The Long Cosmos (46 page)
Authors: Terry Pratchett
âPleased to meet you,' Lobsang said.
âGood firm handshake,' Ken said approvingly. He turned to Nelson with a grin. âIs he alive, would you say, Rev?'
Nelson considered. â
He
thinks he's alive, and that's good enough for me.'
Lobsang nodded. âWait here.'
He vanished.
And returned, holding the hand of a rather bewildered-looking little boy, heavily bundled up for warmth, even though the late autumn day was mild. Then the boy grinned, pulled away from Lobsang and ran forward. âGranddad!'
Nelson bent stiffly, holding out his arms. âTroy! Oh, my word . . .'
Lobsang said, âI told you I'd bring him home.'
âI hope it wasn't too much trouble.'
Lobsang smiled. âJust a walk in the park.'
T
HE PRAIRIE WAS
flat, green, rich, with scattered stands of oaks. The sky above was blue as generally advertised. On the horizon there was movement, like the shadow of a cloud: a vast herd of animals on the move.
And the baby was alone.
Alone, except for the universe. Which poured in, and spoke to her with an infinity of voices. And behind it all, a vast Silence.
Her crying settled to a gurgle. The Silence was comforting.
There was a kind of sigh, a breathing-out. Joshua was back in the green, under the blue sky.
On the move, âdown' was always the direction of Datum Earth. Down to the bustling worlds. Down to the millions of people. âUp' was the direction of the silent worlds and the clean air of the High Meggers.
But to Joshua Valienté, in the end, down was home.
Leaning on a stick, one prosthetic hand stiff, Joshua scooped up the baby, wrapped her up in a ragged old silver survival blanket that smelled of troll, and cradled her in his arms. Her little face was oddly calm. âHelen,' he said. âYour name is Helen Sofia Valienté.'
A soft pop, and they were gone.
On the plain, nothing remained but the grass, and the sky.
I'm grateful once again to our good friends Dr Christopher Pagel, owner of the Companion Animal Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, and his wife Juliet Pagel, for, among other things, a discussion on a happily serendipitous observation that Ellie Arroway of
Contact
appears to have been their neighbour, and an insightful reading of the text. And I'm grateful too to Professor Ian Stewart for his stimulating speculations on the peculiar forests of Earth West 230,000,000, as well as another very helpful reading. All errors and inaccuracies are of course my sole responsibility.
S.B.
December 2015, Datum Earth
S
IR
T
ERRY
P
RATCHETT
, OBE, was the author of more than seventy books, including the internationally bestselling Discworld series of novels. In January 2009 Pratchett was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his services to literature. Sir Terry, who lived in England, died in 2015 at the age of sixty-six.
www.terrypratchettbooks.com
S
TEPHEN
B
AXTER
is an acclaimed, multiple-award-winning author whose many books include the Xeelee Sequence series, the Time Odyssey trilogy (written with Arthur C. Clarke), and
The Time Ships
, a sequel to H. G. Wells's classic
The Time Machine
. He lives in England.
www.stephen-baxter.com
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Cover design by R. Shailer/TW
Cover photographs: space background and planet Earth
image © NASA, landscape and figures © Shutterstock
Specifications of the USN space vessel
Uncle Arthur
illustrated by Richard Shailer
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE LONG COSMOS
. Copyright © 2016 by Terry and Lyn Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Published simultaneously in Great Britain by Doubleday, an imprint of Transworld Publishers, a division of Random House Group, Ltd.
FIRST U.S. EDITION
ISBN: 978-0-06-229737-2
EPub Edition JUNE 2016 ISBN 9780062297396
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