The Lowest Heaven

by Alastair Reynolds

  Said I, if the Patien creatures had such nefarious intention, then why had they not acted sooner?

  Said Kindermann, that we only suppos’d the Patien superior to us; and in fact their numbers being so small, and the main part of their devices and ordnance mere junk, as a hundred speculators have discover’d, their odds of overcoming so large and populous a world as Earth were long. To this end, Kindermann insisted, they were fomenting war between the nations of the globe, and would wait until we had spent our force upon one another, and the seas of the world ran purple with our blood, before moving upon us and enslaving those who survived.

  It seem’d to me that, as the Poet says, tho’ this was folly, yet was some wisdom in it. For the Patien do act most peculiar, eccentric to common sense; and it is true both that we outnumber they, and that they are as sensible to hurt and corporeal death as we. But still I could not credit they would permit us to lay our hands upon their devices, without some attempt to restore them to themselves, if their intent were hostile.

  But why, Kindermann press’d me, have they come hither at all?

  As to that, I reply’d (though all the time judging my moment) it was idle to speculate, since we lack’d all evidential circumstance. And whist the plan of amity amongst all nations was both noble and prudent, it would be more directly accomplish’d by Charles of Spain suing for peace than in struggling on with a battel beyond his powers to win.

  At this Kindermann began a pompous speech, and thereby elaborated a precarious stratagem; that we would steal ordnance from the Patien camp on the Tranquil Sea, and return heroes to Spain; that the blame for the destruction of the Casa Cristala would be thrown on the Patiens, and humanity unite in outrage against these alien creatures, aided by the fact that His Catholick Majesty would be newly arm’d with a Propulse (plus whatsoever else we obtain’d from our current raid). That a new alliance of all the world’s people would unite to return to the Moon and vanquish the Patien. They ly’d, he repeated, by way of refrain or slogan, when they claim’d to have come from the Star Sirius (such a provenance being a patent impossibility); what else have they ly’d about?

  I judged my moment to have come. Moulville, I am sorry to say, had stopp’d breathing some minutes previous; and as I hope to stand straight before CHRIST after my last day so I do swear I intended no disrespect to that brave fellow in how I used him. But needs must when the Devil drives us, as the proverb goes &c., and the fate of nations was weigh’d in the balance, against only my meager purposiveness. So I lifted him (easy to do, since the Selenic charm upon his corpus had rendered it littel more than a small Child’s in weight) and toss’d him at Kindermann.

  This naturally surpriz’d the Pilot, for he did not expect to have a human adult thrown as one might throw an apple at a beggar. The collision startl’d him from his position and press’d him against the wall, tho’ he took no serious hurt. Luck did not wait upon me, however; for I hop’d to rush him and wrangle him down (for tho’ he was younger and larger than I, yet the thinness of the ayr must incommode him) before he could discharge his pistol; but I found my limbs ineager and rebellious to my commands, and only with great weariness could I move across the floor towards him. I know not how to excuse my sluggishness in prosecuting my attack, save only that the thinness of ayr may have debilitated me more than I knew.

  My heart lollop’d, if truth be told, when I saw Kindermann aym his pistol direct in at my face. A moment stood between me and death; but then the trigger tripp’d the hammer, and the weapon did not discharge. For fire, even when bundl’d so small as a Spark, needs ayr, and there was an insufficiency thereof in that place, then.

  I am sorry to say my grappling with the Pilot was but a poor fistfight; and I panted and strain’d for ayr like any asthmatick. Kindermann threw me off, and I flew further than I thought to. But Cano recover’d his courage (and perhaps it was only that the pistol had affright’d him, and it being remov’d from consideration his courage return’d) and joy’nd the struggle. To make brief, tho’ Kindermann clubb’d him with the buttress end of his gun, yet did Cano overwhelm him; and tho’ the Pilot brought up a knife, with which he certainly intended to do great hurt to us both, in the struggle he sheath’d it again in his own side, and fell away yelping like a puppy. Alas that he fell near the Propulse, for in his grief and hurt, and the bitterness of defeat, the demon of Suicide seiz’d him and he grasp’d the device; and plung’d the Cometes straight at the ground. This happen’d so quick, indeed, that I could do naught to ameliorate our flight, and fell struck my head painfully against the wall, hard enough to loose a stream of blood. And almost at once, it seemed, we were dashed upon the Selenic ground.

