To Fly Again

In James Blish's Cities In Flight, Volume IV, The Triumph Of Time, the Okie cities no longer fly but Mayor John Amalfi says:

"'This city was meant to fly, and by God it ought to be flying still... Maybe for exploration, maybe for work, the kind of work we used to do.'"

-James Blish, The Triumph Of Time IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 466-596 AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 478.

And he has some support from a younger generation:

"'...if the city's really going up again, Mr. Mayor -'

"'Maybe it is. I don't know yet. What of it?'

"'If it is, we want on,' the boy said in a rush."

-ibid., CHAPTER TWO, p. 492.

Like Poul Anderson's Nomads, the difference being that Amalfi's proposed new voyage is indefinitely postponed by the end of the universe. There will be new universes but they are an untold story.

Kevin, whom I have mentioned in connection with our small sf group, tells me that some musicians do not retire but embark on a never-ending tour. This is the destiny of the Nomads:

"The end came, and we embarked on the long voyage, the voyage that has not ceased yet and, I hope, will never end."

-"Gypsy," p. 270.

We remember Nicholas van Rijn:

"'You take the Long Trail with me!... A universe where all roads lead to roaming. Life never fails us. We fail it, unless we reach out.'"

-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 1-291 AT XXI, p. 287.

Amalfi, Thorkild and van Rijn...