It landed on the parapet of a balcony which looked out into the rear of this set of general bays. Beyond were thirty-two cubic kilometres of empty air; a perfectly empty general bay, the sort of place where a normal GSV of this size would be building a smaller GSV, playing host to one which was visiting, housing an alien environment like a gigantic guests" room, turning over to some sports venue, or sub-dividing into smaller storage or manufacturing spaces.
Gravious looked back at the modest tableau on the balcony, which in its previous existence, before the GSV had decided to go Eccentric, had been part of a cafe with a fine view of the bay. Here were posed seven humans, all with their backs to the view of the empty bay and facing the hologram of a calm, empty swimming pool. The humans wore trunks; they sat in deck chairs around a couple of low tables full of drinks and snacks. They had been caught in the acts of laughing, talking, blinking, scratching their chin, drinking.
Some famous painting, apparently. It didn't look very artistic to Gravious. It supposed you had to see it from the right angle.
It lifted one leg up from the parapet, and slipped, falling into the air of the general bay. It hit something between it and the bay and fell, bouncing off the bay's rear wall, then off the invisible wall, then found its bearings, flapped close and parallel to the wall, twisted in the air when it got back to the level of the balcony, and returned to it.
Uh-huh, it thought. It risked using again the senses it was not supposed to have. Solidity in the bay. What it had hit was not glass, and not a field between it and the empty bay; the bay was not empty, and what it had hit was the field-edge of a projection. On the far side, for at least two kilometres, there was solid matter. Dense, solid matter. Partially exotic dense solid matter.
Well, there you were. The bird shook itself and preened a little, combing its feathers smooth with its beak. Then it looked around and half hopped, half flew over to one of the posed figures. It inspected each one briefly, staring into an eye here, seemingly looking for a juicy parasite in an ear here, peering at a stray hair here and carefully studying a nostril here.
It often did this, studying the next ones to go, the ones who would next be revived and taken away. As though there was something to be learned from their carefully artificial postures.
It pecked, in a desultory, barely interested sort of way at a stray hair in one man's armpit, then hopped away, studying the group from a variety of nearby tables and angles, trying to find the correct perspective from which to view the scene. Soon to be gone, of course. In fact, they were all going. This lot with the rest, but this lot to re-awakening whereas most of them would just be Stored somewhere else. But this lot, when they were woken in a few hours, would be coming back to life, somewhere. Funny to think of it.
Finally, the bird shook its head, stretched its wings, and hopped through the hologram and into the deserted cafe beyond, ready to begin the first leg of its journey back to its mistress.
A few moments later, the avatar Amorphia stepped out of another part of the hologram, turned once to glance back at where the bird had hopped through the projection, then went and squatted before the figure of the man at whose armpit Gravious had pecked.
IV
[tight beam, M32, tra. @n4.28.864. 0001]
xEccentric Shoot Them Later
oGSV Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The
It was me.
oo
[tight beam, M32, tra. @n4.28.864.1971]
xGSV Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The
oEccentric Shoot Them Later
What was you?
oo
I was the go-between for the information transmitted from the AhForgetlt Tendency to SC. One of our people on Tier saw the Affront light cruiser Furious Purpose as it arrived back there; it had a location in Elench code burned onto its scar-hull. The information was transmitted from the Tendency mission on Tier to me; I passed it on to the Different Tan and the Steely Glint, my usual contacts in the Group/Gang. I would guess the signal was then relayed to the GSV Ethics Gradient, home ship of the GCU Fate Amenable To Change, which subsequently discovered the Excession.
So in a sense, this is all my fault. I apologise.
I had hoped this confession would never be necessary, but having turned this over in my mind I have concluded that — as was the case concerning the passing-on of the original information regarding the scar-hull signal in the first place — I had no choice. Had you guessed? Had you started to? Do you still trust me?
oo
It had occurred to me, but I had no access to Tendency transmission records and was unwilling to ask the other Gang members directly. I trust you no less for what you say. Why are you telling me now?
oo
I would like to retain that trust. Have you discovered anything else?
oo
Yes. I think there is a link to a man called Genar-Hofoen, a Contact representative with the Affront on a habitat called God'shole, in the Fernblade. He left there the day after the Excession was discovered; SC has hired three Affronter battle cruisers to take him to Tier. They are due there in fourteen days. His biography: (files attached). You see the connection? That ship again.
oo
You think it involved beyond what we believe we have agreed to already?
oo
Yes. And the Grey Area.
oo
The times look a little unlikely; if it really pushed itself the GA can reach Tier in, what?… three days or so after this human gets there? But that still leaves our other concern two months or more out of touch.
oo
I know. Still, I think there is something going on. I am following up all the avenues of investigation I can. I'm making further inquiries through the more likely contacts mentioned in his file, but it's all going terribly slowly. Thank you for your candour. I shall remain in touch.
oo
You're welcome. Do keep me informed.
[stuttered tight point, M32, tra. @n4.28. 865.2203]
xEccentric Shoot Them Later
oLSV Serious Callers Only
Got fed up waiting; I called it (signal file attached).
oo
[stuttered tight point, M32, tra. @n4.28. 865.2690]
xLSV Serious Callers Only
oEccentric Shoot Them Later
And now it "trusts you no less'. ha!
oo
I remain convinced it was the right thing to do.
oo
Whatever; it is done. What of the ship you asked to head for Pittance?
oo
On its way.
oo
And why Pittance?
oo
Is it not obvious? Perhaps not. Mayhap the paranoia of The Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival is contagious… However that may be, let me make my argument: Pittance houses a veritable cornucopia of weaponry; indeed, the weapons deployed there just to protect the main cache of munitions — that is, the ships — alone represents a vast stockpile of potential destruction. Certainly the store's course takes it nowhere near the Excession, but it has taken it into the general volume within which the Affront have some interest. Now, while it has almost certainly gone unnoticed and even if it is spotted and tracked it can be of no interest'to the Affront (and, of course, it is anyway well able to defend itself), and it is not part of the subtle mobilisation being organised by the Steely Glint, it nevertheless represents the greatest concentration of matériel in the vicinity.
I start to wonder; when, roughly, did the Culture start to have doubts — serious doubts — about the Affront? And when was Pittance chosen as one of the ship stores? Around the same time. Indeed, Pittance was chosen, fitted out and stocked entirely within the time-scale of the debate which took place at the end of the Idiran War regarding military intervention against the Affront. There are billions of bodies like Pittance; the galaxy is littered with such pieces of wreckage wandering between the stars. Yet Pittance was chosen as one of only eleven such stores; a rock whose slow progress would take it into Affronter space within five or six centuries — depending on how fast the Affront expanded their sphere of influence — and which might well remain within that sphere for the foreseeable future, given that Affronter influence could easily push its borders out at a greater rate than that of a slowly tumbling rock moving at much less than a per cent of light speed. How fortuitous to have such a wealth of weaponry embedded in Affront space!