House of Suns

by Alastair Reynolds

  I went and looked, but in my hearts of hearts I knew it was hopeless. This ship had logged billions of hours of safe flight without ever putting its passengers in the embarrassing position of needing spacesuits.

  ‘Once we are in the ark,’ Hesperus said, ‘it may be problematic to return here. Let us be certain that we are leaving behind nothing of value; nothing that can’t be fabricated by the ark’s makers.’

  ‘There isn’t anything. We don’t even have an energy-pistol to our name.’

  ‘Then we leave now. Give me explicit directions to the ship in question. Describe it well, and describe the boarding procedure.’

  I did as I was asked. Hesperus nodded slowly. ‘Yes. I remember passing that ship as we attempted our escape. There was a door thirty-eight metres from the bow. Are you certain it will permit me to enter?’

  ‘There are no security seals in place. Why should there be? We’re on my ship.’

  ‘It was necessary to ask.’ Hesperus returned his attention to the console. ‘Go to the door and wait for me. I will be with you in a moment.’

  ‘What are you doing?’ I asked, as his hands worked the controls again.

  ‘I am increasing power to the drive.’

  I felt the shuttle buck in its restraints. ‘We tried that. It didn’t work.’

  ‘I’ll explain when we’re on our way. There isn’t time now.’

  By the time I had lowered the ramp and made my way to the docking catwalk, Hesperus was done. I could hear the warning alarm sounding from the console. The shuttle was straining, but going nowhere.

  ‘What did you just do?’

  He strode down the ramp and palmed the control to retract it back into the shuttle and seal it from the outside. ‘Let me carry you. The quicker we reach the ark, the better. We are almost certainly being observed.’

  ‘This does nothing for my dignity.’

  ‘That makes two of us.’ Hesperus cradled me and accelerated quickly into his superhuman sprint, heading in the direction of the ark. His legs became a blur of gold, but the ride was as smooth as if we were levitating.

  ‘Hesperus, what did you do to the engine?’

  ‘As I have already mentioned, we are almost certainly being pursued. The shuttle’s motor is now working against Silver Wings’ parametric engine, causing a tiny decrease in drive efficiency.’

  ‘You’re right - it’s tiny. That’s like trying to slow down an ocean liner by dipping a twig in the water.’

  ‘Nonetheless, we have many twigs.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘The bay is full of ships. When we are safely aboard the ark, I shall endeavour to turn on as many engines as possible. Even if I am only able to activate a few, it may negate Silver Wings’ drive efficiency by as much as one or two per cent.’

  ‘That’s not going to make Cadence and Cascade very happy.’

  ‘And if I could think of something to make them even less happy, I would do it.’ Hesperus paused, then said, ‘Oh dear.’

  “‘Oh dear” what?’

  ‘I just detected a micro-change in the air pressure.’

  I looked behind him, back the way we had come. The bay door was beginning to open again, inching upward to reveal a narrow crack of interstellar space.

  ‘The pressure curtain—’ I said.

  ‘They’ve deactivated it. Take a series of deep breaths, Purslane. I believe we are about to lose our atmosphere.’

  The squall hit us a moment later with the force of nearly fifty cubic kilometres of air draining into vacuum. A noise that began quietly and distantly gradually increased in power until it was the sound of the universe being torn in two.

  We still had at least a kilometre to go. I tried to speak, but I could not hear my own voice above the howl of the escaping air. Hesperus cradled me tighter and contracted his upper body around me, his legs seeming to move even faster. The gale became a solid wall of resistance, one that would have swept me into space had I not been anchored to Hesperus. I had no idea how he was keeping himself from being blown away - his feet must have been binding themselves to the catwalk with every tread.