  Mere chance dictat’d the site of our collision, and it so happen’d that GOD threw a handful of dust under our tiller, or we would have been broke open and chok’d to death in moments. But though we surviv’d the first impact, yet the Vessel bounc’d and leapt back in the air, and came down again athwart a ridge-peak. The fabrick of the walls gave, at this blow, somewhat, and air hiss’d loudly. We tumbl’d down the far side, and roll’d the compleat circumference of the Vessel thrice, before we came to rest on the plain. But though this brought cessation to our fall, yet it damag’d the hull further, and the whole Cometes groan’d pitifully, and shook and jerk’d with the discharge of its air into the Lunar night like a live thing. I, by chance, had fall’n near the spigot, and somehow gather’d myself to turn this enough to let the air flow; and in truth there was now such a breeze blowing, that the air was suck’d hard from the balon and blown out upon the Moon. But I breath’d easier, and brought Cano to the spigot also, for he was turning blue. So we refresh’d our lungs, and being daz’d with the blow to my head and somewhat shaken out of comfort by the crash, I did not for a time realize that the whole balon was deflating at a accelerated rate. Only when it ran dry—many days’ supply of breathable, gone in a few minutes—did I realize our danger.

  We had but one other full balon, and before I released the spigot on that I order’d Cano to assist me in making such repairs as we could to the breaches in our hull. This was no easy matter. Three or four we found soon, and they patch’d them as best we could; but the worst was the corner, which was stov’d in quite. Kindermann’s body was here, and the draught of air had suck’d his body half outside, such that tho’ we pull’d him back in (and we were gagging and coughing on the thinness of ayr) his face was white with frost, and strands of his beard broke away like icicles, and his eyes so blackened it look’d as though they were fill’d with black ink. So perish’d this traitor, tho’ it was pitiful to see him in such a state for all that.

  By stuffing his body back into the breach and cramming around it with what came to hand we in some measure seal’d our breach; and I was compell’d to open the second spigot or we would both have choak’d to death. But our situation, in honesty, was parlous; for we were marooned on the Moon; and it was hard to see how we should shift ourselves, or survive another twenty-four hours.

  Our attempt’d flight

  We arrang’d the interior of the Cometes into as good an Order as we could, and laid out Purser Moulville as best we could, with respect for his sacrifice and his bravery in life; and as Captain I said a prayer for his soul. To hold a hand near Kindermann’s boddy was to feel a draught of air, which stood in proof of the insufficiency of the seal at that place where the fabrick of the Vessel was breach’d. This was my severest anxiety; for it would devour our ayr more quickly than we could afford; and swiftly I revolv’d the possibilities before us. In short, words cannot express the wretched condition we were in, or the surprize we were under of being so unfortunately wreck’d at a place more distant than the furthest South Sea island.

  I discuss’d with Cano what options lay before us; they being, 1, that we attempt flight, and the Navigation by means of the Propulse, with the hope that the Cometes could be caulk’d or otherwise made tight sufficient to the journey (except that it was many days flight, and that it was most uncertain
whether moving the wreck might not reveal greater damage to the Fabrick of the whole); or, 2, one or other of us strike out wearing the indiarubber suit in the hope of finding succour; or, 3, we abided where we were in the hope of rescue. As for this latter, it was surely a forlorn hope that any so much as knew of our predicament, and we might wait until the breathable was used up and so drown in dead air. My thoughts inclin’d to the second option, but from whom might we expect help, in this distant place, the Cristal House being destroy’d? Naught but the Patiens themselves. At this juncture Cano very gravely made a proposal to me, that tho’ he was a traitor, yet might Kindermann have had some merit in his suspicions of these beasts, and he declar’d himself disinclined to encounter them, calling them Very Devils and other such appellations. As for Kindermann, we both agreed, tho’ his treachery was wicked, he had been sufficiently recompens’d for it with ignominious death.

