The Long Mars

‘Well, that was benevolent,’ Mac said wryly.

‘And then, in the middle of all this, our twain showed up in the sky . . .’

After making the crew of the Armstrong welcome, the elders of Happy Landings made a request of the Captain. They knew the ship was going on, further West, into the deep Long Earth; its mission was a kind of pre-Yellowstone precursor of Maggie’s own. They wanted Stringer to take David and the rest to – well, some place like this. A world so far out in the reaches of the Long Earth that they could never physically walk back. A permanent exile. Some day, perhaps, they could be brought back home, if they repented, reformed, or if some way could be found to contain them safely. In the meantime, the rest of humanity would be safe.

Maggie frowned. ‘How would the elders even know such a place as this existed? The Armstrong I was the first to go out there.’

Sam Allen smiled. ‘They deduced it. They proved to themselves it had to exist, that the kind of waves of deadly worlds and such that you found must be out there. They aren’t as smart as these kids, but smart enough. And they were right, weren’t they? Well, Captain Stringer agreed. I think he figured that if he couldn’t make the exile idea work, he could always ship ’em back to the Low Earths, and deal with them there.’

‘But it all went wrong,’ Mac said gloomily.

The five of them had seduced half the crew and bamboozled the rest. They soon broke out of their secure quarters, and found ways to bypass the ship’s controls.

‘And the damnedest thing is that some of us, the crew, were helping them,’ Sam Allen said. ‘You wouldn’t believe it if you saw it, Captain. They can read you like a book – hell, before they rose up I once tried playing poker with ’em and they cleaned me out. Their men preyed on our women, and the women on our men. It was like they could read your mind. And they set everything up so smart, when they rose up they had got hold of almost everything before we even knew what they were doing. Well, Captain Stringer, and me, and some of the others, we organized to fight back. That was when the killing started.’

Mac grunted. ‘That’s what you get when you breed little Napoleons. So they started two wars before they were twenty-one years old.’

Allen went on, ‘This time they won. David and his gang, and his followers among the crew – they won. We’d gone further out than this world – I’ll give you the reference, Captain. There are more folks awaiting pick-up out there, more survivors of the Armstrong . . .’

David, in control of the vessel, had ordered a sweep of the ship, rounded up any survivors among the crew. Then he’d had them put off the ship. Even those who had supported the Happy Landers were dumped; they could not be trusted.

All but Sam Allen, who, when he saw how things were going, had hidden away, in the interior of the Armstrong’s vast envelope.

The rest of it was simply told. The Armstrong had been turned back. David and the others, living it up in the Captain’s quarters, began to lay plans on how to make a second, successful takeover attempt at Happy Landings. How they would then march on the Lower Earths, even the Datum itself. Allen just hid out.

As soon as the Armstrong was isolated from the stranded surviving crew on the one hand, and from the worlds of humanity on the other, Allen had emerged from hiding and caused a wrecking crash – here.

‘I had no plan beyond that point, Captain Kauffman. Figured I didn’t need one – I probably wouldn’t survive the crash, or for long afterwards even if I did. After we were down and stranded they debated killing me.’ Now he shuddered, showing emotion for the first time. ‘Not out of revenge, you understand. They did it coldly, Captain. Logically. Like I was a broken-down horse to be disposed of, or a dog gone wild. Like my whole self, my life up to that point – my wife and kid, dammit – didn’t matter at all. They really do think they’re different from us, Captain. Above us. Well, maybe they are, for all I know. But they kept me alive, in the end. Put me to work. Thought I might yet have knowledge they could use. And maybe they had some plan to use me as a hostage, if the worst came to the worst. Like I told you, they think things through every which way. I had to build that cage in the woods myself, the cage I was to be kept in.’

‘With your initials on it,’ Yue-Sai said.

‘Oh, yes. And I marked other stuff they made me build for them. They may be smart, but they ain’t all-seeing. I knew somebody would come by some day, seeking the Armstrong. And so did they. That’s why they didn’t attempt to repair the ship, or rig up environment suits so they could walk out, or take their farming seriously, or anything like that. They knew there would be a follow-up mission. You were to be their ride home, I guess. All they had to do was wait for you – and take you over, like they took the Armstrong I.’

Mac turned on David. ‘So that’s the story. How do you plead?’

David frowned. ‘Is this suddenly a trial? Do you believe this man’s drivel?’

‘Every word of it.’

‘I plead duty, then. Duty to my kind, and yours.’

My kind. That phraseology chilled Maggie. She murmured to Mac, ‘They seem – passive.’

He grunted. ‘Not passive. Just calm. Some of the accused at Nuremberg were like this. He’s confident. He believes he’s in control, still – or will be soon.’

David said now, ‘You need not take us back to Happy Landings. Take us back to your worlds – the Low Earths. We have learned of Yellowstone, from your crew. Let us help rebuild the Datum Earth. Our leadership, our wisdom, would be invaluable at such a time. Indeed, from what we have heard from your crew it sounds as if some of us have been at work there already, quietly.’ He smiled. ‘It is our duty to help you. It is your duty to allow us to do so, Captain.’

Maggie shook her head. ‘You’ll have to show me your study on Hitler some time, Mac. David, you really are good. There’s about twenty per cent of me longs to agree with you.’

‘Then let yourself agree. We offer you order. Security.’

‘Hmm. The security of the sheep in the fold? The order of the serf under the lord of the manor, like poor Sam Allen here? No, thanks.

‘I think this is the safest place for you, for now; if you’d been able to break out of here you’d have done it by now. So we’re going to complete our mission. We’ll collect the Armstrong crew en route. We’ll call back here on the return leg. Maybe we’ll take you home, if I think we can do it securely . . . Well, that’s my plan. Whereas you’re confident you can bring me down, aren’t you, if you get the chance? Like poor Stringer. Well, you won’t get the chance, not from me. If I’m not absolutely certain I can have you contained I’ll just leave you here, and kick this particular ticking bomb upstairs when I get back to USLONGCOM. I’ll leave a team to keep you under guard. Mac, work with Nathan and McKibben to pick a bunch of ornery souls who won’t fall for their blarney. Sam, you can advise them on that.’

‘Yes, Captain.’

‘For sure you’re going to face charges in federal courts – sabotage, murder. Whether or not this place is under the US Aegis, Happy Landings certainly is, and so was the Armstrong.’ She stood up.

David said smoothly, ‘But I have not yet finished speaking, Captain.’

Even now, the tone of casual command. ‘But I’m done listening to you. OK, Sam, you come with me. You’ve done a hell of a job here. Di

‘Good idea, Captain.’

‘Hmm. Why not book us all in? All who’ve had contact with these characters. Yes, me too. I feel like I need a detox of the soul. Now let’s get out of here.’