It was almost as a secondary function that the reactor was used to power the winches.

There were six of these, and they were built in a massive steel housing running east-west across the city’s base. Of the six, only five were used at any one time, the other being overhauled by rotation. The primary cause for concern with the winches was the bearings, which, after many thousands of miles’ use, were very worn. During the time I was with the Traction men there was a certain amount of debate on the subject of whether the winching should be carried out on four winches — thus allowing more time for bearing servicing — or should be increased to all six winches, thus reducing wear. The consensus seemed to be to continue with the present system, for no major decisions were taken.

One of the jobs I worked on with the Traction men was checking the cables. This too was a recurring task for the cables were as old as the winches, and breakages happened more frequently than was ideal, which was never. Each of the six cables used by the city had been repaired several times, and in addition to the weaknesses this caused there were several parts of each cable which were beginning to fray. Before each winching, therefore, each of the five cables to be used had to be checked over foot by foot, cleaned and greased, and bound where frays occurred.

Always in the reactor-room, or working outside on the cables, the talk was of catching up the lost ground towards the optimum. How the winches might be improved, how new cables might be obtained. The entire guild seemed to be alive with ideas, but they were not men fond of theories. Much of their work was concerned with mundane matters; for instance, while I was with the guild a new project was begun to construct an additional water-reservoir in the city.

One pleasurable benefit of this aspect of my apprenticeship was that I was able to spend the nights with Victoria. Although I came back to the room at night hot and dirty from my work, I was for this short period enjoying the comforts of a domestic existence and the satisfactions of a worthwhile job.

One day, working outside the city as one of the cables was being hauled mechanically out towards the distant stayemplacement, I asked the guildsman I was with about Gelman Jase.

“An old friend of mine, apprenticed to your guild. Do you know him?”

“About your age is he?”

“A bit older.”

“We had a couple of apprentices through a few miles back. Can’t remember their names. I can check, if you like.”

I was curious to see Jase. It had been a long time since I’d seen him, and it would be good to compare notes with someone who was going through the same process as myself.

Later that day I was told that Jase had been one of the two apprentices the man had mentioned. I asked how I could contact him.

“He won’t be around for a while.”

“Where is he?” I said.

“He’s left the city. Down past.”

Too soon, my time with the Traction guild ended and I was transferred to the Barter guild for the next three miles. I greeted this news with mixed feelings, having witnessed one of their operations at first hand. To my surprise I learnt I was to work with Barter Collings, and to my further surprise I discovered it was he who had requested I work with him.

“I heard you were joining the guild for three miles,” he said. “Thought I’d like to show you our work isn’t all dealing with rioting tooks.”

Like the other guildsmen, Collings had a room in one of the forward towers of the city, and here he showed me a long roll of paper with a detailed plan drawn on it.

“You needn’t take too much notice of most of this. It’s a map of the terrain ahead of us, and it’s compiled by the Futures.” He showed me the symbols for mountains, rivers, valleys, steep gradients — all vital information for those who planned the route the city would take on its long slow journey towards optimum. “These black squares represent settlements. That’s what we’re concerned with. How many languages do you speak?”

I told him that I had never found languages easy when in the crèche, and only spoke French, and that haltingly.

“As well you’re not planning to join our guild permanently,” he said. “Ability with languages is our stock in trade.”

He told me that the local inhabitants spoke Spanish, and that he and the other Barter guildsmen had to learn this from one of the books in the city library as there were no people of Spanish descent in the city. They got by, but there were recurring difficulties with dialects.

Collings told me that of all the first-order guilds only the Track guild used hired labour regularly. Sometimes the BridgeBuilders had to hire men for short periods, but by and large the major part of the Barters’ work was in hiring manual labourers for the track-work… and what Collings referred to as “transference.”

“What is that?” I said immediately.

Collings said: “It’s what makes us so unpopular. The city looks for settlements where food is short, where poverty is widespread. Fortunately for the city this is a poor region, so we have a strong bargaining position. We can offer them food, technology to help their farming, medicines, electrical power; in return, the men labour for us, and we borrow their young women. They come to the city for a short while, and perhaps they will give birth to new citizens.”

“I’ve heard of this,” I said. “I can’t believe it happens.”

“Why not?”

“Isn’t it… immoral?” I said hesitantly.

“Is it immoral to want to keep the city peopled? Without fresh blood we would die out within a couple of generations. Most children born to people in the city are male.”

I remembered the fight that had started. “But the women who transfer to the city are sometimes married, aren’t they?”

“Yes… but they stay only to give birth to one child. After that, they are free to leave.”

“What happens to the child?”

“If it is a girl, she stays in the city and is brought up in the crèche. If it is a boy, the mother may take it with her or may leave it in the city.”

And then I understood the diffidence with which Victoria had spoken on this subject. My mother had come to the city from outside, and afterwards had left. She had not taken me with her; I had been rejected. But there was no pain in this realization.

The Barter guildsmen, like those of the Futures guild, rode out across the countryside on horses. I had never learnt to ride, and so when we left the city and headed north I walked beside Collings. Later, he showed me how to ride the horse, telling me that I would need to ride when I joined my father’s guild. The technique came slowly; at first I was frightened of the horse and found it difficult to control. Gradually, as I realized the animal was docile and good-natured, my confidence grew and the horse — as if understanding this — responded better.

We did not travel far from the city. There were two settlements to the north-east, and we visited them both. We were greeted with some curiosity, but Collings’s assessment was that neither settlement displayed any great need for the commodities the city could offer, and so he made no attempts to negotiate. He told me that the city’s needs for labour were met for the moment, and that there were enough transferred women to be going on with.

After the first journey away from the city — which took nine days, and during which we lived and slept rough — I returned to the city with Collings, to hear the news that the Council of Navigators had given the go-ahead for a bridge to be built. According to the interpretation Collings gave me, there were two possible routes ahead of the city. One angled the city towards the north-west, and although avoiding a narrow chasm led through hilly country with much broken rock; the other led across more level country but required a bridge to be built across the chasm. It was this latter course which had been selected, and so all available labour was to be diverted temporarily to the Bridge-Builders guild.