  From somewhere in the distance I heard a sound that, as impossible as it seemed, was even louder than the wind’s roar. Through slitted eyes I saw one of my ships tumbling towards us, torn loose from its moorings. It was wheeling end over end, smashing into the larger vehicles which were still anchored. It was only a runabout, but it would pulverise us if it came our way. Just as I was thinking that, the loose ship jarred another one and sent that drifting, picking up speed as the wind tugged at its hull. The runabout dashed itself against the hull of an Eleventh Intercessionary scow, shattering like an old-boned carcass. Something came spinning towards us out of the wreck. I turned my head instinctively, as if that would do the slightest good. Hesperus let go of me with one arm, taking my full weight with the other, and I saw a flash of gold as he batted aside the spinning object. The remains of the runabout tumbled past, followed by the second ship it had knocked loose. I turned back in time to see the wreckage slip through the open door, and then I had to close my eyes against the stinging wind. I took another breath, and the air was thinner and colder than it had been before. The chamber was emptying itself even faster, as the door opened to its fullest extent. Then I took another breath and my lungs closed on nothing, like a fist reaching for a handhold that was no longer there.

  I must have blacked out, although I do not remember the slide into unconsciousness. But when I came around, Hesperus was kneeling over me and we were somewhere warm and white and silent, somewhere with gravity, and I could breathe.

  ‘We are in the ark. You lost consciousness, but I do not think any great damage was done. Do you feel all right?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Perhaps that was not the best way to phrase the question.’

  ‘I’ll mend. How long was I out?’

  ‘A few minutes, but you were only without air for ninety seconds. I was able to work the door as you instructed.’ Hesperus patted the white wall behind him. ‘You chose well, Purslane. This ship will serve as our sanctuary, for now at least.’

  He helped me stand, his hands as gentle as a lover’s.

  ‘Are we all right now?’

  ‘The ark has brought itself to life, so there is definitely power. All indications suggest that there is now a hard vacuum beyond the door. The rest will be revealed once you have shown me to the control centre.’

  ‘I think the bridge is this way,’ I said, indicating a passageway.

  ‘Then lead on.’

  We walked through the ark, taking twisting and turning white corridors until we reached the dome-shaped bulge above her whale-like bows where the bridge was situated. Along the way we passed the ancient galleries that would once have held sleepers, ranked row upon row like stone figurines on a cathedral wall. Now all that remained were the coffin-shaped alcoves where the sleeper equipment had once fitted. The civilisation that had converted the ark - nearly as forgotten as the one that had made the ship in the first place - had intended the galleries to be used for freight or recreation, widening the doors accordingly. Other galleries had been filled with the elephantine machinery of the ark’s stardrive and associated systems, which filled fully a third of the available volume. I could not remember whether her remaining cargo holds were empty, or crammed with more of my junk.

  The bridge was a circular room with a low, dish-shaped ceiling. Padded, lounge-like seats in white leather surrounded a circular command core, with a transparent display sphere poised above it. Branching white control stalks emerged from the core, ending in squeezable bulbs or delicate, trigger-like grips. Illumination was provided by floating baubles. There were no windows - the walls were blank except for patterns stencilled in pale lilac. Almost everything in the room was white, with an almost total absence of shadows or contrast.

  ‘Do you mind?’ Hesperus asked, gesturing to one of the waiting seats.

  ‘Go ahead. See what you can f
ind out.’

  I stood behind him as he settled into the seat and took the controls. Almost immediately, portions of the white floor folded upwards to form display panels, bending and tilting to present themselves to Hesperus. Acres of dense red text and diagrams flowed obligingly into place. The language was a fussy series of squared-off pictograms.

  ‘Ring any bells?’ I asked warily.

  ‘I’ve seen it before. It’ll just take a moment to retrieve the translation filters from deep memory.’

  ‘Great. I kept meaning to convert all these ships to Line control standards, but I just never got around to it.’

  ‘That’ll teach you.’

  ‘Teach me what?’

  ‘Never put off until the next million years what you can do during this million.’ After dispensing this advice, Hesperus fell silent, his hands twitching and the text and diagrams slamming past in a pink blur, impossibly fast.

  ‘Give me some good news,’ I asked after a while.

