Christopher Priest - The Inverted World

Sturner has been forward and warns of a marshy region some miles ahead. Already we have sent other teams to north-east and northwest to determine the extent of this marsh. If it is not too wide we can deviate from due north for a time, and make up the difference later.

Following this entry were two pages of the theory Blayne had tried to explain to me. I read it through twice, and each time it made slightly better sense. I left it and read on. Destaine wrote:

Chen has provided the inventory of fissionable materials I requested. All of it waste! With the translat generator, no more need! Said nothing to L. I enjoy the arguments with him… why curtail them now? Future generations will be warm!

Today’s outside temperature: — 23°C. Still we move north.

Later:

Trouble with one of the caterpillar tracks. T. has advised me to authorize stripping them. Says that Sturner reports from the north that he has found what appears to be the remains of a railway line. Some incredible scheme to run the establishment along the tracks somehow. T. says it would work O.K.

Later:

Decided to create a guild system. Pleasant archaism that everyone approves. A way of structuring the organization without drastically changing the way the place is run, but I think it might impose a form to the establishment that will survive us all.

Caterpillar-track stripping proceeding well. Has caused a long delay. Hope we can catch up.

Natasha gave birth today: boy.

Doctor S. gave me some more pills. Says I’m working too hard, and have to rest. Later, maybe.

Towards the end of the Directive, a more didactic tone emerged:

What I have written here shall be privy only to those who venture outside; no need for those inside the establishment to be reminded of our dreadful prospects. We are organized enough: we have sufficient mechanical power and human initiative to maintain us safely in this world for ever more. Those who follow must learn the hard way of what will happen if we fail to exploit either our power or our initiative, and this knowledge will suffice to keep both working to the maximum.

Someone from Earth must find us one day, God willing. Until then our maxim is survival, at any cost.

From now, it has been agreed and is hereby directed:

That the ultimate responsibility lies in the hands of the Council. These men shall navigate the establishment, and be known as Navigators. Their number, which shall at no time fall below twelve, shall be elected from the senior members of the following guilds:

Track Guild: who shall be responsible for the maintenance of the rail-way along which the establishment runs;

Traction Guild: who shall be responsible for the maintenance of the motive power of the establishment;

Future Guild: who shall be responsible for surveying the lands that lie in future time of our establishment;

Bridge-Builders Guild: who shall be responsible for safe conduit over physical obstacles, should no other way be available.

Further, should it be necessary to create other guilds in the future, no guild might be created except by unanimous vote of the Council.

(signed)

Francis Destaine

The major bulk of the Directive consisted of short entries, dated in a sequence that ran from 23 February 1987 to 19 August 2023. The final signed statement was dated 24 August 2023.

There were two further sheets. One was a codicil, marking the formation of the Barter Guild and the Militia Guild. These were undated. The other sheet was a graph drawn by hand. It showed the hyperbola produced by the equation y=1/x and beneath it were some mathematical signs which I could not understand.

Such was Destaine’s Directive.

Outside the city, work on the tracks was proceeding well.

When I joined the track-crews, most of the rail now behind the city had been taken up, and already more crews were relaying them from the head of the pass down the long shallow valley towards the woodland at the bottom. The atmosphere had improved; helped, I think, by the successful and undisturbed winching of the city away from the river. Additionally, the gradient for the next section was in our favour. The cables and stays would have to be used, because the gradient was not sufficiently steep to overcome the effects of the centrifugal force that could be felt even here.

It was a strange sensation to stand on the ground by the city, and see it stretching out in each direction in an overall horizontal way. I knew now that this apparent levelness was no such thing; at optimum, which on the vast scale of this world was not substantially distant, the ground was actually tilted at a full forty-five degree gradient towards north. Was this, though, any different from living on the surface of a spherical world like Earth planet? I remembered a book I had read in the crèche, a book written in and about a place called England. The book was written for young children, and described the life of a family who were planning to emigrate to a place called Australia. The children in the book had believed that where they were going they would be upside-down, and the author had gone to some pains to describe how all points on a sphere appeared to be upright because of gravitational effects. So it was on this world. I had been both north and south of optimum, and always the ground appeared to be level.

I enjoyed the labours on the tracks. It was good once more to be using my body, and not give myself time to think about the other distractions.

One loose end remained stubbornly untied: Victoria.

I needed to see her, however distasteful such an interview might be, and I wanted to settle the situation soon. Until I had spoken to her, whatever the outcome, I would not feel at ease in the city.

I was now settled in my acceptance of the physical environment of the city. Very few questions remained to be answered. I understood how and why the city was moved, I was aware of the many subtle dangers that lay in wait should the city ever cease its northwards journey. I knew that the city was vulnerable and, at this very time, in imminent danger from renewed attacks, but that I felt would be resolved soon.

But none of these could settle the personal crisis of becoming alienated from a girl I had loved in the space of what seemed to me to be a few days.

As a guildsman I discovered I was allowed to attend meetings of the Council of Navigators. I could not take an active part, but no aspect of the session was closed to me as a spectator.

I was told that a meeting was to be held, and decided to attend it.

The Navigators met in a small hall set just behind the main Navigation quarters. It was disarmingly informal; I had anticipated much ceremony and air of occasion, but the fact was that the meetings were crucial to the efficient operation of the whole city, and there was a businesslike air as the Navigators came into the chamber and took their seats round a table.

Two Navigators I knew by name, Olsson and McMahon, were present, and thirteen others.

The first matter to be discussed was the military situation outside. One of the Navigators stood up, introduced himself as Navigator Thorens, and gave a succinct report of the current situation.

The Militia had established that there were still at least a hundred men in the neighbourhood of the city, and most of them were armed. According to military intelligence, their morale was low as many losses had been suffered; this contrasted sharply, the Navigator said, with the morale of our troops, who felt they could contain any further development. They were now in possession of twenty-one rifles captured from the tooks, and although there was not much ammunition, some had been captured and the Traction guild had devised a method of manufacturing small quantities.