Chapter 9
That evening Dan sat down for his evening meal with his family. He studied their faces as they ate and compared Sam and Grace to their counterparts on the other world. There was, of course, no one to compare Alex to. He still had to pinch himself when he looked at his son. He was gradually getting to know his boy and learn what his character was like.
Grace was only four years old and was very much like the one he remembered. She was a little quieter than he recalled, but that was because of the atmosphere in which she was being raised. He felt sadness and then anger that she was unlikely to reach her full potential in this world with its bias against women.
Sam was very different. She had endured a lifetime of being oppressed and that was reflected in her behaviour. She was nervy and seemed to be suppressing a resentment of Dan and of her life. He and the other Sam had gone through a lot and had problems. He had not stopped having feelings for her though. He wasn't sure that he even liked this latest version of his wife.
Phyllis had said that Sam loved the children, but she didn't demonstrate her feelings. This was likely a result of being brought up in what was essentially a Victorian household herself. She seemed to like Grace and Alex when they were neat and well behaved, but had little to do with the more difficult aspects of child rearing.
He had spoken to Phyllis before Sam had come home to agree a strategy for the future. They would not risk talking if his wife was around. He would treat Phyllis as a servant when they were not alone. This meant that he would be indifferent to her or would be issuing orders. He might also chastise her occasionally to keep up the pretence that they were simply boss and employee.
Dan had seen Sam's reaction to his confusion and it had made him reluctant to share his thoughts with her. She was anxious a lot of the time and he didn't want to upset her further. If she felt threatened in any way he did not know how she might react. He would play the role of the dominant male for the time being.
After a day at home, Dan would be going out again in the morning. He wanted to go back to the library, but this time he had a different agenda. He had two areas of research that he wanted to undertake. He wanted to look at maps. He needed to know what was left of the United Kingdom and also what was happening in the rest of the world.
The OWG was based in England but they had smaller versions of their bureaucracy set up on every continent. It would be interesting to see how the population was distributed. People would not have settled in a random way. He was sure that the government would have dictated which areas were to be used.
Another requirement of looking at maps was to increase his knowledge of his home town. Most importantly was the need to find out where his place of work was. He was due to go back in just over a week and it would be a bad start if he could not even find the building. Once he got there he would face different problems.
That led to his other requirement. Dan needed to know as much as he could about the automotive industry as it was here. He had almost too much knowledge on this subject and he did not want to be saying the wrong things. If he could gradually introduce new ideas and improvements that would be better than trying to completely change what was currently being done.
He had arrived in the place with so much information. His area of expertise, mechanical engineering, meant that he had an idea about the workings of many things. His career in the automotive industry meant that he knew something about electronics and computers as well as combustion engines.
There were so many things that he could share that would change the lives of the people. He was in a unique position and he was becoming aware that he had a great responsibility on his shoulders. He would have to think carefully about introducing any new technology. What would be the effect on this virtually unspoilt world?
Dan thought about the way that people had polluted the earth that he had come from. Greenhouse gases, the destruction of the ozone layer, plastic in the ocean, nuclear waste, chemical waste, he shuddered when he thought of the ways man had poisoned his environment.
The rain forests had been decimated and crops were sprayed with pesticides. Rivers were tainted with industrial waste and all sorts of detritus was dumped in the oceans. Animals became extinct as their habitats were stolen or destroyed. Dan had information about what could be done with technology and now he had to decide whether it should be done.
The OWG had come to power at a time of crisis and they had, as the book said, been forced to make some hard decisions. As they recovered from the catastrophe they had clear priorities. Their doctors could not expend time and resources on treating someone, be that a baby, child or adult, who had little chance of survival. They were trying to govern the whole world and they had to deal with those who rebelled. Justice had to be swift to keep order in a broken society.
These things must have seemed logical as the OWG fought to establish control and save humanity. The problem was, that many years had passed and the rules had not altered to reflect the changes in society. All of those that had set down the laws would have died many years before and yet their ideas persisted. Where were the younger men eager for reform?
Some of the decisions of the beards had produced beneficial consequences. The rationing of oil and gas had meant that pollution was at a minimum. The chemicals used in mining gold and other products had not tainted the earth. Gathering precious metals and gems was not a priority here. Very few items were made of plastic. There were not mountains of rubbish which would take hundreds of years to break down.
To say that Dan was conflicted about the work of the OWG was an understatement. He was trying to rationalise the decisions that they had made and he was not always being successful. The attitude towards women was one of the things that made little sense. He could only imagine that the first governments were full of misogynists.
The Victorian view of women had been prevalent and had never been challenged. The breeding programme had stopped females doing other things and even when it ended their lives had not changed. Dan imagined there were a lot of women like Sam who felt stifled and unfulfilled.
There were good maps in the library which illustrated how things had changed after the meteors hit. They showed which areas had suffered the most damage and which areas had been chosen as the best places to settle when the new regime was introduced. After scanning what was happening in the world Dan looked closer to home. At least he now knew where his office was.
He found a good book which detailed the advances in engine design. He could trace how the first cars from the late 1800s had changed to what they were today. The designers had not been looking for speed or aesthetics they had been focused on efficiency. There was no need for cars to be a myriad of shapes and sizes. The production line was used, with every factory on every continent making and assembling the same components.
Most cars looked like the one that Dan had on his drive. Some were larger, those belonging to government ministers, and there were some which had been designed for specific purposes like hearses for example. Transport vehicles all followed the same pattern with just the size of the engine and the size of the capacity varying.
Once again, the rationale for keeping things simple, made perfect sense. Did one really need a hugely powerful engine and metallic paint? In car entertainment and heated seats were unnecessary extras. Why have dozens of makes and models all needing different components made in different factories?
Dan had some tricks up his sleeve about streamlining and engine efficiency. These would be the things that he would bring from his world into this one. He would definitely not be introducing go faster stripes or fluffy dice. He smiled as he thought of some of the more absurd things that he had seen on cars. What would the people here make of spoilers and lights that glowed from under the car? Even changing the colour that the cars came in seemed like a radical step.