The Black Corporation

In the Long Earth series, the Black Corporation is an all-encompassing super-corporation with more power and resources than many nation states. As Stepping takes off, it seeks to consolidate its power and to meet this new threat by making itself ultra-helpful to nation states, providing technology that enables it to spread its influence up and down the Long Earth. Twains, Lobsang and Shi-mi are just parts of its master plan.

When the power for humankind to step into a identical world was first discovered, people had different approaches to it. Some said that it was a sign of the incoming apocalypse, others that it was an unnatural thing and should be shunned. The Black Corporation, however, believed that it was an easy way of getting money quickly and easily, and it sought to extract as much wealth as possible from the alternate realities. transEarth is the name by which its Long Earth operations are known, and this front company is part-owned by Douglas Black and Lobsang.