  The result was that we agreed to try the first; and spent a goodly time doing what we might by way of sealing the Cometes after such fashion as was available to us, prior to attempting flight. The lesser leaks I was assur’d we have solv’d, yet I was unsure how severe the main rupture might be. Yet there was no knowing but in trying, so I took charge of the Propulse itself, and touched its grooves to the best of my abilities.

  We launched upward in lively manner, but at once it became clear that the Cometes could not support itself with integrity; and though we lurch’d high yet the Vessel made a great rattling and trembling; and as I attempt’d to swerve, as birds do in flight, to position myself in the direction of Home, when with a mighty conniption shake the breach opened wider and the boddy of Kindermann flew from its place and was sucked hard away, to fall a Luciferian trajectory towards the black sands below. But this was disaster; and occasion’d a great typhoon in the cabbin, and all in a flutter with all objects within; and several other breaches open’d again. I reached the spigot to stop all our ayr evanishing away, but this only caus’d us to choak and gasp; and I knew death was close upon us. I attempted to bring the Cometes gently to the ground again, but my hand was heavy and I landed with a mighty crack against (as I later knew) a Crater ridge. Providence caus’d a spur of rock to thrust up through the breach, and a great swarm of dust flew about, clogging throat and eyes. Cano and I clustered around the spigot, and I parcell’d out littel gouts of ayr that we breath’d in greedily enough. The dust was settled by being drawn out through the cracks our hull. But, stirring ourselves, we block’d these as well as we could, and cramm’d much cargo around the rock. So it was we found ourselves in a worse situation than before.

  What transpir’d with Cano

  Cano, I am sorry to say, wept a great deal, and it was at this point I understood he had carried about his person a bronze bottle of gin, from which he had too often refresh’d himself. I am almost ashamed to relate this man’s behaviour in this skirmish; but as I think he deserves to be exposed, I shall divulge it in the manner I observ’d it. He, deciding that he would not die in that place, smote me cruelly about the head with a spanner, and as I was daz’d, neither relinquishing my senses wholly nor yet alert enough to counter his intent, I saw him put himself into the indiarubber suit. For we both knew that the suit was nothing without ayr, and the only supply of this latter was the one balon that remain’d to us. By the time he had fitted himself into the suit I was rouz’d somewhat from my half-stupor, but not in time to stop him stepping out through the door. And then I could do no other than watch from the porthole-window as Cano made his way about. He went to the exterior of the spigot, where the pipe fed ayr thro’, and his intent was not less than to disattach it to supply his own suit, thereby extinguishing my life. But, in brief, he achiev’d not this bad plan, and tho’ he expir’d on the black and purple sands, there. For as Don Frederico had said, the suit puff’d up like a pig’s bladder until it was so rigid with cold that he could move not arms nor legs. He danc’d and leapt like a water-boatman, his limbs straight out, but then he tripped over a broad, black rock, shap’d like an umbrella buried in the sand, and fell. The ayr inside his suit was soon breath’d up, and tho’ he twitched and struggl’d, yet could he not regain his footing. Shortly he mov’d no more, and so he pass’d from our mortall realm. I said a prayer for his Spirit, and reflect’d on how he might have acquitted himself had not drink possess’d his soul. Then I pray’d some more, for guidance, in that desolate place.

  There was nothing but a choaking death to be expected of staying in that location, but I could see littel hope of egress. And though the indiarubber-suit had serv’d Cano but ill, yet I considerd how it might be possible to move, in howsoever waddling a fashion. But the suit was outside, and there was but one.

  For two days (or so far as I could calculate the time, in that place, where the sun shrank only very slowly to the horizon) I made no attempt to remove myself; for I reason’d (howsoever ill my reason seems in hindsight) that it could be the Cristal House was not altogether destroy’d, and that they might come about the sky in their own vessel to search for me. But it was delusive. And then I saw that the sun, if slow, was setting, and soon the night would come when my ayr would freeze and I finally die. Thinking of my Commission, and my duty, I could not think to leave the Propulse there; but though I made laborious way towards unfixing it, it was too heavy and well-set for one man to move. And at last I resolv’d: to die in the attempt at escape rather than die a passive death inside the Cometes.

