Terry Pratchett - The Long Mars

He mused now, ‘How to do it? I suppose I could persuade as many trolls as I can find to come here and demolish the lot. Remove all trace of everything that was Happy Landings. The alternative would be to drop a small asteroid, right on top of City Hall. Cheap and easy for me to do, given the base I’ve got to work from.’

‘Really? What base? . . . If you’re mentioning asteroids I suppose you’re talking about outer space. Of course these days you’re in with the Oort cloud, as you put it.’

His grin could be surprisingly quirky. ‘My best jokes are like fine wine; they improve with age. But I wouldn’t have needed to work from the Oort cloud for this operation. A small near-Earth asteroid could have been deflected in for an impact in a matter of days, or less. Even hours if it was close enough. Of course, I’d have to make sure the area was clear, and put out warnings to any pioneers sniffing around for salvage, and set up some kind of system to help anybody who comes falling here, down through the soft places in that mysterious way, like Rich and George . . .’

She linked her arm with his. ‘Not today. Come on. Let’s get some breakfast, and take our lost boys home.’

But he didn’t move. He glanced over readings on the screens before him. ‘The boys are safely aboard, aren’t they?’

‘Yes. Still asleep in back. Why do you ask?’ Something beyond the window distracted her. ‘Lobsang?’

‘Yes?’

‘What’s that light in the sky?’

‘Agnes, I wasn’t quite honest with you. As soon as I picked up that message from the Next, I started making the preparations. I could easily have turned the rock away if it had seemed appropriate.’

‘That light that’s now falling from the sky – you’ve had a busy night, haven’t you? I’m supposed to be your conscience. What have you done, Lobsang? What have you done?’

To monitor the consequences, Lobsang had launched balloons, drone aircraft and even a couple of nanosats from the twain. And so Agnes saw it all.

In its last moments of existence the asteroid angled in across North America. It punched through Earth’s atmosphere in fractions of a second, blasting away the air, leaving a tunnel of vacuum where it passed.

And a boulder of ice and dust the size of a small house hit the ground.

The asteroid itself was utterly destroyed. The ground around the impact point was scoured by a blast of molten rock and superheated steam, by shock waves in the air, by flying debris, and then shattered by waves passing through the bedrock.

It was only a small asteroid strike, as such strikes go. The shallow crater would soon cool; there was no lingering radiation. Nobody was hurt. Nobody ever would be hurt because of this.

But Happy Landings was no more.

ACCORDING TO THE BARDO Thodol, in the sidpa bardo the spirit body could span continents in a moment. It could arrive at any place it desired in the time it took to reach out a hand.

And yet, Lobsang wondered, could even the spirit body reach into the human heart?

Some of the ideas behind the ‘Great Leap Sideways’ episode (chapter 15) featured in The Science of Discworld , by T.P. with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen (1999).

All errors and inaccuracies are of course our sole responsibility.

T.P.

S.B.

December 2013, Datum Earth

TERRY PRATCHETTis one of the world’s most popular authors. He is the winner of numerous literary prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, and he was awarded a knighthood in recognition of his services to literature. Pratchett lives in England.

STEPHEN BAXTERis an acclaimed, multiple-award-winning author whose many books include the Xeelee sequence, 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.terrypratchettbooks.com

www.stephen-baxter.com

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

BOOKS BY TERRY PRATCHETT

The Dark Side of the Sun

Strata

The Unadulterated Cat (illustrated by Gray Jolliffe)

Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman)

FOR YOUNG ADULTS

The Carpet People

Nation

The Bromilead Trilogy

Truckers

Diggers

Wings

The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy

Only You Can Save Mankind

Johnny and the Dead

Johnny and the Bomb

THE DISCWORLD® BOOKS

The Color of Magic

The Light Fantastic

Equal Rites

Mort

Sourcery

Wyrd Sisters

Pyramids

Guards! Guards!

Eric (illustrated by Josh Kirby)

Moving Pictures

Reaper Man

Witches Abroad

Small Gods

Lords and Ladies

Men at Arms

Soul Music

Feet of Clay

Interesting Times

Maskerade

Hogfather

Jingo

The Last Continent

Carpe Jugulum

The Fifth Elephant

The Truth

Thief of Time

Night Watch

Monstrous Regiment

Going Postal

Thud

Where’s My Cow? (illustrated by Melvyn Grant)

Making Money

Unseen Academicals

Snuff

The Last Hero (illustrated by Paul Kidby)

The Art of Discworld (with Paul Kidby)

The Streets of Ankh-Morpork (with Stephen Briggs)

The Discworld Companion (with Stephen Briggs)

The Discworld Mapp (with Stephen Briggs)

The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld (with Stephen Briggs)

Turtle Recall (with Stephen Briggs)

The Discworld Graphic Novels

The Color of Magic

The Light Fantastic

DISCWORLD FOR YOUNG ADULTS

The Amazing Maurice & His Educated Rodents

The Wee Free Men

A Hat Full of Sky

Wintersmith

I Shall Wear Midnight

The Illustrated Wee Free Men (illustrated by Stephen Player)

BOOKS BY STEPHEN BAXTER

Anti-Ice

The Time Ships

Traces

The Light of Other Days (with Arthur C. Clarke)

Evolution

The H-Bomb Girl

NORTHLAND

Stone Spring

Bronze Summer

Iron Winter

FLOOD

Flood

Ark

TIME’S TAPESTRY

Emperor

Conqueror

Navigator

Weaver

DESTINY’S CHILDREN

Coalescent

Exultant

Transcendent

Resplendent

A TIME ODYSSEY (WITH ARTHUR C. CLARKE)

Time’s Eye

Sunstorm

Firstborn

MANIFOLD

Manifold 1: Time

Manifold 2: Space

Manifold 3: Origin

Phase Space

MAMMOTH

Silverhair