that will wait for tomorrow, Sally. Let us go and enjoy the sunshine.’ He led them out of the building. ‘You are very welcome here, I can’t emphasize that enough. You’ll see that we embrace scatterlings from all the families of mankind. Sally is pleased to call this place Happy Landings, which we find amusing. But to us it is just home. There are always spare sleeping places in City Hall, but if you prefer privacy all the family cabins are roomy. You are welcome, welcome…’
38
THE VISITORS WALKED through smiling crowds.
Joshua thought the layout of the place was unusual, and the architecture. There seemed to be no plan to the road system; it was a tangle of criss-crossing lanes that wandered off into the forest, as if it had just evolved that way. And the buildings were heaped up on often very ancient-looking foundations. This really did have the feel of a place that had grown slowly but continuously for a very long time, and so was layered with structures one on top of the other, like a tree trunk’s rings. But there did seem to be a preponderance of relatively modern buildings overlaying a very ancient core, as if people had arrived in greater numbers in recent times, the last couple of centuries perhaps. Which was just when, he supposed, the population back on Datum Earth had started to grow fast, no doubt sending a larger flood of scatterlings to Happy Landings.
Walking by the river, Joshua began to get a sense of how people lived here. All along the bank there were racks of drying fish — mostly salmon-like fish, big healthy specimens, cleanly filleted — and more hanging inside the dwellings, some smoked. Nobody seemed to be working terribly hard, but he saw weirs in the river, traps, nets, and a few workers mending hooks, lines, harpoons. Though there were in fact a few cultivated fields, he learned, further out from the centre — mostly growing potatoes as an emergency food store, and to power the Steppers of those few visitors who used the boxes — the river provided much of what sustained the people here. During the annual salmon runs, so the friendly locals told him in a variety of bizarre accents, the whole population, human and troll, would come down to the river and harvest migrating fish that swam so thick the river water lapped up over the banks. There were evidently other kinds of fish, and Joshua saw great middens of the shells of clams and oysters. The forest was generous too, as Joshua could tell from baskets of berries, acorns, hazelnuts, as well as haunches of animals he could not identify.
‘This is why nobody farms here,’ Sally murmured to him. ‘Or hardly anybody. Nobody
But there were trolls everywhere, and that was something you would
