-~ They might wish to make an example of us.
-~ We are too far down the Involved pecking order to be worthy opponents, Quilan. There would be no honour for them in punishing us further. We have already been punished as innocents. All you and I are trying to do is even up that earlier damage.
-~ I worry that we may be being as blind to their real psychology as they were to ours when they tried to interfere. With all their experience, they were wrong about us. We have so little training in second-guessing the reactions of alien species; how can we be so certain that we will get it right where they failed so dismally?
Because this matters so much to us, that’s why. We have thought long and hard about what we’re going to do. All this began exactly because they failed to do the same thing. They have become so blast about such matters that they try to interfere with as few sh4~s as possible, with as few resources as possible, in search of a sort of mathematical elegance. They have made the fates of entire civilisations part of a game they play amongst themselves, to see who can produce the biggest cultural change from the smallest investment of time and energy.
And when it blows up in their faces, it is not they who suffer and die, but us. Four and a half billion souls barred from bliss because some of their inhuman Minds thought they’d found a nice, neat, elegant way to alter a society which had evolved to stability over six millennia.
They had no right to try to interfere with us in the first place, but if they were determined to do it they might at least have had the decency to make sure they did it properly, with some thought for the numbers of innocent lives they were dealing with.
We still may be committing a second mistake upon a first. And they may be less tolerant than we imagine.
If nothing else, Quilan, even if there is some retaliation by the Culture, however unlikely that might be, it doesn’t matter! If we succeed in our mission here then those four and a half billion Chelgrian souls will be saved; they’ll be admitted to heaven. No matter what happens after that they’ll be safe because the Chelgrian-Puen will have allowed them in.
The Puen could allow the dead in now, Huyler. They could just change the rules, accept them into heaven. I know, Quilan. But there is honour to be considered here, and the future. When it was first revealed that each of our own deaths had to be balanced by that of an enemy- It wasn’t revealed, Huyler. It was made up. It was a tale we told ourselves, not something the gods graced us with. Either way. When we decided that was the way we wanted to lead our lives with honour, don’t you think that people realised then that it might lead to what looked like unnecessary deaths, this instruction to take a life for a life? Of course they knew that.
But it was worth doing because in the long run we benefited as long as we maintained that principle. Our enemies knew we would not rest while we had deaths unavenged. And that still applies, Major. This is ~not some dry bit of dogma consigned to the history books or the string-frames in monastic libraries. This is a lesson that we have to keep reinforcing. Life will go on after this, and Chel will prevail, but its rules, its doctrines must be understood by each new generation and each new species we encounter.
When this is all over and we are all dead, when this is just another piece of history, the line will have been held, and we’ll be the ones who held it. No matter what happens, as long as you and I do our duty, people in the future will know that to attack Chel is to invite a terrible revenge. For their good – and I mean this, Quil -for their good as well as Chel’s, it’s worth doing now whatever has to be done.
I’m glad you seem so certain, Huyler. A copy of you will have to live with the knowledge of what we are about to do. At least I’ll be safely dead, with no back-up. Or at least not one that I know about. -~ I doubt they’d have made one without your consent.
I doubt everything, Huyler.
-~ Quil?
-~ Yes?
-~ Are you still on board? Do you still intend to carry out your mission?
-~ I do.
-~ Good fellow. Let me tell you; I admire you, Major Quilan. It’s been an honour and a pleasure to share your head. Just sorry it’s coming to an end so soon.
I haven’t carried it out yet. I haven’t made the Displace.
You’ll do it. They suspect nothing. The beast is taking you to its bosom, to the very centre of its lair. You’ll be fine.
I’ll be dead, Huyler. In oblivion. That’s all I care about.
I’m sorry, Quil, But what you’re doing… there’s no better way to go.
I wish I could believe that. But soon it won’t matter. Nothing will.
Tersono made a throat-clearing noise. ‘Yes, it is a remarkable sight, isn’t it, Ambassador? Quite stunning. Some people have been known to stand here or sit here and drink it in for hours. Kabe; you stood here for what seemed like half a day, didn’t you?’
‘I’m sure I must have,’ the Homomdan said. His deep voice echoed round the viewing gallery, producing echoes. ‘I do beg your pardon. How long half a day must seem for a machine that thinks at the pace you do, Tersono. Please forgive me.’
‘Oh, there is nothing to forgive. We drones are perfectly used to being patient while human thoughts and meaningful actions take place. We possess an entire suite of procedures specifically evolved over the millennia to cope with such moments. We are actually considerably less boreable, if I may create a neologism, than the average human.’
‘How comforting,’ Kabe said. ‘And thank you. I always find such a level of detail rewarding.’
‘You okay, Quilan?’ the avatar said.
He turned to the silver-skinned creature. ‘I’m fine.’ He gestured towards the sight of the Orbital surface sliding slowly past, gloriously bright, one and a half million kilometres away but apparently much closer. The view from the gallery was normally magnified, not shown as it would have been if there was nothing between viewer and view but glass. The effect was to bring the interior perimeter closer, so that one could see more detail.
The rate it was sliding past at also gave a false impression; the Hub’s viewing gallery section revolved very slowly in the opposite direction to the world’s surface, so that instead of the entire Orbital taking a day to pass in front of the viewer, the experience commonly occupied less than an hour.
Quilan.
-~ Huyler.
Are you ready?
-~I know the real reason they put you aboard, Huyler.
Do you?
-~ I believe I do.
And what would that be, Quil?
You’re not my back-up at all, are you? You’re theirs.
-~ Theirs?
-~ Of Visquile, our allies – whoever they are – and the military high-ups and politicians who sanctioned this.
-~ You’ll have to explain, Major.
-~ Is it supposed to be too devious for a bluff old soldier to have thought of?
What?
You’re not here to give me somebody to moan to, are you, Huyler? You’re not here to provide me with company, or to be some sort of expert on the Culture.
Have I been wrong about anything?
-~ Oh, no. No, they must have loaded you with a complete Culture database. But it’s all stuff anybody could get from the standard public reservoirs. Your insights are all second-hand, Huyler; I’ve checked.
I’m shocked, Quilan. Do we think this counts as slander or libel?
You are my co-pilot though, aren’t you?’
That’s what you were told I was to be. That’s what I am.
In one of those old-fashioned, manual-only aeroplanes the co-pilot is there, at least partly, to take over from the pilot if he’s unable to perform his duties. Is that not true?
Perfectly.
So, if I changed my mind now, if I was determined not to make the Displacement, if I decided that I didn’t want to kill all these people. . . What? What would happen? Tell me. Please be honest. We owe each other honesty.
You’re sure you want to know? Quite perfectly. You’re right. If you won’t make the Displace, I make it for you. I know exactly the bits of your brain you used to make it happen, I know the precise procedures. Better than you, in a way.
So the Displace takes place regardless? -~ So the Displace takes place regardless. -~ And what happens to me?