He understood little of this, but he was charmed by another glimpse of a culture he could barely understand. He said cautiously, There must be somebody else you missback on the other side.
She looked at him directly, her eyes shadowed, and he realized to his chagrin that she knew exactly what he was fishing for. Ive been single for a while, Josh. Myras father died, and theres been nobody else. She rested her head on her arm. You know, apart from Myra its not people Im missing so much as the texture. This little phone should connect me to the world, the whole planet. On every surface there is animationads, news, music, colortwenty-four hours a day. Its a constant rush of information.
It sounds clamorous.
Perhaps it is. But Im used to it.
There are pleasures to be had here. Breathe Can you smell it? The touch of frost already in the air The burning of the fireyoull soon learn to tell one wood from another purely by the scent of its smoke, you know
Something else too, she murmured. A musk. Like a zoo. There are animals out here. Animals that shouldnt be here, even in your time.
He reached out impulsively and took her hand. Were safe here, he said. She neither responded nor drew back, and after a while, unsure, he pulled his hand away. Im a city boy, he said. Boston-born. So all thisthe opennessis new to me too.
What brought you here?
Nothing planned. I was always curious, you knowalways wanted to see what was around the corner, on the next block. I kept volunteering for one crazy assignment after another, until I landed up here, at the ends of the earth.
Oh, youve gone rather farther than that, Josh. But I think youre just the type to cope with our strange adventure. She was watching him, a hint of humor in her eyestoying with him, perhaps.
He continued doggedly, You dont seem much like the soldiers I know.
She yawned. My parents were farmers. They owned a big eco-friendly spread in Cheshire. I was an only child. The farm was going to be mine to work and developI loved that place. But when I was sixteen my father sold it out from under me. I suppose he thought I was never serious about running it.
But you were.
Yes. Id even applied for a place at agricultural college. It caused a rift, or maybe showed one up. I wanted to get away. I moved to London. Then, as soon as I was old enough, I joined up. Of course I had no idea what the army would be likethe PT, the drill, the weapons, the field craftbut I took to it.
I dont see you as a killer, he said. But thats what soldiers do.
Not in my day, she said. Not in the British army anyhow. Peacekeeping: thats what we go out in the world for. Of course sometimes you have to killor even wage war to keep the peaceand thats a whole other set of issues.
He lay back, staring at the stars. Its strange to hear you speak of your troubles with your family, failed communication, lost ambitions. I tend to imagine, when I think of it, that the people of a hundred and fifty years hence will be too wise for thattoo evolved, as Professor Darwin would say!
Oh, I dont think were very evolved, Josh. But were getting smarter about some things. Religion, for instance. Take Abdikadir and Casey. Devout Muslim and jock Christian, youd think they are as far apart as can be. But they are both Oikumens.
That word is from the Greeklike ecumenical?
Yes. Over the last few decades weve been close to an all-out conflict between Christianity and Islam. If you take a long view, its absurd; both religions have deep common roots, and both are basically creeds of peace. But all the high-level attempts at reconciliation, conferences of bishops and mullahs, came to nothing. The Oikumens are a grassroots movement trying to achieve what all the top-level contact has failed to do. They are so low-profile they are almost underground, but theyre there, burrowing away.
This talk made him realize how remote in time her age was, and how little he could understand of it. He said cautiously, And has God been banished in your day, as some thinkers would predict?
She hesitated. Not banished, Josh. But we understand ourselves better than we used to. We understand why we need gods. There are some in my time who see all religion as a psychopathology. They point to those who are prepared to torture and kill their coreligionists, for the sake of a few percent difference in obscure ideology. But there are others who say that for all their flaws the religions are attempts to address the most basic questions about existence. Even if they tell us nothing about God, theyre surely telling us a great deal about what it means to be human. The Oikumens hope that by unifying religions, the result wont be a dilution but an enrichmentlike the ability to study a precious gem from many angles. And maybe these tentative steps are our best hope of a true enlightenment in the future.
It sounds utopian. And is it working?
Slowly, like the peacekeeping. If were building a utopia were doing it in the dark. But were trying, I guess.
Its a beautiful vision, he breathed. The future must be a marvelous place. He turned to her. How strange all this is. How exhilaratingto be here with youto be castaways in time, together!
She reached out and touched his lips with one fingertip. Goodnight, Josh. She rolled away, pulled her poncho over her body, and curled up.
He lay down, his pulse thumping.
The next day the ground rose steadily, becoming broken and lifeless. The clear air thinned and grew colder, bitterly cold when the wind from the north blew, despite the brightness of the sun. By now it was obvious there was no threat from Pashtuns or anybody else, and Batson allowed the troops to abandon the slow routine of picketing and march more briskly.
Though Bisesas all-weather flight suit kept her reasonably protected, the others suffered. As they struggled into the wind the soldiers wrapped themselves up in their blankets and groused about how they should have brought their winter greatcoats. Both Ruddy and Josh became subdued, locked in themselves, as if the wind was leaching the energy out of them. But nobody had expected these conditions; even old Frontier hands said they had never known such a chill in March.
Still they marched doggedly along. Most of the time even Kipling didnt complain; he was too cold to bother, he said.
Fourteen of the twenty troopers were Indian. It seemed to Bisesa that the Europeans kept away from the sepoys, and that the Indians had poorer equipment and weapons.
Ruddy said, Once the proportion of British troops to Indian was about one in ten. But the Mutiny shattered all that. Now theres one European for every three Indians. The best weaponry, and all the artillery pieces, are in the hands of British troops, though the Indians may be used as muleteers. You dont want to train up and arm potential insurgents; common sense, that. Remember that the Indian Civil Service employs only about a thousand peoplebrave men of the plains, all!to administer a country of four hundred million. It is only the backing of force that enables such a bluff to be played effectively.
But thats why, she said gently, you have to train up an Indian elite. This isnt America, or Australia. Theres no way British colonists or their descendants will ever outnumber the Indians.
Ruddy shook his head. Youre talking of our growing crowd of babus with all respect to yourself! That notion might wash in London, but not here. You must know of Lucknow, where the whites were summarily slaughtered! Thats the tinderbox were sitting on. We may be withholding the best guns, but by filling a babu s head with visions of liberty and self-determination you are handing him the most potent weapons of allweapons he isnt yet mature enough to use.