“Mal, you’re not making any sense.” But the whole story had filed away her anger, for now. Lee just wanted to understand.

“Look, let’s sit down, okay?” And Mal did so, putting her back to the woven wicker of the sheep pen. Cautiously, Lee joined her.

“Nissa science is better than ours, right? As evidenced by the fact that they come to visit us and not the other way round. But it’s not that good. They have some suburb-sized hardware at their end, and it’s hit and miss. But the Fishnet is different…Okay, look, there’s another Earth where it all froze, and these fish guys all died. But beforehand, some uploaded themselves to a massive computer…or no, it’s more like…the ice, all the ice on their iced-over world, is their computer. They therefore have a world-sized computer, which makes Nissa tech look like stone axes. The Nissa reached some kind of understanding with it too. All that groping about in the air is when the Fishnet gives them some temporary interface. It brings it close enough to grant them access, letting them do all sorts of impressive magic.”

“And you…?”

“I have no access. It was only while on Nissa business that I got to play with the AI super-toys. I only rescued you before because the Nissa helped…and I’m not sure what happened when I was dropped out of the museum, into the rat world, to get you. I didn’t do that. And when I tried to get back to our Earth, through the fault I thought was still there, we ended up here. Maybe my molecules resonate with this world now. So, yeah, my fault again, and now we’re both stuck here unless the Nissa come to find us. Which, as I left Dr. Khan in the clutches of the bad guys, may never happen. We haven’t been seeing eye to eye for a while anyway, before this. On account of how I was screwing up their work in my quest to ruin your life.”

Lee found she was blinking back tears. “Four years,” she said flatly. “How did you live here for four years?”

“The dinos, they’re all right. They like me. I have thumbs. I mean, they’re really clever with their feet and beaks, but I am a goddamn demon with knots, Lee. They really like me to tie things to other things. And we can talk a bit. I know what berries will give you the trots and what to gather to avoid scurvy—because the local diet is pretty damn palaeo, right? Protein heavy.”