  ‘Well, there is power, as we already deduced. The important thing is that there is more than enough for our needs. The stardrive reports operational readiness. Life support appears to be functioning normally. We have inertia control and impassors. We have real-thrust engines, for taxiing to clear space. If there were no obstacles to our egress, we could take this ark out of the bay immediately.’

  I scratched my neck. ‘So why don’t we?’

  ‘Cadence and Cascade have complete control, Purslane. They opened the door with the intention of killing you. Now that the air is gone, I have every confidence that they will have restored the curtain and sealed the bay again. We wouldn’t get very far, I’m afraid.’

  ‘We could try.’

  ‘We would die in the process. At least for now we are alive, with options.’

  ‘And they would be ...’

  ‘We can inconvenience our hosts by slowing down your ship. You will need to furnish me with a list of those vessels that have working parametric engines. There are too many for me to visit the entire contents of the bay.’

  ‘I can do that. What other options do we have?’

  ‘We will attempt to contact our pursuers, and thereby determine our position, speed and approximate heading. Then we may begin to speculate as to the nature of this undertaking.’

  ‘We’re heading back to Machine Space.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, distractedly.

  ‘You sound as if you’re not sure of that.’

  ‘I am sure of nothing, Purslane. It has been a long time since I left the Monoceros Ring, but nothing in my experience suggested a widespread appetite for war. Quite the opposite. Most reasoning thinkers wanted nothing but peace and prosperity, for both our meta-civilisations. I was sent to investigate anomalous records in the Vigilance archive, for the sake of completeness and curiosity. I was not sent to make war or enemies.’

  I realised this was the first time he had spoken with any certainty of his mission.

  ‘Then what about Cadence and Cascade?’

  ‘They may have been sent by another faction within the Machine People. What their agenda is, I cannot yet say.’

  ‘But you have ideas.’

  ‘I have pieces. Fragments of ideas. And one very large, very disturbing truth, which I will soon be obliged to reveal to you.’

  ‘Tell me what they sent you for,’ I said, with a sense that the world was about to spring open a trapdoor under my feet.

  Hesperus made a few further adjustments to the controls, but did not answer my question. ‘I have secured the external doors. Nothing will be able to enter without the use of force.’

  ‘That’s not particularly reassuring under the circumstances.’

  ‘I will not overstate our chances. If they have access to Silver Wings’ systems, they will be able to forge weapons and devices of vast penetrating force. But we have makers as well. We can defend ourselves. And, ultimately, we have an option they do not.’

  I heard something ominous in his tone. ‘Which is?’

  ‘We can destroy this ark. If the engine were to self-destruct, I doubt that any containment system would be able to stop the detonation before it touched every other ship in this hold - not even if Silver Wings tried to place an impassor around her bay.’

  ‘Then we have a way of hurting them.’ I did not need to state the dark corollary.

  ‘It would be instantaneous, Purslane. If you were afraid, I could complete the operation while you were in abeyance.’

  ‘Well, let’s not jump the gun on that plan just yet.’

  ‘I just want to make sure we both understand what we are capable of doing.’

  ‘I get it. Will Cadence and Cascade work it out as well?’

  ‘They will know we are capable of it. Whether they think we will do it is another question entirely.’

  ‘Do you think they know we’re still alive?’

  ‘They know that I am still functioning, and that you were alive until you lost consciousness. I do not think they are capable of monitoring our activities inside this ark.’

  ‘They’ll see you when you leave.’

  ‘I’ll move fast, alter my coloration and endeavour to use the ships and other obstructions for concealment.’

  ‘I’ll need time to come up with that list. If I had access to my trove—’

  ‘I have confidence in your abilities.’ His tone became brisk, business-like. ‘Now - with your permission, I shall bring the ark’s engine to taxiing power. I will not risk a greater application of pseudo-thrust for fear that the ship would break itself free of its docking cradle.’

  ‘Do it,’ I said, standing back while he worked.

