Matter c-8

by Iain M. Banks

  “Weren’t there two of those Morthanveld machines?” Holse asked.

  “Both gone now. I got the other one,” Anaplian said. Every word she uttered sounded clipped, bitten off. Holse wondered if she had been wounded too, but did not want to ask.

  “What now, ma’am?”

  “That is a good question, Holse,” Anaplian said. “I strongly suspect if we stick our heads over this vane above us we’ll get them blown off. Also, due to the angles, there isn’t really anywhere else to go. Conversely, I have a short-range line-gun that can knock the living fuck out of anything that pokes its head or other relevant part over our side of the vane. That is our inventory, however. The Iln machine knows I have this weapon and will certainly not come close enough to let me use it. Sadly,” Holse heard the woman take a breath, “we have lost my particle gun to enemy action, the kinetics are expended or blasted, the CREWs won’t have any effect and the subsidiary missiles have either also expended themselves in the course of action or been vaped. Vaporised, I should say. Sorry, brother; sorry, Mr Holse. My apologies for having involved you in all this. I appear to have led us into a sorry situation.”

  It was, Ferbin thought. It was a sorry situation. Sometimes life itself seemed like a sorry situation.

  What was to become of them? And what lay ahead for him? He might die here within minutes but even if he didn’t he knew he didn’t want to be king. He never had. When he’d seen his father killed, his first instinct had been to run away, even before he’d rationalised this gut decision. He’d always known in his heart he wouldn’t be a good king, and realised now that — in the unlikely event they escaped this desperate fix — his whole reign, his entire life, would be a slow and likely ignominious winding down from this peak of meaning and possible glory. There was a new age coming and he could not really see himself being part of it. Elime, Oramen, him…

  He heard Holse say, “What’s to be done, then, ma’am?”

  “Well, we could just rush the bastard and die very quickly to no effect,” Anaplian said, sounding tired. “Or we can wait here until the Iln machine finishes making all the anti-matter it wants and destroys the whole world. Us first, after itself and the Xinthian,” she added. “If that’s any consolation.”

  Holse gulped. “Is that really it, ma’am?”

  “Well…” Anaplian began, then paused. “Ah. It wants to talk. Might as well hear what it has to say.”

  “Humans,” a deep, sonorous voice said to all of them, “the Shellworld machines were built to create a field enclosing the galaxy. Not to protect but to imprison, control, annihilate. I am a liberator, as were all those who came before me, however vilified. We have set you free by destroying these abominations. Join me, do not oppose.”

  “What?” Ferbin said.

  “Is it saying…?” Holse began.

  “Ignore it,” Anaplian told them. “It’s just being a properly devious enemy. Always unsettle the opposition if possible. I’m telling your suits to ignore any further comms from the machine.”

  Yes, Ferbin thought, she controls these suits. The machine was trying to control us. We are controlled. It’s all about control.

  “So, are we stuck as we are then, ma’am?” Holse asked. “It and us?”

  “No,” Anaplian said. “Come to think of it, the Iln machine doesn’t need to settle for a stand-off. Last estimate we took, the required AM mass will take hours to accrete. Long before that, one of the Iln’s sub-pods will appear over that vane-sphere way back there, good sixty klicks off, and pick us off from a distance.”

  Holse looked at the distant ridge line, then around at their immediate surroundings. He didn’t see how they could be got round. “How’s it going to do that, ma’am?”

  “It can retreat over the horizon and circle round behind us that way,” Djan Seriy said heavily. “The Core’s only fourteen hundred klicks in diameter; horizon’s very close. Could even go right round the Core. In vacuum, wouldn’t take long for a sufficiently capable machine. I’d guess we have a couple of minutes.”

  “Oh,” Holse said again.

  “Yes, indeed: oh.”

  Holse thought. “Nothing else we can do, ma’am?”

  “Oh,” Anaplian said, sounding very tired, “there are always things worth trying.”

  “Such as, ma’am?”

  “Going to need one of you two to sacrifice yourself. Sorry.”

  “Pardon, ma’am?”

  “Then I get to do the same thing,” Anaplian said, sounding like she was trying to remain calm. “So one of us survives, for a little while longer, at least. Survivor’s suit can get them anywhere within Sursamen or back to near space. More to the point, we might just stop the world getting blown up. Always a reasonable goal.”

