The Long Earth

as they headed West once more that gathering pressure in his head had returned. He tried and failed to ignore it.

The two of them sat in silence. There was no mention of Lobsang’s departed friends the trolls, or of his offline episode. Joshua couldn’t read Lobsang’s mood. He wondered vaguely if he was lonely without the trolls, disappointed they had chosen to leave, frustrated that his research was evidently unfinished. It was faintly disturbing that Lobsang seemed to be becoming more unstable, more unpredictable. Overloaded by new experiences, perhaps.

After an hour of this Lobsang said, out of nowhere, ‘Do you ever think about the future, Joshua? I mean the far future?’

‘No. But I bet you do.’

‘The diffusion of humanity across the Long Earth will surely cause more than mere political problems. I can foresee a time where mankind is so dispersed across the multiplicity of worlds that there will be significant genetic differences at either end of the human hegemony. Perhaps there will have to be some kind of enforced cross- migration to make certain that mankind remains sufficiently homogeneous to be united…’

A burning forest below made the ship dance briefly on turbulent thermals.

‘I don’t think we need worry about that just yet, Lobsang.’

‘Oh, but I do worry, Joshua. And the more I see of the Long Earth, the more its scale impresses itself on me, and the more I fret. Mankind will be trying to run a galactic empire, effectively, on one ever-repeating planet…’

The airship shivered to a halt. The world below was shrouded in low cloud.

Sally wandered on to the deck, wrapped in a robe, her hair in a towel. ‘Really? Do we have to copy the mistakes of the past? Must there be Roman legions marching into endless new worlds?’

‘Good morning, Sally,’ Lobsang said. ‘I trust you are rested?’

‘The best thing about the beer at Happy Landings is its purity, like the very best German brews. No hangover.’

Joshua said, ‘Although you did your best to test that theory to destruction.’

She ignored him and looked around. ‘Why were we travelling so slowly? And why, in fact, have we stopped?’

Lobsang said, ‘We travelled slowly in order that you might sleep late, Sally. But also I took on board your criticism. It pays to inspect the small details, and so I have slowed the flight of our flying penis, as you so amusingly described it. Small details, such as the relic of an advanced civilization just underneath us. Which is why we have stopped.’

Joshua and Sally, electrified, exchanged a glance.

As the ship lost height they peered down through the haze.

‘My radar scanner is returning images through the cloud,’ Lobsang said, apparently staring into empty space. ‘I see a river valley, evidently long dry. A cultivated flood plain. No recognizable electromagnetic or other high technology. Signs of purposeful construction on the riverside — including a bridge, long ago broken. And rectangles on the ground, my friends, rectangles of brick or stone! But no signs of complex life surviving. I have no idea who the builders were. This may be a diversion from our main goal, but I am sure I speak for all of us when I say that we should make an initial survey of this phenomenon. Am I right?’

Again Joshua and Sally glanced at each other.

Sally asked, ‘What kind of weapons are we carrying?’

‘Weapons?’

‘Better safe than sorry.’

Lobsang said, ‘If you mean portable weapons we have various knives, lightweight but nevertheless very useful handguns, crossbows that fire a variety of darts tailored to the metabolism types we might expect to encounter, ranging in power from “ever so sleepy” to “instantly dead”, colour-coded, with Braille and pictogram options — I am rather proud of that piece of kit. Aboard the airship there are a number of projectile weapons under my command. If necessary, I can fabricate a small but very sneaky tank.’

Sally snorted. ‘We’re not going to need a tank. We’re dealing with an extinct civilization down there. Although extinct civilizations can leave behind nasty surprises.’

Lobsang was silent for a moment. ‘Of course. You are right. One must prepare appropriately. Please hold.’

He stood and went behind his blue door. Joshua and Sally exchanged another glance.

Then, after a couple of minutes, the door opened and the ambulant unit walked back on to the deck, wearing a fedora hat and carrying a holstered revolver and, of course, a bull whip.

Sally stared. ‘Well, Lobsang, you have now passed my personal Turing test!’

‘Thank you, Sally, I shall cherish that.’

Joshua was astonished. ‘You fabricated a bull whip in minutes? Braiding leather takes time. How did you do it?’

‘Much as I would like to give you the impression that I am omnipotent, I have to say that there was already a whip in the manifest. A simple and versatile device, requiring little maintenance. Well — shall we go exploring?’

They climbed down into a near desert. Joshua found himself in a broad valley, with a few ragged trees struggling for life on the floor, cliffs on either side honeycombed with caves. There was no sign of animal life, he observed, not so much as a desert mouse. He spotted the remnants of that broken bridge, and the rectangular scrapings on the ground.

But he instantly forgot about all that, because down the valley was a building: one sodding great big rectangle, not much from the air maybe, but from down here it looked like the headquarters of some international conglomerate with an aversion for windows.

They set off towards it, led by Lobsang in his hat.

‘Generally speaking,’ Lobsang pronounced, ‘reality having little sense of narrative, ancient sites are not heavy with swinging blades that decapitate, or rock panels that fold back to fire darts. It’s rather a shame, isn’t it? However, I have detected a textbook collection of enigmatic symbols. The valley cliffs appear to be of pale grey limestone, and have been extensively worked by creatures unknown. The symbology seems to have no relation to any known human script. Meanwhile the large building ahead is constructed of black blocks, basalt perhaps, not well dressed as masonry goes. No obvious entrances as seen from this side, but I believe that while we were still airborne I saw on the far side of the building something like a sloping face, a shadow — perhaps a way in.’ He added, deadpan, ‘Isn’t this fun? Any comments?’

Sally said, ‘Only that we are almost a mile from the thing and don’t have your eyesight, Lobsang. Pity us poor mortals, will you? Why did you land us so far away?’

‘I beg your pardon, both of you. I thought it might be sensible to approach cautiously.’

‘It is his standard routine, Sally,’ Joshua said.

They walked on, with the ship drifting behind them. There were slopes of scree at the base of the canyon walls, and here and there between the sparse trees patches of lichen, moss and scrubby grass had managed to find a footing. But still no animal life; there wasn’t even anything like a buzzard in the sky. This was an inhospitable place, a place where nothing had happened for a very long time, and went on not happening now. And it was hot; the sunlight, breaking through the clouds, reflected from the walls, and the arid canyon already felt like a solar furnace. This didn’t faze Lobsang, who was striding along as if training for the Olympics. Joshua, though, was hot, dusty, increasingly ill at ease.

They reached the looming building. Sally said, ‘Good grief, will you look at that thing? You don’t realize how big it is until you get close!’

And Joshua looked up, and up, at the building’s sheer face. It wasn’t exactly a miracle of architecture — it was unimpressive, in fact, save for its sheer scale. The blocks of black basalt-like rock from which it had been constructed had been roughly worked to fit, but were not of a uniform size. Even from here you could see gaps and imperfections, some of which had here and there been naturally mortared with what looked like bird guano and nests, but even that had evidently been a long time ago.

Sally said, ‘Nice architecture. Somebody ordered “big and heavy and last for ever”, and got it. OK, let’s walk around to the entrance and dodge the rolling rock ball—’