  Hesperus coaxed the slumbering engine into life, warming it for the first time in tens of subjective millennia. Many ships would have balked at such a demand. For the ark, which had been outfitted for a long and venerable existence in its second life, this was not an unreasonable request. The red writing and symbols flowed onto white panels that had previously been blank, a series of chimes sounded and there was a momentary surging sensation that had me grabbing for support. Then there was only a distant throbbing, not so much a sound as a subsonic impression. Silver Wings was bending space in one direction, surfing the distortion; the ark was trying to flatten it out again.

  ‘Do you think they’ll notice?’

  ‘Undoubtedly. They’ll notice the effect even more when I’ve performed the same trick with a few more ships.’

  I thought of the list he wanted from me. I could name some of the ships already, but I did not want him to leave until I was as sure as I could be that I had remembered them all.

  ‘I need something to write down the names and positions.’

  ‘Simply state them aloud. I will remember everything of importance.’ He made another delicate adjustment to the console, causing a new series of chimes to sound. ‘I have activated the ark’s hailing transmitter, at full strength. I have put it on a cycling frequency sweep so that it stands the best chance of penetrating the bay walls and the wake distortion behind us. The ship will inform us if it receives a return signal.’

  ‘There may not be anyone behind us.’

  ‘Do you think Campion would let you go without an explanation?’

  ‘He’d need Betony’s permission to come after me.’

  ‘I rather doubt that would have stopped him.’

  ‘You’re right. It wouldn’t.’ The thought that Campion might be out there cheered me on one level, but chilled me on another. I wanted him safe and sound somewhere, not risking his existence for my sake. ‘Hesperus,’ I said, hesitantly, ‘what you were saying just now, about a disturbing truth - are you ready to talk about it yet?’

  He stood from the controls, having done everything necessary for the time being. ‘It’s not as if there will ever be a good time.’

  ‘So let’s make it now.’

  He considered my request for a moment, then gestured towards one of the padded white chairs. ‘Take a seat, Purslane..’

/>   ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you are in a state of acute mental fragility, and what I am about to reveal to you will in no way bolster your strength of mind.’

  ‘I’m all right. I’m not going to faint.’

  ‘Sit.’

  sat down.

  Hesperus stood before me, his arms crossed. ‘I am not Hesperus,’ he said.

  I let out a small, involuntary laugh. ‘What do you mean, you’re not Hesperus? I know you. I took you to the Spirit. I brought you back.’

  ‘I chose my words unwisely. I was Hesperus. Now I am something more than Hesperus. Hesperus is a part of what I am, a vital part, a treasured part, but not the sum of me. I am as much the man Abraham Valmik as I am the machine Hesperus.’

  I felt cold, suddenly uncertain of my safety. ‘Stop talking like this.’

  ‘I can only express the truth. The Spirit no longer exists on Neume. Everything that it was, everything that it ever knew, everything it ever felt or witnessed, is now part of me.’

  I shook my head in flat denial. ‘That isn’t possible. The Spirit was still there when we left.’

  ‘I left behind an empty shell, without a consciousness. It will continue to drift through the atmosphere, going through the old motions. But it is not me. I am in this golden body now. It was time to move on, to become compact once more. I am Abraham Valmik. I was once a man, then I became the Spirit of the Air. Now I am close to being a man again.’

  I struggled to process what I had just been told. Out of all the millennia, all the centuries, all the long days - why would the Spirit choose this one to move on?

  ‘Why leave, when you were safe?’ I asked. ‘Nothing could touch you down there. Now you could be killed at any moment, if Cadence and Cascade decide to wipe us out.’

  ‘That is a risk. On balance, though, I saw that I had no choice. A time of great stability, lasting millions of years, is coming to an end. There was no guarantee that Neume would be any safer than here, aboard this ship.’

  ‘What do you know?’

  ‘Everything. Everything and nothing. I mentioned disturbing news, Purslane. What I have just told you, the information concerning my identity, may seem disturbing to you. But it is not the news to which I was referring.’