  “What do we have to do?” Ferbin asked.

  “Somebody has to surrender,” Anaplian said. “Give yourself to the lln machine. It will kill you — quickly, hopefully — but it might just be intrigued enough to inspect you first. That first one, though, it’ll be suspicious of. Whoever goes first dies to satisfy its caution. The second — that will be me — might just get close enough. I’m already preparing all this in my head. I’m assuming the Enabler program the Oct hit the lln machine with was one of ours. They have subtle misconstructions regarding Contact and SC that might aid our cause here, though I do have to emphasise that this is the most ridiculously long shot, and even then we’re relying on the WorldGod not being fatally injured and it being capable of unmaking all that anti-matter; an explosion based on what’s already accumulated would kill it and do a significant amount of damage to the Core. So, still hope, of a desperate kind. But you wouldn’t bet on any of this, trust me.”

  “So, one of us has to—” Holse began.

  “I can’t ask either of you—” Anaplian started to say at the same time, then gulped and shouted, “Ferbin!”

  The suited figure was already rising above the shield of the vane, upper body exposed to the flickering radiations beyond, throwing away the weapon he’d been carrying.

  * * *

  She must have been hit hard. When she awoke it was to find herself in the grip of something adamantinely hard and utterly unforgiving. Dear fuck, it had eviscerated her. The suit was shredded, torn apart, and her body inside with it. All that was left of her was her head — half flayed, skin burned off — and a short tattered tail of spinal cord. This bloody scrap was what the Iln thing cradled.

  Eyelids burned away, she couldn’t blink; not even her tongue or jaws were responding to orders. Djan Seriy Anaplian felt more helpless than a newborn.

  The Iln machine above her was dark, not big, vaguely triangular. Her eyes were damaged, the view hazy. So much trouble from something so small, she thought, and would have laughed if she could. Its slickly bulbous shape was lit from the side by the cage of light surrounding the Xinthian and from below by the scintillations sparking from the containment holding the growing sphere of anti-matter.

  Strange little beasts, you, the great heavy voice said inside her head. What fleeting titillations life continues to throw up, many-fold, like virtual particles, bioscale, so long after—

  Oh

  She had seen all she needed to see, heard all she needed to hear.

  go

  Now she was close enough.

  and

  (This was all she had, and the worst of it was, backups or not, she’d never know if it was going to be enough.)

  fuck yourself, Djan Seriy Anaplian said finally.

  She let the containment within the little anti-matter reactor inside her head go.

  Appendix

  C: the Culture

  HLI: High-level Involved (also MLI: Mid-level; LLI: Low-level)

  L1S: level one of Sursamen (etc.)

  S: Sursamen

  Characters

  Aclyn: the lady Blisk, mother to Elime and Oramen; banished

  Aiaik: Towermaster of the D’neng-oal Tower, Sursamen

  Alveyal Girgetioni: Acting Craterine Zameri
n, Sursamen

  Archipontine: head monk of the Hyeng-zharia Mission

  Baerth: knight of Charvin, Sarl (Bower or Brower to Ferbin)

  Bleye: one of tyl Loesp’s lieutenants

  Broft: foreman, Nameless City dig, Ninth, Sursamen

  Chasque: Exaltine, Sarl chief of priests

  Chire: rail car driver, the Falls

  Choubris Holse: Ferbin’s servant

  Chilgitheri: (Morthanveld) liaison officer on “Fasilyce, Upon Waking”

  Dilucherre: old master of painting, Sarl

  Djan Seriy: Anaplian; princess, C SC agent

  Droffo: earl, from Shilda; becomes equerry to Oramen

  Dubrile: ex-soldier at Falls; becomes Oramen’s bodyguard chief

  Elime: esk Blisk-Hausk’r; dead eldest son of Hausk

  Everlasting Queen: Nariscene monarch; currently on 3044th Great Spawning

  Fanthile: secretary of royal palace, Pourl

  Ferbin: otz Aelsh-Hausk’r (Feri, as child)

