Twains are airships used to travel between the worlds of the long earth. They are the most common cross-world vehicles, used to transport large numbers of people, to trade goods between worlds, and to explore the bounds of the long earth itself. They are usually solar powered, and use helium to float, a once-rare gas now commonly mined from stepwise copies of North America.[1]
After the success of the prototype the Mark Twain, the Black Corporation became the dominant manufacturer of twains for commercial and government purposes.[2] Exploratory twains can reach upwards of 50 steps per second, while commercial twains usually only step once per second.[3][4]
Logistics[]
In the universe of The Long Earth series, only sapient creatures can step. Twains therefore are fitted with sapient artificial intelligences, which carry over the whole of the twain and all its passengers as they step, in the same way that a human can carry over his body and clothes when he steps.[5] Some early twains were driven by iterations of Lobsang, [6] but twains can now step with their own on-board, gel-based AIs. These later AIs also regulate many of the twains’ automatic functions.[7] Because the twains are sapient, they are reputedly difficult to pilot; Bill Chambers compares it to riding an elephant, an intelligent, powerful animal that you can’t simply command like a horse.[8]
Airships are used to step instead of other vehicles because of their practicality. Unlike trains and boats, they can float high above any obstacles which might prevent stepping, like trees and glaciers.[9] Unlike aeroplanes, they do not have to travel geographically as well as stepwise, meaning they can easily travel from a datum city to its stepwise counterpart, though stepping planes do also exist.[10]
In crowded skies, like around the datum earth, twains need to be careful when stepping to avoid attempting to step into the space another twain is occupying, which could lead to a collision. Here, stepping is done slowly, and high-vis scouts on the ground may be employed to check whether the space in the next world is empty, and if it is, to direct the twain forward by waving paddles.[11][12]
Many twains, especially exploratory twains, have little monitors called earthometers, which track the world a twain is currently in. They are found embedded in the walls of the cabins.[13]
After the Yellowstone eruption on Datum Earth, all US navy twains were fitted with ash filters. Twains like the USS Brian Cowley could potentially fly through volcanic ash for weeks at a time with no damage to the engines.[14]
At the higher speeds used by some exploratory twains- more than fifty worlds per second- the flicker fusion threshold is passed, and the worlds outside the twain pass by faster than the human eye can follow. To a human, the landscape beneath the twain appears as a blurry amalgam of features that persist between worlds, like the sun and the horizon, rivers or shorelines. However, twain sensors are able to detect certain details about the landscape even at this speed.[15] This high-speed step technology was originally invented in China.
Trade and communication[]
Twains are crucial for trade across the worlds of the long earth. The largest twain trade route is called the Long Mississippi, and runs from the great city of Valhalla in the west to the Datum in the east. Geographically, the Long Mississippi is located on the Mississippi River, to ease trade across single worlds. This great trade route peaked around the time of the Gentle Revolution, but withered significantly after the Yellowstone eruption and resulting volcanic winter.[16]
From the High Meggers, the most common exports involve exotic flora and fauna, like lichen samples and maple liquor. Bulk goods are transported in droves from the Corn Belt; timber, and foods like corn, wheat, sugar, and oranges. Timber is floated downstream on the Mississippi from the northern forests in the form of rafts, then tied together into great platforms of wood of up to an acre in size. These platforms are then suspended from twains, which carry the dangling cargo, human and troll workers riding in tents and huts on the giant platform, off to the Datum. The Mine Belt exports minerals, like bauxite, gold and silver, germanium, cobalt, and gallium. In exchange the Datum transports high-tech goods like medical kits, electrical generators, and coils of fibre-optic cable. The Low Earths’ main export back west to the colonies are horses, which are carried within the gondolas of twains.[17] Twains are also used to move engineering components, some of which can be so big they must be carried in cradles hanging beneath the gondola.[18]
Twains are the main drivers of the outernet, an informal system of digital communication between worlds. As twains pass through worlds, they rapidly upload and download information from local nodes, allowing news and mail to be spread across worlds. When multiple twains meet away from the more common trade routes, they exchange news and messages between themselves. The latter is called a ‘gam’, a word taken from old-time meetings between whaling ships.[19]
The Mark Twain[]
The name comes from the Mark Twain, the first vehicle able to step across the Long Earth while carrying passengers and cargo.
In the years after 2030, when Joshua Valienté came back from what is now known as the Journey, Douglas Black (majority owner of the Black Corporation and architect of the Mark Twain) gave the twain technology to the world as a gift.[20]
After the Journey[]
The twains helped mankind spread across the Long Earth, making obsolete the treks like the one the Green family did to reach Earth West 101,754.
A commercial route named the Long Mississippi, linking Datum Earth and Valhalla on Earth West 1,400,013, was created to import goods back to the Datum (like rare minerals, exotic plants, timber) and export goods to the stepwise worlds.
Nowadays, the commercial twains like the Gold Dust can travel at a speed of one step per second[21] while twains with more advanced technology, like the USS Neil A. Armstrong II, can cross fifteen million worlds in a week.[22]
After Yellowstone[]
After the Yellowstone eruption of 2040, most Navy twains had their engines equipped with ash filters.[23]
References[]
- ↑ The Long War- pages 27-28
- ↑ The Long War- page 62
- ↑ The Long War- page 298
- ↑ The Long Mars- page 74
- ↑ The Long Earth- page 103
- ↑ The Long War- page 29
- ↑ The Long Mars- page 78
- ↑ The Long War- page 311
- ↑ The Long Earth- page 102
- ↑ The Long Utopia- page 58
- ↑ The Long War- page 163
- ↑ The Long Cosmos- page 253
- ↑ The Long Earth- page 140
- ↑ The Long Utopia- page 370
- ↑ The Long War- pages 297-298
- ↑ The Long Mars- page 61
- ↑ The Long War- pages 118-121
- ↑ The Long Cosmos- page 251
- ↑ The Long War- page 28
- ↑ The Long War - Chapter 3
- ↑ The Long War - Chapter 12
- ↑ The Long Mars - Chapter 22
- ↑ The Long Utopia - Chapter 45