Down in the Bottomlands

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Down in the Bottomlands is a novella written by Harry Turtledove which takes places in an alternative history in which the Atlantic Ocean did not reflood the Mediterranean Sea 5.5 million years ago in the Miocene Epoch, as it did in our history. The Mediterranean Basin thus remains dry to the present day in this time line, as a vast sunken desert called the Bottomlands, averaging nearly two kilometers below mean sea level, with summer temperatures reaching well above 40°C and with little or no rainfall.

[edit] Plot

The story concerns a field biologist working at "Trench Park" named Radnal vez Krobir. He is a citizen of Tartesh, a Homo neanderthalensis nation which seems to take in much of the west part of the Bottomlands and what in the real world is France and Spain. He is doing a two-year stint as a field guide to tourists from his and other nations who are visiting the Park to see the plants and animals there. During one of those tours, a military officer of the "Kingdom of Morgaf" (real-world Britain and Ireland ) is killed by one of the other tourists in his party.

Radnal must call higher authorities to investigate the matter, and in the course of their investigation, they determine that the deceased man had a microprint in his effects outlining a plot by another nation to set off a "starbomb" (nuclear weapon) near the "Barrier Mountains" (a range of mountains joining the Sierra Nevada (Spain) and the Rif across where the real-world Strait of Gibraltar is), thereby setting off one of the many geologic faults in the area, knocking a gap in the mountains, and reflooding the Bottomlands to form a new central sea, instigated apparently by Krepalga (a Homo sapiens nation occupying all or part of the Middle East, which would have benefited by having a real-world-type Mediterranean Sea up to its west border).

Radnal and other characters eventually find who killed the Morgaffo officer and with the unwitting help of a koprit bird (similar to a shrike) native to the Park, track down the location of the bomb, where it is defused. Koprit birds apparently have a habit of stealing bright shiny things; it stole the fuse from the bomb and used it to decorate its food-hoard bush to attract a mate, as the fuse had been disguised as jewelry to smuggle it in past security.

The conspirators had sabotaged all the tour party's transport, leaving them stranded far below sea level on the hot dry abyssal plain. This leaves a squad of Tarteshan secret police and police and army with the job of evacuating the tour party, by giving each member a big backpack tank of drinking water and marching them out; partway up to sea level a helicopter finds them and flies the party the rest of the way. (The author realises that in such an ordeal, people cannot live on such small rations as a capful per day from a water bottle, as too often found in stories and in attempted survival in the real world.)

The story ends with Radnal being honored by his fellow subjects of the "Hereditary Tyrant" (i.e., King) of Tartesh at a great festival in Tartesh's capital Tarteshem, for saving the Bottomlands from certain destruction where he meets again a woman named Toglo vez Pamdal, who was in his tour party. She had told him she was a "distant collateral relative" of the Hereditary Tyrant but it turns out is actually his niece. They shake hands at the story's conclusion and presumably begin a romantic relationship.

The story is told from Radnal's point of view and we see him describe Trench Park and its animals and plants to the tourists. Through these descriptions, we come to understand the unique geography and ecosystem contained within the Bottomlands and its Trench and how animals and plants would have adapted to a desert environment two kilometers below average sea level. We also see how the geography of the area would have been different from our timeline, including things like deep river canyons as the rivers around the Mediterranean would have incised such canyons in their descent down the old continental shelf; hydroelectric dams on such rivers generated 80% of Tartesh's electricity.

The novella first saw print in January 1993 in Analog magazine and has been reprinted twice since then, once in 1997 in The New Hugo Award Winners, Volume IV and then again in 1999 with a couple other novellas in a book called Down in the Bottomlands.

[edit] External links

Down in The Bottomlands in Baen Free Library

v • d • e Works by Harry Turtledove
Videssos books	Videssos Cycle	The Misplaced Legion | An Emperor for the Legion | The Legion of Videssos | The Swords of the Legion
	The Tale of Krispos	Krispos Rising | Krispos of Videssos | Krispos the Emperor
	Time of Troubles	The Stolen Throne | Hammer and Anvil | The Thousand Cities | Videssos Besieged
		The Bridge of the Separator
The Race or Tosev timeline series	Worldwar Tetralogy	In the Balance | Tilting the Balance | Upsetting the Balance | Striking the Balance
	Colonization	Second Contact | Down to Earth | Aftershocks
		Homeward Bound
Southern Victory or Timeline-191		How Few Remain
	Great War Trilogy	American Front | Walk in Hell | Breakthroughs
	American Empire Trilogy	Blood and Iron | The Center Cannot Hold | The Victorious Opposition
	Settling Accounts Tetralogy	Return Engagement | Drive to the East | The Grapple | In at the Death
Darkness		Into the Darkness | Darkness Descending | Through the Darkness | Rulers of the Darkness | Jaws of the Darkness | Out of the Darkness
War Between the Provinces		Sentry Peak | Marching Through Peachtree | Advance and Retreat
Hellenic Traders		Over the Wine Dark Sea | The Gryphon's Skull | The Sacred Land | Owls to Athens
Crosstime Traffic		Gunpowder Empire | Curious Notions | In High Places | The Disunited States of America | The Gladiator | The Valley-Westside War
Pacific War Series		Days of Infamy | End of the Beginning
Scepter of Mercy		The Chernagor Pirates | The Bastard King | The Scepter's Return
Other, non-series books
Agent of Byzantium | A Different Flesh | Noninterference | Kaleidoscope | A World Of Difference | Earthgrip | The Guns of the South | The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump | Departures | Down in the Bottomlands | The Two Georges | Thessalonica | Between the Rivers | Justinian | Household Gods | Counting Up, Counting Down | Ruled Britannia | In the Presence of Mine Enemies | Conan of Venarium | Every Inch a King | Fort Pillow | Beyond the Gap | Opening Atlantis | The Battle of Teutoberg Forest