  Foise: general, Sarl army, attached to Falls contingent

  Geltry Skiltz: C person, aboard MSV Don’t Try This At Home

  Gillews: (Dr) Royal Physician to Hausk

  Girgetioni: Nariscene family, Sursamen

  Harne: the lady Aelsh; mother to Ferbin

  Hausk: Nerieth (“the Conqueror”); warrior-king, Sarl

  Hippinse: Pone; an avatoid of the Liveware Problem

  Humli: Ghasartravhara; liaison officer, MSV Don’t Try This At Home

  Honge: bravard of Pourl’s drinking dens

  Illis: armourer, royal palace, Pourl

  Jerle Batra: Djan Seriy’s SC Control/mentor; an Aciculate

  Jerfin Poatas: in charge of Falls excavation

  Jish: whore, Pourl

  Kebli: child in court at same time as Djan Seriy

  Kiu: (-to-Pourl) Oct Ambassador to Pourl

  Klatsli Quike: avatoid of the Liveware Problem

  Koust: Oct Tower under-clerk, Sursamen

  Leeb Scoperin: another Special Circumstances agent on Prasadal

  Leratiy: senior technician, Sarcophagus excavation, Falls

  Luzehl: whore; sister to Paiteng

  Machasa: Mrs; young Djan Seriy’s nurse and tutor

  Mallarh: lady of the Sarl court

  Masyen: Aclyn’s husband; becomes mayor of Rasselle

  Munhreo: junior scholar, Hicturean-Anjrinh Scholastery

  Neguste Puibive: becomes Oramen’s servant

  Nuthe 3887b: Morthanveld greeting device, Syaung-un

  Obli: Harne’s ynt

  Omoulldeo: old master of painting, Sarl

  Oramen: lin Blisk-Hausk’r; a prince, same mother as Elime

  Prode the younger: ancient Sarl playwright

  Puisil: servant in the royal palace, Sarl

  Quitrilis Yurke: C traveller; finds Oct lying about ship movements

  Ramile: lady of the Sarl court

  Renneque,: the lady Silbe

  Savidius Savide: Oct Peripatetic Special Envoy, Sursamen

  Seltis: old tutor of Ferbin’s — now Scholastery Head Scholar

  Senble: Holse’s wife

  Shir Rocasse: tutor to Oramen

  Shoum: director general of Morthanveld Strategic Mission

  Sinnel: ancient Sarl playwright

  Skalpapta: Alien Greeting and Liaison Officer, GS Inspiral, Coalescence, Ringdown

  Sordic: old master of painting, Sarl

  Tove Lomma: childhood friend of Oramen; later his equerry

  Tulya Puonvangi: C ambassador, on Inspiral, Coalescence, Ringdown

  Tagratark: Towermaster of Vaw-yei Tower, Sursamen

  Tareah: Sarl doctor

  Tchilk: Nariscene Barbarian Relational Mentor, Baeng-yon Crater

  Toark: child Djan Seriy rescues from burning city

  Tohonlo: one of tyl Loesp’s lieutenants (also Toho, as child)

  Truffe: second cousin to Ferbin

  Turminder Xuss: (Handrataler) Djan Seriy’s drone

  tyl Loesp: Mertis; Hausk’s 2nd in command

  Utaltifuhl: Nariscene Grand Zamerin of Sursamen

  Vaime: the lady Anaplia; mother of Djan Seriy

  Volhrd: of Sournier, knight of Sarl

  Werreber: senior general; becomes field marshal, army chief

  Wudyen: duke; Hausk’s brother

  Xessice: whore, Hyeng-zhar Settlement

  Xide Hyrlis: C outcast, military commander for Nariscene

  Xidia: young lady at court (named after Xide Hyrlis)

  Yariem Girgetioni: Deputy Acting Zamerin, Sursamen

  Yilim: senior officer in Hausk’s army

  Zandone: Sarl actor and impresario

  Zeel: young Djan Seriy’s pet mersicor

  Zourd: (Expanded Version Five) Cumuloform, 13th, Sursamen

  Culture Full Names

  Astle-Chulinisa Klatsli LP Quike dam Uast

  Meseriphine-Sursamen/VIIIsa Djan Seriy Anaplian dam Pourl

  Sholz-Iniassa Jerle Ruule Batra dam Ilyon

  Stafl-Lepoortsa Xide Ozoal Hyrlis dam Pappens

  Species

  Aeronathaurs: Tensile; see Xinthia

  Aultridia: upstart species that evolved from parasites living under carapaces of Xinthia; mat-like/Pelliform (also “Squirmiform”, term of abuse); LLI

