Clarke, Arthur C - Fall of Night 02 (5 page)

 
          
 
"Let that be a lesson to you, Alvin! I
expected something like this, so I've blocked all the circuits I don't want you
to explore. That block will remain until I think it's safe to lift it."

 
          
 
Alvin
grinned sheepishly and said nothing.
Thereafter he made no more excursions into forbidden realms.

 
          
 
Not for three years did Rorden make more than
casual references to the purpose of their work. The time had passed quickly
enough, for there was so much to learn and the knowledge that his goal was not
unattainable gave
Alvin
patience. Then, one day when they were struggling to reconcile two
conflicting maps of the ancient world, the main Associator suddenly began to
call for attention.

 
          
 
Rorden hurried to the machine and returned
with a long sheet of paper covered with writing. He ran through it quickly and
looked at
Alvin
with a smile.

 
          
 
"We will soon know if the first way is
still open," he said quietly.

 
          
 
Alvin
jumped from his chair, scattering maps in
all directions.

 
          
 
"Where is it?" he cried eagerly.

 
          
 
Rorden laughed and pushed him back into his
seat.

 
          
 
"I haven't kept you waiting all this time
because I wanted to," he said. "It's true that you were too young to
leave Diaspar before, even if we knew how it could be done. But that's not the
only reason why you had to wait. The day you came to see me, I set the machines
searching through the records to discover if anyone after Alaine's time had
tried to leave the city. I thought you might not be the first, and I was right.
There have been many others: the last was about fifteen million years ago.
They've all been very careful to leave us no clues, and I can see Alaine's
influence there. In his message he

 
          
 
Stressed that only those who
searched for themselves should be allowed to find the way, so I've had to
explore many blind avenues.
I knew that the secret had been hidden
carefully—yet not so carefully that it couldn't be found.

 
          
 
"About a year ago I began to concentrate
on the idea of transport. It was obvious that Diaspar must have had many links
with the rest of the world, and although the Port itself has been buried by the
desert for ages, I thought that there might be other means of travel. Right at
the beginning I found that the Associators would not answer direct questions:
Alaine must have put a block on them just as I once did for your benefit.
Unfortunately I can't remove Alaine's block, so I've had to use indirect
methods.

 
          
 
"If there was an external transport
system, there's certainly no trace of it now. Therefore, if it existed at all,
it has been deliberately concealed. I set the Associators to investigate all
the major engineering operations carried out in the city since the records
began. This is a report on the construction of the central park— and Alaine has
added a note to it himself. As soon as it encountered his name, of course, the
machine knew it had finished the search and called for me.

 
          
 
Rorden glanced at the paper as if rereading
part of it again. Then he continued:

 
          
 
"We've always taken it for granted that
all the moving ways should converge on the Park: it seems natural for them to
do so. But this report states that the Park was built after the founding of the
city—many millions of years later, in fact. Therefore the moving ways once led
to something else. "

 
          
 
"An airport, perhaps?"

 
          
 
"No: flying was
never
allowed over any city, except in very ancient times, before the moving ways
were built. Even Diaspar is not as old as that! But listen to Alaine's note:

 
          
 
" 'When
the
desert buried the
Port
of
Diaspar
, the emergency system which had been built
against that day was able to carry the remaining transport. It was finally
closed down by Yarlan Zey, builder of the Park, having remained almost unused
since the Migration.' "

 
          
 
Alvin
looked rather puzzled.

 
          
 
"It doesn't tell me a great deal,"
he complained.

 
          
 
Rorden smiled. "You've been letting the
Associators do too much thinking for you," he admonished gently.
"Like all of Alaine's statements, it's deliberately obscure lest the wrong
people should learn from it. But I think it tells us quite enough. Doesn't the
name 'Yarlan Zey' mean anything to you?"

 
          
 
"I think I understand," said
Alvin
slowly. "You're talking about the
Monument?"

 
          
 
"Yes: it's in the exact center of the
Park. If you extended the moving ways, they would all meet there. Perhaps, once
upon a time, they did. "

 
          
 
Alvin
was already on his feet.

 
          
 
"Let's go and have a look," he
exclaimed.

 
          
 
Rorden shook his head.

