Excession by Iain M Banks
Author:Iain M Banks [Banks, Iain M]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Culture
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Victory! Commander Risingmoon Parchseason IV of the Farsight tribe nudged the suit forward, floating out through the torn doors of the airlock and into the hangar space. The ships were there. Gangster class. His gaze swept their ranks. Sixty-four of them. He had, privately, thought it might all be a hoax, some Culture trick.
At his side, his weapons officer steered his suit across the floor - over the body of the human - and up towards the nearest of the ships. The other suited figure, the Affronter Commanderâs personal guard, rotated, watching.
âIf youâd waited another minute,â the voice of the Culture ship said tiredly through the suitâs communicator, âI could have opened the airlock doors for you.â
âIâm sure you could,â the Commander said. âIs the Mind quite under your control?â
âEntirely. Touchingly naive, in the end.â
âAnd the ships?â
âQuiescent; undisturbed; asleep. They will believe whatever they are told.â
âGood,â the Commander said. âBegin the process of waking them.â
âIt is already under way.â
âNobody else here,â his security officer said over the communicator. He had gone on into the rest of the human accommodation section when they had made their way to the airlock doors.
âAnything of interest?â the Commander asked, following his weapons officer towards the nearest warship. He had to try to keep the excitement out of his voice. They had them! They had them! He had to brake the suit hard; in his enthusiasm he almost collided with his weapons officer.
In the ruined suite that had been the place where the human had lived, the security officer swivelled in the vacuum, surveying the wreckage the evacuating whirlwind of air had left. Human coverings; clothes, items of furniture, some complicated structures; models of some sort. âNo,â he said. âNothing of interest.â
âHmm,â the ship said. Something about the tone communicated unease to the Commander. At the same moment, his weapons officer turned his suit to him. âSir,â he said. A light flicked on, picking out a metre-diameter circle of the shipâs hull. Its surface was riotously embellished and marked, covered in strange, sweeping designs. The weapons officer swept the light over nearby sections of the vesselâs curved hull. It was all the same, all of it covered with these curious, whorled patterns and motifs.
âWhat?â the Commander said, concerned now.
âThis⦠complexity,â the weapons officer said, sounding perplexed.
âInternal, too,â the Culture ship broke iri.
âItâ¦â the weapons officer said, spluttering. His suit moved closer to the warshipâs hull, until it was almost touching. âThis will take for ever to scan!â he said. âIt goes down to the atomic level!â
âWhat does?â the Commander said sharply.
âThe ships have been baroqued, to use the technical term,â the Culture ship said urbanely. âIt was always a possibility.â It made a sighing noise. The vessels have been fractally inscribed with partially random, non-predictable designs using up a little less than one per cent of the mass of each craft. There is a chance that hidden in amongst that complexity will be independent security nano-devices which will activate at the same time as each
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