  Avians: bird species; L5S variety methane gas-going

  Birilisi: Avian species much given to excessive narcoticism; MLI

  Bithians: (L0S) gilled whale-size creatures, waterborne; HLI

  caude: giant winged creature, tameable and rideable; L8&9S

  choup: Sarl equivalent of dog; L8&9S

  chunsel: warbeast, later of burden and traction; L8S

  Culture, the: mongrel humanoid civilisation; HLI

  Cumuloforms: cloudlike O2 beings; L4S

  Deldeyn: same species as Sarl, one level down; allied to the Aultridia, seen as antagonistic to the WorldGod and so enemies of the Sarl; L9S

  hefter: beast of burden and traction; L8&9S

  Hydrals: black hole smoker species; L13S

  Iln: aero-spiniform HLI aeons ago; wrecked Shellworlds, destroyed Veil tombs; believed extinct/missing

  Inheritors: see Oct

  Involucra/Veil: Shellworld builders, HLI aeons ago

  lyge: giant winged creature, tameable and rideable; L8&9S

  mersicor: large quadruped, tameable and rideable; L8&9S

  Monthia: pan-species very large ocean-going creature-type

  Morthanveld: Nariscene mentors; spiniform waterworlders, HLI

  Nariscene: Sarl mentors; insectile, MLI

  Nuersotise: humanoid; one of the contending species on Prasadal

  Oct/Inheritors: claim descent from Involucra; control (most) travel within Towers of Sursamen and many other Shellworlds; octal Waterworlders; LLI

  ossesyi: quadruped warbeasts; L8S

  Pelagic Kite: atmospheric waterworlders; sail air over water-worlds; term also used for surface-going kited bioships; L5S

  rowel: quadruped pack beast; L8&9S

  ryre: quadruped, equivalent of cat; L8&9S

  Sarl: humanoid people exiled/interned within Sursamen; L8&9S

  Seedsails: mirror-sailed seed carriers; LlS

  spore-wisp: plasma seed of a stellar field-liner

  Swimmers: beings from lower levels of gas giant planets; L12S

  Tendrils: elongated gas giant species, L6 & 10S

  Tubers: black hole smoker species; L13S

  Tueriellian: (Maieutic) investigative Seedsail

  uoxantch: quadruped warbeasts; L9S

  WorldGod, the: being at Core of Sursamen; a Xinthian; L15 & 16S

  Veil: see Involucra

  Vesicular: surface waterworlders; having gas-filled bladder/sail; L10S

  Xinthia: (Tensile Aeronathaur) an Airworlder; giant airships (smaller than dirigible behemothaurs); semi-adapted for high-pressure gaseous/liquid environments and space-capable. Now rare and generally Developmentally/Inherently/Pervasively Senile; see WorldGod, the


  Xolpe: humanoid; Nariscene client species, at war

  ynt: quadruped equivalent of small tame otter; L8&9S

  Zeloy: humanoid, one of the contending species on Prasadal

  General Glossary

  34th Pendant Floret: region of space

  512th Degree FifthStrand: Humanoid Guest Facility, Syaung-un

  aboriginistas: those with obsessive interest in ‘primitives’

  Aciculate: bush-like

  afap: as fast as possible (C)

  Altruist: a civilisation purposefully and consistently eschewing naked self-interest

  Anjrinh: district in Hicture; home to a Scholastery

  Aoud: star/system, home of Gadampth Orbital

  aquaticised: (humanoids) fully converted to water-dwelling

  Arithmetic: re a Shellworld, term given to one whose levels occur in simple multiples

  Articles of Inhabitation: rules by which Shellworld inhabitants live

  Aspirant: civilisations wanting to be Involveds

  Asulious IV: Morthanveld planet, Lesser Yattlian Spray

  autoscender: uncrewed transport within Shellworld Tower

  backing: direction (opposite of facing)

  Baeng-yon: Surface crater, Sursamen

  bald-head fruit: edible by caude, common to L8&9S

  Bare: places on Shellworld with no ground cover

  Baron Lepessi : classic play by Prode the younger

  Baskers: species type; absorb sunlight directly