The Long Earth

We’re all proud of her. Bon voyage, enjoy the journey!’ He stepped back into the elevator, and as it descended out of sight a plate slid across to seal the polished floor.
    The voice of Lobsang sounded in the air. ‘Once again, welcome aboard, Joshua. Such dreadful weather, isn’t it? Never mind, I will soon have us above it or, should I say, away from it.’
    There was a jolt and the floor rocked. ‘We’ve detached from the gantry. Are we airborne already?’
    ‘Well, you wouldn’t have been brought here if we weren’t ready to go. Below us they will be breaking camp already, and then this site will suffer a minor version of the Tunguska event.’
    ‘Security, I take it.’
    ‘Of course. As for the workers, they are a mixed lot: Russians, Americans, Europeans, Chinese. None of them the kind of people who like to talk to the authorities. Clever folk who have worked for many masters, so very useful, and so commendably forgetful.’
    ‘Who supplied the plane?’
    ‘Ah. Did you enjoy your ride in the Lear? It is the property of a holding company who rent it out occasionally to a certain rock star, who tonight is fretting that the jet is unavailable because of an overhaul. But she will soon be distracted by learning that her latest album is two places higher in the charts than it was last night. The reach of Lobsang is great. Now that we are under way …’
    An inner door opened smoothly, revealing a corridor of panelled wood and subtle lamps, leading to a blue door at the end.
    ‘Welcome to the
Mark Twain
. Please make yourself at home. You will find on this corridor six staterooms, all identical; choose whichever one you like. You can shed your cold-weather gear. Notice also the blue door. That leads to a laboratory, workshop and fabrication plant, among other things. You will find a similar door on each deck. I would prefer if you do not go beyond unless invited. Any questions?’
    Joshua changed in the room he’d chosen at random, and then explored the
Mark Twain
.
    The tremendous envelope, rippling under partial pressurization, was evidently coated on the outside with solar-cell film for power, and there were propulsion units, big fragile-looking fans that could swivel and tilt. The gondola was as luxurious within as it had looked from the outside. There were several decks, with staterooms, a wheelhouse, an observation deck, and a saloon deck with a galley as well equipped as the kitchen of a high-class restaurant, and a spacious hall that could serve as a restaurant for fifty – or, incredibly, as a
cinema
. And on every deck there was that blue door, closed and locked.
    As he thought it over, Joshua began to see the point of stepping in an airship – as long as you could get the thing to step in the first place, and how you’d do that he didn’t yet understand. One problem with stepping rapidly was obstacles. He’d discovered on his very first night of exploration of the Long Earth that some obstacles simply couldn’t be walked around, such as the ice cap, sometimes miles high, that typically blanketed much of North America during an Ice Age. The airship was an attempt to get around that: it would ride above such inconveniences as glaciers or floods, and a much smoother journey ought to be possible.
    He asked the air, ‘But did it have to be quite so grand, Lobsang?’
    ‘Why not be grand? We can’t hide, after all. I want my exploratory vessel to be like the Chinese treasure ships which struck awe into the natives of India and Arabia in the fifteenth century.’
    ‘You’ll strike awe, all right. And no iron in this thing, I take it?’
    ‘I’m afraid not. The impermeability of the reality barrier to iron remains a mystery even to Black Corporation scientists. I get plenty of theorizing, but few practical results.’
    ‘You know, when you talked about the journey, I thought I’d be carrying
you
, somehow.’
    ‘Oh, no.
I
am wired into the airship’s systems. The whole ship will be my body, in a sense. Joshua,
I
will be carrying
you
.’
    ‘Only sentient creatures can step—’
    ‘Yes. And I, like you, am sentient!’
    And Joshua understood. The airship
was
Lobsang, or at least his body; when Lobsang stepped, the airship carcass came with him, just as Joshua ‘carried’ over his body, his clothes, whenever he stepped. And that was how an airship could step.
    Lobsang was smug and boastful. ‘Of course this would not work were I
not
sentient. This is further proof of my claims