SM Stirling, Conquistador (New York, 2004), Interlude, pp. 25-33.
We have discussed:
(i) descriptive passages that appeal to three or more of the senses;
(ii) vivid descriptions of food.
Of course, (i) and (ii) can be combined. Food is seen, smelled and tasted. It is sometimes heard, bubbling, sizzling, crackling etc, and can even be felt if eaten by hand. Further, it is eaten in settings as diverse as restaurants and campfires that can be described simultaneously with the food.
John Rolfe has taken four other men through the Gate to the Other Side, a North America uninvaded by white men - until now. Rolfe will call this alternative America the Commonwealth of New Virginia. The men are:
his first cousins, Robert and Alan Fitzmorton;
his former sergeant, Andy O'Brien;
his former radioman, Salvatore Colletta.
Sitting around a campfire, the five men see:
flickering red light;
drifting sparks;
firelight shimmering on the leaves of massive, writhing oak tree branches;
frosty stars.
They hear:
a coffeepot bubbling on stones in the fire;
popping sparks;
a large animal grunting and pushing through a thicket;
their horses snorting, stamping and pulling;
chanting from the nearby Ohlone Indian village.
They smell:
coffee;
burning oak wood;
grilled tule elk stakes;
brine in the nearby bay.
Brine, not a food smell, nevertheless evokes the fish that may be caught in that bay.
Rolfe has two ways of knowing that the Other Side is not their California of long ago:
he carved numbers on rocks on Other Side but has not found them on First Side;
he will photograph the night sky and have it checked by astronomers.
O'Brien is right to ask. He is wrong to think that they could go pop if they changed the past but they do need to know that they can return to their version of the present.
Colletta has a Chicago typewriter. The men found their new Commonwealth:
the other four agree that Rolfe is their boss or padrone;
O'Brien says that they need to include Sol Pearlmutter, another Army acquaintance;
they will exchange gold from Other Side for money on First Side;
the money will be safely banked abroad;
they will buy the house that contains the Gate and the land around it, rezone the land, start a company and colonize the Other Side;
in the first instance, Rolfe and his cousins will return with gold to First Side while Andy and Salvo stay in New Virginia to work on the Indians.
From this small acorn will grow a massive oak.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember this as well. And one point that struck me was the accident of Andy O'Brien starting to come down with a cold. A cold which was unintentionally spread to the local Indians--with calamitous results. Many thousands of years of isolation from the rest of the human race had made Western Hemisphere Indians less resistant to the diseases, even minor ones, plaguing the rest of the planet.
Sean
Bringing the common cold to the Amerindians.
The same plot point as in "Island in the Sea of Time".
Is there any way that could *not* happen given the postulated situation?
As a Canadian familiar with the history of the fur trade, I think Rolfe et al. missed a good idea in doing their own mining rather than trading metal knives etc. to the locals for gold.
Kaor, Jim!
I am skeptical that it would be possible to prevent virgin field epidemics from devastating the Indians of N/S America from even minor accidentally introduced diseases. My view is that 15 or 17,000 years of isolation from the rest of the human race left the Indians dangerously prone to succumb even to minor colds most of us would shrug off in a few days.
But large scale mining requires a large infrastructure of both labor and equipment, which John Rolfe did not have at that time. Plus, he was starting to think BIG, of founding his own nation in that alternate world. Compared to that mining is not so big and could be left till after the Commonwealth was firmly established.
Ad astra! Sean
They started off with small scale panning for gold.
Getting the locals to do that in exchange for things that are cheap in 20th century California but both very useful to a hunter gatherer & impossible to make in a hunter gatherer society would benefit the locals & get Rolfe et al. more gold for less effort on their part.
Kaor, Jim!
Yes, but my point was John Rolfe only needed a relatively small amount of gold to help pay for bigger things than just mining. He wanted to found a NATION.
Ad astra! Sean
Sure, but it would still be easier to get the gold for whatever purpose by trading for it.
Kaor, Jim!
But, in any case, that was not how John Rolfe chose to handle matters. And I think he was right, because he was thinking STRATEGICALLY, long term.
Ad astra! Sean
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