The State of the Art (1991) #19 by Iain M. Banks

Author:Iain M. Banks
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, General
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

to say unlikely position?'

'I'm not sure yet,' Li admitted, 'but I think I have all

the qualifications for the post.'

'Consider the liminal cue given; I know you're

going to -'

'Bravery, resourcefulness, intelligence, the ability

to handle men - women -; a razor sharp wit and

lightning fast reactions.Also loyalty and the ability

to be ruthlessly objective when the safety of my

ship and crew are at stake.Except, of course, when

the safety of the Universe as we know it is at stake,

in which case I would reluctantly have to consider

making a brave and noble sacrifice.Naturally,

should such a situation ever arise, I'd try to save

the officers and crew who serve beneath me.I'd go

down with the ship, of course.'

'Of course.Well, that's-'

'Wait; there's another quality I haven't mentioned

yet.'

'Are there any left?'

'Certainly.Ambition.'

'Silly of me.Of course.'

'It will not have escaped your attention that until

now nobody ever thought of wanting to become

captain of the Arb .'

'A perhaps understandable lapse.' Jhavins, one of

my friends, brought off a fine cut on the black ball,

and I applauded. 'Good shot.'

Li prodded my shoulder. 'Listen properly.'

'I'm listening, I'm listening.'

'The point is that my wanting to become captain, I

mean even thinking of the idea, means that I should

be the captain, understand?'

'Hmm.' Jhavins was lining up an unlikely cannon

on a distant red.

Li made an exasperated noise. 'You're humouring

me; I thought you at least would argue.You're just like everybody else.'

'Ah,' I said.Jhavins hit the red, but just left it

hanging over the pocket.I looked at Li. 'An

argument?All right; you - anybody - taking

command of the ship is like a flea taking over

control of a human maybe even like a bacteria in

their saliva taking them over.'

'But why should it command itself?We made it; it

didn't make us.'

'So?And anyway we didn't make it; other machines

made it and even they only started it off; it mostly

made itself.But anyway, you'd have to go back I

don't know how many thousand generations of its

ancestors before you found the last computer or

spaceship built directly by any of our

ancestors.Even if this mythical we had built it, it's

still zillions of times smarter than we are.Would

you let an ant tell you what to do?'

'Bacterium?Flea?Ant?Make up your mind.'

'Oh go away and de-scale a mountain or something,

you silly man.'

'But we started all this; if it hadn't been for us -'

'And who started us?Some glop of goo on another

rockball?A super-nova?The big bang?What's

starting something got to do with it?'

'You don't think I'm serious, do you?'

'More terminal than serious.'

'You wait,' Li said, standing up and wagging a

finger at me. 'I'll be captain one day.And you'll be

sorry; I had you down tentatively as science

officer, but now you'll be lucky to make nurse in

the sickbay.'

'Ah, away and piss on your dilithium crystals.'

5: You Would If You Really

Loved Me

5.7: Sacrificial Victim

I stayed on the ship for a few weeks after that.It

started talking to me again after a couple of days.I

forgot about Linter for a while; everybody on the

Arbitrary seemed to be talking about new films or

old films or books, or about what was happening

in Kampuchea, or about Lanyares Sodel, who was

off fighting with the Eritreans.Lanyares used to live

on a plate where he and some of his pals played

games of soldiers using live kinetic ammunition.

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