The Long War

And meanwhile, in turn, after years of relative appeasement, in recent dealings with the Datum Joshua had detected an increasing unpleasantness about the federal government’s regard for its new young colonies. There were even mutterings back in Datum USA that the colonists were in some way parasitical, even though all their residual holdings back home had long since been liquidated. All this was no doubt linked to Cowley’s push for re-election this year; having tacked to the centre during his first run for the White House—a necessity in the aftermath of the Madison incident, when much of the population had been saved from a nuclear attack by stepping away from ground zero—some commentators suggested he was now veering back to his original support base, the virulently anti-stepper Humanity First movement. The United States had long been used to being suspicious of every other country on the planet, and was now becoming suspicious of itself.

Joshua, looking at the sunlit sky through his window, sighed. How far could this go? It was well known that Cowley was putting together some kind of twain-based military arm to go out into the Long Earth. Seeping through the outernet there had been darker rumours, or maybe disinformation, of sterner actions to come.

Could there even be war? Most wars of the past had been over land and wealth, one way or another. Given the literally endless riches of the Long Earth, surely there was no longer any reason for war. Was there? But there were precedents, when the repressive taxation and other policies of a central government had led to its colonies agitating for independence…

A Long War?

Joshua gazed at the twain still mysteriously hanging over the town. Waiting to take him away, to participate in the affairs of the wider world once more.

He wandered out to look for Bill Chambers, the town’s secretary, accountant, best hunter, excellent cook, and amazingly good liar, although this latter skill threw minor suspicions on his claim to be a distant heir to the Blarney estate in Ireland.

Bill was about Joshua’s age, and had once been a buddy at the Home, as much as a recluse like Joshua had had any buddies at all. A few years back Joshua had welcomed Bill, when he’d shown up at Hell-Knows-Where, with open arms. When Joshua had returned from his journey with Lobsang and discovered his unwelcome celebrity—not helped by the fact that Lobsang himself, along with Sally, had retreated to the shadows, leaving Joshua exposed—he’d found himself turning increasingly to people he’d known before he was “famous’, and who therefore were discreet and tended not to demand anything of him.

In some ways Bill hadn’t changed. He had an Irish background, and he liked to play that up when he got the chance. Also he drank a lot more than he had as a teenager. Or rather, even more.

Right now, Bill was ambling to the lumber yard when he spotted Joshua. “Top, Mister Mayor.”

“Yeah, top to you too. Listen…” Joshua told Bill about his need to go to the Datum. “Helen’s insisting on coming, with Dan. Well, it’s not a bad idea. But I could do with some backup.”

“The Datum, is it? Full of hoodlums and thugs and other bad lads. Ah, sure, I’m your man.”

“Will Morningtide let you go?”

“She’s busy making tallow in the yard right now. I’ll ask her later.” He coughed, his best attempt at delicacy. “There is the question of the fare.”

Joshua looked up at the waiting twain. “I have a feeling none of us will be paying for this trip, buddy.”

Bill whooped. “Fair play to you. In that case I’ll book us the finest ride I can find. And you’ve got your own release forms signed by Helen, have ye?”

Joshua sighed. Another hard scene waiting in his future. “I will do, Bill. I will do.”

They walked together.

“How was your lad’s show, by the way?”

“Jumped the shark.”

“Oh, was it that bad?”

“No, Captain Ahab really did jump the shark. Big set piece of the second act. Pretty impressive on one water-ski…”

5

Helen Vlienté, née Green, remembered very well the moment when relations between the Datum and its far-flung children across the Long Earth had first soured.

She’d been a young teenager, still living at Reboot, on Earth West 101,754. She’d kept a journal throughout those years, all the way from her childhood in Datum Madison, their move to Madison West 5, and then her family’s trek across a hundred thousand worlds to found a new town in an empty world, a town they had hammered together themselves, starting with nothing but their own hands and minds and hearts. And their reward from Datum America—and they had still thought of themselves as Americans—had been rejection. That had been the moment, in retrospect, even more than her mother’s illness, when Helen’s mild-mannered father Jack Green had completed his own inner journey from Datum-raised software engineer, to sturdy colonist, to firebrand radical thinker.

Twelve years ago. She had been fifteen years old…

Crisis. The still-young town of Reboot had split apart.