The Long Earth

world after world as she works her way along the chain of the Long Earth.’
    Sally said, ‘She is a destroyer of worlds. An eater of souls. If the trolls sensed any of this, no wonder they were terrified.’
    Lobsang said, ‘Of course there is the question of why she hasn’t
already
reached the inhabited worlds. Why she has not already consumed the Earth. Destroyed it, with curiosity and love.’
    Joshua frowned. ‘The Gap. It can’t be a coincidence we found her so close to the Gap.’
    ‘Yes,’ Lobsang said. ‘She can’t cross the Gap. Not yet, at any rate. If not for that she might already have reached the inhabited worlds.’
    ‘We can cross the Gap,’ Sally said. ‘The trolls can. Surely she’ll learn. And then there are the soft places. If she could use them – my God. It’s like a plague, consuming the Long Earth world by world.’
    ‘No,’ Lobsang said firmly. ‘This is no plague, no malignant virus or bacterium. This is a conscious entity. And there, I believe, lies hope. Joshua, how did she speak to you in the first place? You heard your own voice in your head, yes? That doesn’t sound like telepathy – a species of communication for which I have yet to find one single reliable piece of evidence. This sounds like something new. It asked you what a nun was! If I may hazard a guess, it accessed the information then currently at the top of your thoughts. Thinking of Sister Agnes, were you? As an engineer I find it all hard to believe. But as a Buddhist, I accept there are more ways to think about the universe than one can imagine.’
    ‘I sincerely hope we are not going to start talking religion,’ said Sally sharply.
    ‘Open your mind, Sally. It’s only another framework for understanding the universe, just another tool.’
    ‘So what does that make Joshua?’ she snapped back. ‘The chosen one?’
    The two of them looked at Joshua.
    ‘In a way,’ he said reluctantly. ‘Or at least, she seemed to recognize me. If she hadn’t actually been expecting me.’
    Sally scowled, evidently jealous. ‘Why you?’
    Lobsang said gently, ‘Perhaps it is because of the circumstances of our hero’s miraculous birth, Sally. Your first instants of life, Joshua, when you were entirely alone on another world. Your cries echoed, evidently, across the Long Earth. Or your loneliness, perhaps. And you and First Person Singular, similarly lonely, make up a kind of dipole.’
    This bewildered Joshua. Not for the first time he wished Sister Agnes were here so he could talk it over with her. ‘Is this why you brought me here, Lobsang? I keep finding you anticipated all we’ve experienced … Did you know
this
would happen?’
    ‘I knew you were special, Joshua. Unique. Yes, I thought that facet of you would be – useful. But I didn’t know quite how, I admit that.’
    Sally stared at Joshua, stone-faced. ‘How does it feel to be so manipulated, Joshua?’
    Joshua looked away, hot with anger, at Lobsang, at the universe for singling him out.
    Lobsang said now, ‘Evidently we need to learn more about First Person Singular.’
    Sally said, ‘True enough. And we need to find a way to stop her panicking the trolls. Not to mention eating the Datum Earth.’
    ‘Tomorrow we will go and see her again. I suggest we have a decent night’s rest, and prepare for another encounter with the ineffable in the morning. But this time, with Joshua having made initial contact, I will lead.’
    ‘Huh! The ineffable meets the intolerable! Oh, I’m going to bed.’ Sally stormed off the deck.
    ‘She’s got a short fuse,’ Joshua said.
    ‘But you understand why she is angry, Joshua,’ Lobsang said mildly. ‘You were chosen. She was not. She’ll probably never forgive you.’
    It was a strange night for Joshua. He kept waking, convinced that someone had spoken his name. Somebody desperately lonely, but he didn’t know how he knew that. Then he would get a bit more sleep, and the cycle would start all over again. It didn’t stop until the morning.
    In silence they gathered in the observation deck once more. Sally was bleary-eyed too, and Lobsang, in his soberly dressed and hastily repaired ambulant, was unusually quiet. Joshua wondered how
their
nights had been.
    And the first surprise was that First Person Singular was no longer there. She could be seen about half a mile out to sea, moving so slowly there was hardly even a wake. First Person Singular was clearly not one for hurrying, but on the other hand