The Long Earth

you had to remind yourself that what was doing the not hurrying was twice the size of Manhattan Island.
    There was no discussion about whether to follow her. They all took it as a given that they would have to. But the
Mark Twain
, still capable of stepping from world to world, no longer had the means to move across this world.
    Joshua said, ‘Lobsang, don’t you have another marine unit? I know what you are like when it comes to backups. There’s hardly any wind, and we’ve got more ropes than a circus tent. Our big friend over there is hardly racing. Maybe your marine unit could
tow
us?’
    It did work, but only just. The
Mark Twain
, aloft, had a great deal of drag to overcome. Sally remarked that it was like the
Titanic
being towed by a motorboat engine – but an engine devised by Lobsang and built by the Black Corporation, which was why the solution worked at all.
    Generally the wheelhouse was Lobsang’s private domain. But today it was open house, and the three of them watched the barely visible wake of First Person Singular. Most of the traveller was underwater now. ‘Only heaven knows what her propulsion system is,’ Lobsang said. ‘And while it’s about it, heaven might like to hazard a guess as to why the seas around her are suddenly teeming with fish.’
    It was true, Joshua saw. The water was bright with fins; there were even dolphins somersaulting through the air. First Person Singular was travelling with an honour guard. Joshua was used to seeing rivers vibrantly alive across the worlds; in the absence of humanity the seas everywhere seemed to be as crowded as the old Grand Banks off Newfoundland, where, it was said, a man could once have walked on the water, so heavy was it with cod. People who’d never left Datum Earth didn’t know what they were missing. But probably even the Grand Banks at their zenith couldn’t have been as alive with fish as the waters behind the traveller.
    ‘Evidently,’ Sally said, ‘she has a way of attracting lesser creatures. Maybe it’s how she lures them close enough to absorb them.’
    Lobsang was in an expansive mood. ‘Magnificent, isn’t it? Do you see those dolphins? Better than a Busby Berkeley routine!’
    Sally asked, ‘Who on earth is a Busby Berkeley?’
    Even Joshua knew the answer to that one.
    Sally said, ‘If you two are going to start talking old movies again—’
    Lobsang cleared his throat. ‘Did anyone experience anything
unusual
last night?’
    Joshua and Sally shared a glance.
    Sally said, ‘You raised it, Lobsang. What are you talking about?’
    ‘In my case there was an attempt at what I experienced as hacking. Which is quite a challenge. For the guys in the Black Corporation, trying to hack me was a sport, and most certainly kept me on my toes. Nevertheless,
something
made a spirited attempt last night. I believe, however, that this was done in a beneficent way. Nothing has been taken, nothing was changed, but I believe that some memory stores have been accessed, and copied.’
    Sally asked, ‘Such as?’
    ‘Information about the trolls. About stepping. It backs up the story you were given, Joshua. But this is a very partial hypothesis. For me it is like trying to recover a memory.’
    Sally said, ‘
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
’ They stared at her, and she blushed, and snapped defiantly, ‘What? So I know Keats? Lots of people know Keats, my grandfather often recited Keats. Although he always used to spoil it by saying afterwards that he loved Keats but had never actually seen a keat.’
    ‘I know Keats,’ Joshua said reassuringly. ‘And so does Sister Georgina. You’ll have to meet her. I had a waking dream too. I sensed loneliness again.’
    Sally admitted, ‘Me too. But in my case it was something wonderful. A kind of welcome.’
    Lobsang asked, ‘Welcoming enough to make you want to jump into the water and lose your identity? We’re closing, by the way. I think she is waiting for us to catch her up, and I very much want to catch up with
her
.’
    ‘Excuse me,’ said Sally, ‘I have no intention of boarding that floating thing and becoming another souvenir in some internal zoo.’
    ‘Happily, Sally, I intend to be the only one setting foot on First Person Singular. Or at least this ambulant unit will be. I want to communicate with her, much more fully, before she continues her stepping journey, and persuade her to stop.’
    Joshua thought that over. ‘And if she won’t turn back … Can she be