  The cold was growing apace; but the difficulties served to fix them more firmly in my resolution. In short, I swaddl’d myself about with such woollens and cloaths as we were supply’d with: leather gloves with woollen ones above (the which I may thank for the fact that I did not altogether lose my fingers), and silk handshoes for the feet; and for my head, about which I was in truth most concern’d, I fashion’d a sack of leather, and ty’d it about with a cord. The greatest inconvenience of this was that I could not see; but I spent long enough committing the scene without to my memory. Finally there was nothing but a short prayer and my hard-bearting heart, and I stepped from the ruin’d vessel.

  The 1st thing that occur’d, which both surpriz’d and alarm’d me, was that the ayr inside my hood all fled away, and the fabric of the leather cleav’d close about my face. I had taken a dozen great breaths before my exit, but this plac’d me moments from an asphixiant death. The 2nd was my notice of the great cold, severer even than the Arctic chill I knew in my Ocean Voyage under the command of Sir William Camell in 1711. I made to feel my way, blind, about the exterior of the Vessel; but my hands and fingers were so benumbd and in such sudden pain, that I could barely feel. Worse were my feet, for the silk kept back the ayr not at all, and the surgeon who later cut away my toes declar’d me lucky not to have lost the feet themselves. And the chill ran up and down my whole boddy, such that my heart shrank to a chesnut inside my ribs. I had found it cold before, inside the Cometes, but now began to feel the extreamity of it. Still backward was no direction, and I stumbl’d round until by God’s Grace I laid my frost-chew’d hand upon the pipe of the ayr-balon, and tugging it free slipped the end in under my hood. Tho’ my lips slept with cold, and my mouth was all benumb’d, yet I managed to suck some ayr in my lungs, and rested for only a moment. But the sensation was deserting my limbs, and so (recalling the direction in which Cano lay) I stepped over to him. My foot found him, not I; and only the strange lightness of the Lunar world enabl’d me to haul his body back with my Left hand, holding the pipe with my Right. Without Providence I could not have regain’d the interior of the Cometes; and even then I could not close the double-door behind me without severing the ayr-pipe; so it was a poor clumsy & sightless fumbling that got Cano out of that suit and got me into it. How I managed it (to be truthful) I can hardly remember; save only that God’s Grace did not desert me, even in that place.

  Ambulation through the Selenic lands

  It was hardly warmer in the indiarubber suit than it had been before, and where warmth return’d to my hands and
feet it was attended with stabbing pains and great discomfort. When I attach’d the hose to the valve in the suit neck it straightaway puff’d up and I could not move, or wriggle my way free. So I was compell’d to unconnect the hose and permit the ayr to hiss away, and only reconnect it after I had got outside. In all this I retayn’d the leather hood about my face, incapable in shear confusion to strip it away; but at last my wits return’d to the degree where I could think of this, and I discover’d that the arms of my suit were so Stiff that I could, internally, withdraw my own arms from them; and so slid the mask away.

  Now, at least, I could see; and the sight was a desolate one. It is impossible that any thing living could subsist in so rigid and ayrless a climate; and that the Patiens can do so speaks to their monstrous strangeness. To stand still was to freeze, so I bestirr’d myself to motion, tho’ it hurt every bone in me to do so. The only ambulation possible in the suit, so stiff with ayr, was to waddle like a Penguin, to swivel left side and right side as I progressed. It was slow and cumbrous, but I nonetheless made my way up a long low slope of dark gray, and at the last I reach’d the eminence; and no Mountain Climber ever felt a greater joy than I at this petty achievement.

  I look’d back and saw the smashed Cometes below me, marvelling that I had surviv’d for any time within it, so small and fractured-up it looked; and then I turn’d before me. The Earth, our World, stood in the black sky, of a proportion larger than the Moon stands in ours (which the greater dimensions of our world necessitates); but it was strange, and melancholy to look upward and consider that every fellow soul of my acquaintance was confin’d within that glaucous circle. Below me lay a great and dismal plain, black and grey as a coalface, but I had reason to hope it led to the Tranquil Sea; and there being no other shift for me, but to proceed thither and either treat with the Patien, or else pilfer from them the necessities to prolong my existence.