Fred Hoyle October the First Is Too Late

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the Hebrews had not, and now never would, reach the lands
below us. Into this new World Christ would not be born.
We headed out over the Mediterranean. Very soon
we were over the wine-dark seas of Greece. My
reveries were sharply
interrupted by a sudden grip on the arm:
"My god, look down there."
The sea was breaking around a headland twenty thousand
feet below us. Standing proudly on the headland was a
temple. At once we were all animated. We
flew round in circles coming lOW-ER and lower.
"Look, it's complete, it's not a ruin."
"Where do you reckon we are?"' I asked the
pilot.
"I think we're just south of Athens."
John had been looking at the chart. "It fits
the Attic peninsular. There's this island here off the
east coast. Its shape fits that long one down there,
doesn't it?"'
There wasn't any doubt about it. We flew
lOW-ER and lower.
Now we could just make out people below us. They were run-
ning to the temple. I realized it was the temple of
Sounion.
We said nothing as we turned up the
coast to the north-west.
It took only a few minutes before we were over
Athens. Standing complete on the Acropolis Was the
Parthenon. Close by was an amphitheatre full
of people. The city was not very large but at least it was a
city. Whatever the time was down there it obviously had
little to do wstth the twentieth century. The tstme had
to be somewhere between the date of construction of the Parthenon,
Which I remembered to be about 450 B.c., and the
date at which the temple at Sounion fell
into ruin, which it must have done in the first centuries
A.d. There seemed little doubt that we were looking
down on the Greece of classical times.
We Would have Istked to have flown around for a long time,
to have come as Iow as we dared, but we all realized
it Would be better not to do so. The people down there would see
the great bird in the skies as a visitation from the
gods. There would be panstc and a wailstrig and gnashing
of teeth. The
sooner we were away the better. So regretfully
we headed west towards Corinth. Naturally there was
no canal cutting through the narrow neck of land which
separates the Peloponnese from the land to the north.
We saw a multitude of small boats
as we flew along the Gulf, propelled it seemed
by human muscle power, by oarsmen.
A further surprise was in store for us. Very
naturally we were heading for Rome. We were doing so in
the full expectation of it being classical times
everywhere throughout the Mediterranean. The situation in
Rome would allow us to date the epoch more closely.
We were due for a sharp disappointment for over the
Italian mainland there was nothing but vegetation. We
flew on and on and it was the same everywhere. No city
of Rome at all. No towns, villages, or
hamlets. Only as we came north of the Alps
did the wild country change. Quite abruptly we were
in a modern society with its towns and streets and
its factories. It was probably 1917 down there
but we all felt we had suddenly come back to our
own times. It was the same all the way from
Switzerland across France. Then we were over the
English Channel. It was hard to believe as we
flew over the neat fields of Kent that the other
regions of the Earth were so grotesquely changed.
To say it felt like waking from a dream is an
admitted clich6 yet there was a dreamlike
quality about it all. Even now, I thought as we
moved in to land, we have seen only a
fraction of the Earth. We don't really know the
Glass Plain extends right through China. We had
no idea of the situation in Africa, or in South
America, or anywhere in the southern hemisphere for
that matter.
After the sandy deserts of the Middle and Near
East, after the missing city of Jerusalem,
Greece had seemed real enough. Now I was back
in London it all seemed wildly ridiculous.
Could one seriously credit that out there it might still be the
third, fourth, or fifth century B.c. his Yet
the fifth century B.c. had been just as real and sharp
as 1966.
I had dinner the following night with John. We
discussed at length our next moves. It was clear
the flights of discovery had to go on without hindrance or
delay. It was imperative to get a
. general idea of the new layout of the whole.
Earth. One of us
at least must continue on those trips. The problem
was to decide whether we should both go or whether we should
split
up, one to continue the general survey, the other
to investigate details, perhaps details of
this situation in Greece. This would have to be done with the
greatest care. The Greeks would not be alarmed by the
arrival of strangers, provided they came in a
fashion that seemed normal, by boat from the sea. But
not in a modern boat with thumping engines. John
told me preparations were already being made along these
lines. The government had asked the navy to send in
an expedition. Did I want to be included in the
party? If I did it would be necessary to drop my name in
the right quarter, and without delay. I said I would
sleep on it. We agreed to meet again at lunch
on the morrow.
The decision was an awkward one pretty well
evenly balanced. I was completely fascinated at
the prospect of seeing classical Greece at
first hand. This would be the real thing not a cruise
organized two thousand years' after the event. Yet
I had the feeling I would be pushing myself out of the main
stream of events. The trip must surely be a
leisurely one taking weeks if not months. I
would lose contact with John. I would hence lose my
entr6e to the high-stepping circles in which I had
moved of late. This was entirely a matter of
unbridled curiosity not at all of snobbery. I
wanted to know what was going on. Quite clearly
the intricate dealstngs between Britain and Europe
would be utterly intriguing to observe at close
quarters.
Ironically these considerations were grossly wide
of the mark for the mainstream of events was not at all where
I supposed it to be. As it came about my decision
made no difference to my arriving at the true
mainstream, but in the ultimate outcome it did
make a critical difference, that of my arriving
independently not by John's much more direct route.
No thOUT-GHTS of this kind were in my mind of course
when at last I came down on the side of the
Grecian expedition. It was music which swayed the
balance. For one thing, here was the chance to settle all
the controversy and arguments about ancient music. For
another, I was more and more feeling the need of leisure
to give expression to my own creative impulses.
The flights, the discussions, marvellously intriguing
in themselves, were consuming the whole of my time and energies.
A reduction of tempo was needed.
When I told John of my decision he was a
little doubtful:
"Things have changed a bit in the last twenty-four
hours, I'm afraid. The government, is
getting itself bogged down more and more with the European
situations. They're really not in a position to give
much priority to the Greek business. It was agreed
yesterday to keep things pretty well on ice for the
time being."
"You mean the expedition is off?"'
"Not entirely but it's only going to be a
small show."
I have an obstinate streak in me. When I'm
thinking about any issue to like to hear the opinions of
other people. I like to collect as much information as
possible. But once I've made a decision I like
to stick to it. Once I've made up my mind I
hate to be "advised". I passed of[ [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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