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Several generations from the present time (beginning of the Third Millennium of the Common Era), perhaps almost half a millennium in the future, the people of Earth have suffered traumatic socio-economic and cultural disasters following a bitter, brutal World War that devastated much of Eurasia and the Americas, India, China kaj South-East Asia. Pockets of civilisation endure here and there, and technology is reminiscent, for the most part, to that of the mid-nineteenth century prior to the railroad, electricity, and politically resembles the "Wild West" of America of the same era, lawless and dangerous.
The story starts with a young man, Jesper Connelly, who stumbles upon a large briefcase hidden in a cave not far from his home in an isolated mountain village in the Bitterroot mountain range in the western region of what had been known as Montana. Keeping his discovery to himself, at first, he slowly becomes familiar with its high-tech contents, and learns that he is among a few dozen persons around the globe connected to a very large, still-functioning computer network far to the east. This network appears to contain an almost unlimited library of literature on a vast number of subjects in many hundreds of languages.
Within a relatively short time, Jesper becomes confident enough to bring news of his discovery to the elders of his community -- this just after he became aware of the origin of the briefcase and its contents as he actually received a message from it. This message came from someone working at the great computer at the ancient university, many thousands of kilometers to the east, where there were still descendents of the original community living and who had planted the briefcases throughout the world when they saw the imminent catastrophe. After viewing the audio-visual presentation by the university-based contact, during which they informed of a threat from the outside to their community and requested assistance, Jesper and about thirty villagers found themselves on the way east, together with a score of Pikunii (Piegan Blackfoot) from the neighbouring region ...
The story of another man is central to the greater story: that of Roan, who, centuries before, almost single-handedly provides the creative impetus for the greatest flowering of human civilisation before its ultimate demise at the hands of mankind's ages-old anti-civilising characteristics, by which a few men's hearts are more full of self-interest than full of interest in the welfare of all.
The tale that follows stimulates emotions and reactions from the most vibrant love to the vilest hate, of unexcelled human kindness to the most horrific examples of violence -- a collage of human behaviour on both individual scales as well as planetary. May you be inspired by both the good and evil within, so that you may embrace the former, and shun the latter.
© 1998 roansart
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