The Sword and the Plough Read Online Free PDF Page A

wealth, power and
acclaim were already theirs. The one ambition left was to govern
and to govern well.”
    Helen clapped her hands. “Star stuff, Lars,
well done. I could almost hear the deputy-governor speaking.”
    Lars grinned. “Yep, it’s all coming back. I
had to learn it off by heart at the time.”
    Helen’s gaze narrowed. “But now answer this.
To what Earth nation does our monarchy owe its beginnings?”
    Lars opened his mouth to speak, but no words
came.
    “Give up?”
    He smiled. “Yes Helen, this time I give up.”
    Helen gave a smirk of triumph. “Well, I know
the answer,” she said. “It was…” she started, then broke off, a
perplexed look on her face.
    She began to laugh. “Well, I don’t remember
the name of the nation, but the monarch at the time was Elizabeth
III.”
    “Who were Elizabeth I and II?” Lars
queried.
    “ I don’t know. The deputy-governor didn’t
say. But the main point is that Elizabeth III managed to unite all
the nations of the Earth into one people. And of course we
celebrate it now, every year, with Renaissance
Day .”
    “I suppose I have to ask how she achieved
such unity,” Lars teased.
    “By the promotion of space exploration,”
Helen replied smartly.
    “Took the population’s collective mind off
the problems at home, eh?”
    Helen nodded. “Yes – and then later she
encouraged hundreds of thousands of pioneers to venture out to the
newly discovered Goldilocks* worlds to take the population pressure of the
Earth and provide respite for the home planet’s rapidly dwindling
resources.”
    “Wow, you seem to know the deputy-governor’s
speech off by heart like a teacher robot,” Lars observed, grinning
broadly.
    “He provided an electronic handout,” Helen
explained. “Anyway,” she continued, “that’s where we come in or at
least our grandparents, or maybe our great grandparents.”
    “But that wasn’t under Elizabeth III,” Lars
objected.
    “ Oh, I know that. It would have been under
Elizabeth IV, or maybe a George or a William – it took generations.
For every planet that could sustain life, hundreds were
barren.”
     
    * * *
     
    By the third year of Elizabeth III’s reign,
the first interstellar spaceships had successfully returned from
their voyages of exploration.
    Continuing sophistication of quantum physics* experiments in the middle years of the
21 st century had resulted in the
development of the photon engine. Light drawn into the engine was
accelerated many times faster than standard light
speed ( SLS) via a photon
accelerator powered
by dark energy* ,
powering the spaceship forward on a beam of
light .
    Although the speeds of military craft were
usually kept secret, freighters and other such craft could reach
speeds up to SLS x 7.
    However, all spacecraft travelling above
light speeds required a mass compensator, which used the properties of antimatter* to safeguard
the vessel from disintegrating at light speeds and
above ; opposite
physics derived from an opposite world.
    There were, however, distinct limitations
and dangers to this device, and it was therefore always heavily
shielded and centred in the bowels of the ship as an added
safeguard; it was as precarious and hazardous as the powder magazines of
old.
    The laws of physics can sometimes be bent,
but are broken at our peril.
    Nevertheless, even at such speeds the
galaxy is so vast, travel to other planetary systems would not have
been achievable had it not been for the discovery of a series
of wormholes * at
the edge of the solar system in the latter part of the
21 st century. The wormholes allowed
short cuts to other parts of the galaxy and the discovery of more
remote Goldilocks worlds. However, to date, no known spacecraft has journeyed
beyond the Orion Spur *.
     
    * * *
     
    A puff of air rippled the green bringing with
it the scent of distant fields already under growth, and, on the
air, the faint roar of a faraway laser-share as another farmer’s
plough exploded