“There is a tiny risk associated with Displacement—”
The Affronter Captain gave a curt, bitter laugh. “I think I might risk that.”
“… very well,” the ship said. He could hear it hesitate. “Your comrades are trying to call you, Captain.”
He glanced at the comm’s screen. “Yes. I can see.” He selected transmit-only mode on the communicator. “Comrades,” he said. He paused. Since his childhood he had imagined moments like this; never as terrible, never founded on such hopelessness… and yet not so dissimilar, all the same. He had made up so many fine speeches… Finally he said, “There will be no discussion about this. You are ordered to surrender along with your ships and obey all subsequent instructions compatible with honour. That is all.”
He cut off all communications from the other ships. Greydawn bowed his eye stalks. “Now, please,” he said quietly.
And was in space. He looked around, through the suit’s sensors. No ships were visible; only distant stars.
“Goodbye, Captain,” said the ship’s voice.
“Goodbye,” he said to the ship, then turned off the communicator. He waited a few moments longer before triggering the emergency bolts on the suit and spilling himself into the vacuum to die.
The Heavy Messing, at that point acceding to a request from the Sleeper Service to transmit its log from the point it had been woken on Pittance, looked briefly back at the writhing, cooling form of the Affronter Captain, and sent a small pulse of plasma fire back to put the creature out of its agony.
XIII
The LSV Not Invented Here looked out at the hundreds of warships heaving to around it. It sensed signals flickering between them and the craft it had deployed; its four warships and the superlifters and GCUs it had militarised. It subsequently sensed its own ships altering their targeting procedures, shifting the foci of their attention from the ships the Sleeper Service had dispatched to itself.
The LSV’s Mind booted up the AI cores that would run the ship perfectly well until a replacement for itself could be found, checked they were working properly, then severed all its links with anything outside the physical limits of its Mind core. It ejected all eight of its internal emergency power units from itself.
Its awareness just faded away, like mist dispersed by a freshening wind.
Some hundreds of light years away, the Steely Glint had already considered taking the same course as the Not Invented Here. It had decided not to. It considered that putting its case for the way it had acted and accepting the judgement and sanctions of its peers was the more honourable course.
It studied again the text of the message it had received from the Sleeper Service.
I have been rather more constructively employed over the past few decades than might have been imagined. The following have been manufactured:
Type One Offensive Units (roughly equivalent to Abominator class prototype): 512.
Type Two Offensive Units (equivalent to Torturer class): 2048.
Type Three Offensive Units (equivalent to Inquisitor class prototype, upgraded): 2048.
Type Four Offensive Units (roughly equivalent to velocity-improved Killer class): 12 288.
Type Five Offensive Units (based on Thug class upgrade design study): 24 576.
Type Six Offensive Units (based on militarised Scree class LCU, various types): 49 152.
These craft do not represent a hegemonistic threat as they are not independent Mind-supporting entities; they are Al-core controlled, semi-slaved to me and therefore only capable of being used effectively as a single unit, not as a distributed war machine. All are currently deployed in the volume of space around the Excession.
The surrender of the Affronter fleet of Culture craft has been effected without conflict; the ROU Killing Time — aided by the other regular Culture warships in the volume — has taken charge of the vessels. It would appear that the craft from the ship store at Pittance are personally blameless and have been the victims of an act of treacherous espionage.
Nine Affronter military officers have also surrendered; their commanding officer took his own life. I include a roster of their names and ranks (list attached).
Should the Affront now sue for peace, I propose that I and therefore my war fleet be placed at the disposal of authorities considered acceptable to all concerned. I and the fleet under my command will not be used to prosecute any further hostilities against the Affront or anybody else.
Any other suggested uses will be evaluated on their merits.
Otherwise it is my intention — in the fullness of time — to dismantle the craft I have constructed and go into a retreat.
I attach a signal file received from the LSV Serious Callers Only (signal file attached).
I also attach records of the confirmatory signals used by the Attitude Adjuster to convince vessels from the ship store at Pittance that they were being mobilised by the Culture as a whole. These have been passed to me by each of the craft concerned (signal files attached).
The implication that the ships from Pittance have been used as part of a conspiracy to trick the Affront into a war has been noted. I imagine that the ships/Minds named in the aforesaid files and those others also concerned in the matter will each wish to make a full explication of their motives, thoughts and actions concerning this alleged stratagem and take any further steps honour dictates.
The Mind of the LSV Not Invented Here has taken its own life.
Given the apparent at least partial entrapment of the Affront in this matter, further action against them of a punitive nature might seem to be both excessive and dishonourable. Please note that a copy of this signal, slightly edited for signal-operational methodology and stripped of codes and ciphers, has been sent to the Affront High Command and Senate as well as to the following news services (list attached) and the Galactic General Council.
Regarding the Excession itself, I have the following to report:
— Be seeing you.
— What? Where are you going? the Sleeper Service sent as the Grey Area shot past it.
— Here; Churt Lyne wants to jump ship.
The Grey Area Displaced the ancient drone into the Sleeper Service.
The giant GSV had finally come to a halt, not far from the thirty-light-year limit the Fate Amenable To Change had discovered and the Excession had, seemingly, set.
The GSV’s war fleet was still deployed, set out in a year’s-radius hemisphere throughout the skein while the Affronter’s fleet of tricked Culture craft gathered together and opened their armament and armour systems to the scrutiny and control of the Killing Time and its comrades. The Affronter officers were transferred aboard the Killing Time still in their space suits while the GSV What Is The Answer And Why? quickly readied secure accommodation for them.
— Come back!
The Grey Area was too far away.
[tight beam, M8, tra. @4.28.891.7393]