The Long Earth

right, so he got up and strolled that way. He emerged into a vast area of burned stumps and ash fields: not a recent fire, already new saplings were poking shoots through the stinking black mess, with green leaves apparent here and there. Just a forest fire, a dieback. It was all part of the great cycle of nature which, when you’ve seen it one point three million times, squarely pisses you off.
    The airship was above him suddenly; its shadow sprawled across the clearing, an abrupt eclipse. Joshua clipped his earpiece back on.
    Lobsang’s voice was an irritating whine. ‘We have lost her! Could you not have beguiled her into the ship? Clearly she has discovered a new way to step! And what’s more—’
    Joshua plucked out his earpiece again. He sat down on a stump, a crumbling mass of colourful fungus. He felt stunned by the encounter with Sally, the blizzard of words that had evidently been pent up inside her. And she was travelling alone, as he used to. It was a slightly electrifying thought. On his sabbaticals , he had survived in any number of worlds like this.
    Suddenly it occurred to him that he didn’t want or need a giant damn airship hovering over his head any more.
    Joshua put the earpiece back on, and considered what to say. What was the phrase that Sister Agnes always used when some high-flying ecclesiastical or other tried to throw his weight around at the Home? ‘Can you hear me, Lobsang? You ain’t the boss of me, sir, you surely ain’t. The only thing you could do right now is kill me, and you
still
wouldn’t be the boss of me.’
    There was no reply.
    He got up and strolled downhill, in so far as there was a hill at all. But it was a definite slope, and that would mean a river, and
that
would mean open ground, cover and, almost certainly, game of some sort. All he’d need to survive here.
    Lobsang replied at last. ‘You are right, Joshua. I am not the boss of you and have no desire to be. On the other hand I can’t believe you are serious in the hints you are giving that you might jump ship. We are travelling with a purpose, remember.’
    ‘Whatever your purpose I’m not about to kidnap anybody, Lobsang.’ He stopped. ‘OK, I’ll come aboard. But under certain conditions.’
    The airship was right overhead now.
    ‘The foremost of these is that I come and go to the ground any time I wish, OK?’
    This time Lobsang replied by loudspeaker, a booming celestial voice. ‘Are you trying to
negotiate
with me, Joshua?’
    Joshua scratched his nose. ‘Actually I’m trying to demand, I think. And as for Sally, I have a feeling we shall see her very shortly, regardless of you and your plans.
You’ll
never be able to find a solitary human being in all these forest worlds, but she will find it very easy to see a damn great airship in the sky.
She
will find
us
.’
    ‘But she travels alone, as you do. She’s travelled much further in fact. Perhaps she doesn’t need people, and will not be motivated to find us at all.’
    Joshua walked across the damp ashes towards the lift-ring that was descending to the ground. ‘She doesn’t need people. But I believe she
wants
people.’
    ‘How can you possibly know that?’
    ‘Because of the way she talked to me. All those words pouring out, because they needed to be said. Because your precious mountain men were probably just the same at their rendezvous. Because
I’m
the same. Because this human called Joshua keeps going back home, just every now and then, to visit, to be with folk. To be fucking human, not to put too fine a point on it, and Daniel Boone can kiss my ass.’
    ‘I’ve said it before, Joshua. Travel has most definitely broadened your mind, if not your vocabulary.’
    ‘And besides, there’s something else, Lobsang. Something you’re missing. Do you imagine it’s
chance
that she happened to show up under our keel, with her campfire blazing?’
    ‘Well—’
    ‘She knew we were coming, Lobsang. I’m certain of it. She wants something from us. The question is what?’
    ‘Your point is well made. I’ll consider it. Incidentally I have captured and dissected several of those flying creatures. They appear to be remarkably like wasps, although they act more like bees. A new order. Which is why one should be wary of arbitrarily applying labels like “dinosaurs”.’
    ‘Have you changed your voice?’
    ‘Yes, indeed, it is warm and reflective, is it not?’
    ‘It makes you sound like a rabbi!’
    ‘Ah yes, close enough;