 
          
 
"You've seen the Tomb of Yarlan Zey a
score of times and noticed nothing unusual about it. Before we rush off, don't
you think it would be a good idea to question the machines again?"

 
          
 
Alvin
was forced to agree, and while they were
waiting began to read the report that the Associator had already produced.

 
          
 
"Rorden," he said at last,
"what did Alaine mean when he spoke about the Migration?"

 
          
 
"It's a term often used in the very
earliest records," answered Rorden. "It refers to the time when the
other cities were decaying and all the human race was moving towards
Diaspar."

 
          
 
"Then this 'emergency system,' whatever
it is, leads to them?"

 
          
 
"Almost
certainly."

 
          
 
Alvin
meditated for a while.

 
          
 
"So you think that even if we do find the
system, it will only lead to a lot of ruined cities?"

 
          
 
"I doubt if it will even do that,"
replied Rorden. "When they were abandoned, the machines were closed down
and the desert will have covered them by now."

 
          
 
Alvin
refused to be discouraged.

 
          
 
"But Alaine must have known that!"
he protested. Rorden shrugged his shoulders.

 
          
 
"We're only guessing," he said,
"and the Associator hasn't any information at the moment. It may take
several hours, but with such a restricted subject we should have all the
recorded facts before the end of the day. We'll follow your advice after
all."

 
          
 
The screens of the city were down and the sun
was shining fiercely, though its rays would have felt strangely weak to a man
of the Dawn Ages.
Alvin
had made this journey a hundred times before, yet now it seemed almost
a new adventure. When they came to the end of the moving way, he bent down and
examined the surface that had carried them through the city. For the first time
in his life, he began to realize something of its wonder. Here it was
motionless, yet a hundred yards away it was rushing directly towards him faster
than a man could run.

 
          
 
Rorden was watching him, but he misunderstood
the boy's curiosity.

 
          
 
"When the Park was built," he said,
"I suppose they had to remove the last section of the way. I doubt if
you'll learn anything from it."

 
          
 
"I wasn't thinking of that," said
Alvin
. "I was wondering how the moving ways
work."

 
          
 
Rorden looked astonished, for the thought had
never occurred to him. Ever since man had lived in cities, they had accepted
without thinking the multitudinous services that lay beneath their feet. And
when the cities had become completely automatic, they had ceased even to notice
that they were there.

 
          
 
"Don't worry about that
,
"
he said. "I can show you a thousand greater puzzles. Tell me
how my Recorders get their information, for example."

 
          
 
So, without a second thought, Rorden dismissed
the moving ways—one of the greatest triumphs of human engineering. The long
ages of research that had gone to the making of anisotropic matter meant
nothing to him. Had he been told that a substance could have the properties of a
solid in one dimension and of a liquid in the other
two,
he would not even have registered surprise.

 
          
 
The Park was almost three miles across, and
since every pathway was a curve of some kind all distances were considerably
exaggerated. When he had been younger
Alvin
had spent a great deal of time among the
trees and plants of this largest of the city's open spaces. He had explored the
whole of it at one time or another, but in later years much of its charm had
vanished. Now he understood why: he had seen the ancient records and knew that
the Park was only a pale shadow of a beauty that had vanished from the world.

 
          
 
They met many people as they walked through
the avenues of ageless trees and over the dwarf perennial grass that never
needed trimming. After a while they grew tired of acknowledging greetings, for
everyone knew
Alvin
and almost everyone knew the Keeper of the Records. So they left the
paths and wandered through quiet byways almost overshadowed by trees. Sometimes
the trunks crowded so closely round them that the great towers of the city were
hidden from sight, and for a little while
Alvin
could imagine he was in the ancient world
of which he had so often dreamed.

 
          
 
The Tomb of Yarlan Zey was the only building
in the Park. An avenue of the eternal trees led up the low hill on which it
stood, its rose-pink columns gleaming in the sunlight. The roof was open to the
sky, and the single chamber was paved with great slabs of apparently natural
stone. But for geological ages human feet had crossed and recrossed that floor
and left no trace upon its inconceivably stubborn material. Alvin and Rorden
walked slowly into the chamber, until they came face to face with the statue of
Yarlan Zey.