The Long Utopia

49

ROCKY, INCREASINGLY APPREHENSIVE, was taken, with Sally and Roberta, to the local corporate headquarters of the Long Earth Trading Company.

From the outside the LETC HQ was nothing exciting, a single-storey block of timber and concrete – like a Cape Canaveral bunker, built for safety as with all human-habitable structures anywhere near the beanstalk site. But its pale concrete walls bore the LETC name and logo picked out in chrome: a line of stylized figures carrying a huge tree trunk on their shoulders, crossing between shadowy stepwise worlds. This was how the company had started out, hauling Long Earth timber to the Datum on human backs. Now it was building a space elevator.

Once inside, Rocky was led to a kind of conference room, with a big, slanting picture window facing the construction site, the beanstalk itself. Massive metal blinds were poised to roll down over the windows in case of any disaster.

Sally Linsay, still wearing her traveller’s hat, grinned at Rocky and sat down. ‘Come on, kid, you sit by me. You want some water?’

‘What are we doing in here?’

Roberta said, ‘Mr Russo of LETC loaned us the facility, so we could talk in private, about our plan – about Stan. And without surveillance.’

‘What does Mr Russo care?’

‘Frankly, Rocky – and I’m sure you know this already – the corporation don’t want him around here. He’s too much trouble. And so when Sally Linsay and I turned up saying we wanted to take him away—’

Sally glared at her. ‘We never met before today, before we were both sent here. But I know you. Roberta Golding. Originally from Happy Landings. Just fifteen, you were the only western student to travel with the Chinese on that mission to Earth East Twenty Million. Before Yellowstone you were invited to the White House as some kind of intern, and next thing you know you’re a guest on the President’s Science Advisory Council. And since then—’

‘Since then,’ Roberta said, ‘I have joined my own people. No, Sally, we never met before. But we did work together before, through Joshua Valienté. Saving hundreds of Next children from their internment on Hawaii. Whatever you think of us, we will always be grateful to you for that.’

Sally didn’t look to Rocky like she did gratitude very well. ‘And here we are working together again. Funny old world.’

‘But you understand why, Sally,’ Roberta said. ‘You have from the beginning, more clearly than any of us. That’s why you sent Lobsang to New Springfield. You sensed something wrong there. And why you offered to help now—’

‘You say he’s a problem.’ Rocky glared at Roberta. ‘Stan. For you maybe, for LETC. He’s no problem for me.’

‘But he is your problem, Rocky,’ Roberta said gently. ‘I know it. I’ve seen you with him, remember. You’re the same age. You’ve known him since childhood. You came all the way to the Grange with him, and back. And you’ve stuck with him, while this – circus – has blown up around him and his teachings, and his other old friends have faded away. That’s true, isn’t it?’

‘Only his mother, and me. Even his father won’t see him any more.’

‘For you it’s personal. And that’s why you’re here, why we need your help. You want to protect him – I can see that – from these acolytes who are attracted to him, who want to use him for their own purposes.’

Sally snorted. ‘Just as you want to use him, for your purposes.’

Roberta showed no irritation. ‘What we want above all is for Stan to find his true destiny. That’s the best way we can help him. And that is not by letting him rabble-rouse the workers here. The authorities are growing concerned about the situation here, Rocky. I mean the government, state and federal. Homelands Security. Also the police. Here you have an agitator threatening the stability of the industrial operation, and the security of the high-energy, high-risk facility at the centre of it – not to mention jeopardizing the tax revenues to be garnered from it, now and in the future. If LETC has him shipped out of here they’ll find a sympathetic ear in government.’

Sally said, ‘“A sympathetic ear.” What the hell does that mean? All the kid’s doing is talking. What happened to free speech in this country?’

Roberta smiled. ‘Some would say it got repealed when President Cowley came to power.’ She turned to Rocky. ‘But all these authorities do have a point. You have to understand. Stan is still only nineteen. Suppose he were to continue down this path, as he matures further? He is no ordinary preacher; he is a Next. Human culture may not be – ready – for his message. Surely you can imagine the damage he could do—’

‘Yeah, you trotted out that line before,’ Sally said coldly. ‘But I’m starting to suspect you Next have another agenda in play here, don’t you? Stan Berg thinks we should work together. You brainiacs, us dim-bulbs. He says we share a deeper common humanity, and together we should build on that. What a naive young man he is,’ she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. ‘What a challenge to your pride—’

Rocky blurted, ‘I can see what you’re really doing here. All of you.’ They broke off and looked at him. ‘You all want rid of him. The company, so they can build their beanstalk. The government, so he stops stirring people up. You Next, so he stops driving us out of your control. You’re ganging up on him, combining your interests, getting him out of the way. It suits you all to get rid of him, whatever is going on in this distant place, in New Springfield. And you want me to help you take him away?’

Sally covered Rocky’s hand with hers, an unexpected touch of humanity. ‘It’s not just that, Rocky. Yes – all these characters want to see him out of the way. It’s how prophets are usually treated, after all. But there’s a kernel of truth under the manipulation. We really do need him.’

‘We?’

‘All of mankind.’ She smiled, a twisted grin. ‘Both flavours.’ She glanced at Roberta. ‘No more arguments, no more manipulation, no more justification. Let’s just tell him.’

And so Sally and Roberta, slowly, steadily, with no dramatics or visual aids, tried to tell Rocky the story of Earth West 1,217,756, of New Springfield. And of the creatures called silver beetles, and what they were doing to that world – and of the threat they might pose to the whole Long Earth, and a scattered mankind.

When it was done, Rocky felt overwhelmed. ‘I don’t see how Stan can help you with this. What’s he going to do, preach at these – beetles?’

Roberta said now, ‘Rocky, you’ll have to trust us.’

‘Trust you? I don’t trust any of you Next.’ He faced Sally. ‘But you. If I ask you straight questions, will you tell me the truth?’

She nodded gravely. ‘If I can.’

‘Is this necessary, really? Does this – closing up – have to be done?’

‘Yes. Yes, I believe it does.’

‘Does it have to be Stan? Why?’

Sally spread her hands. ‘It’s hard to explain. A sufficiently advanced stepper isn’t just a traveller. He, she, interacts with the way the Long Earth itself is put together … And Stan is the most advanced stepper I ever came across. It’s as if he understands the Long Earth better than anybody before or since. And that’s what makes him so powerful.’

Roberta said with dogged patience, ‘It’s all theory, frankly. One point, however, is that Sally here is going to have to work with him on this. Coach him.’

Sally grunted. ‘More like, we’ll be learning together …’

‘Why not just ask for his help? Why this press-ganging?’

There was an awkward silence. Sally said at last, ‘Because, Rocky, we can’t afford for him to refuse.’

‘And if Stan does this – if I give Stan up to you – will he survive?’

Sally sighed. ‘No,’ she said. ‘No, he won’t survive.’

Rocky tried to take it all in. ‘Will he be alone?’

‘No,’ Sally said firmly. ‘I can promise you that. Personally.’ And she took hold of Rocky’s hand.