Hippinse turned his smile from them to Djan Seriy. “At your disposal, dear lady,” he said. A little oilily, Ferbin thought. He had decided he did not like the fellow, though his new calmness was welcome.
“I think we have little choice but to take this offered help, and ship,” Djan Seriy said. “Our urgencies multiply.”
“Happy to be of service,” Hippinse said, still smiling annoyingly.
“Ferbin,” Djan Seriy said, leaning towards him, “Mr Holse; I was returning home anyway, having heard of our father’s death, though of course not of its manner. However, Mr Hippinse brought news regarding the Oct which has meant that I’ve been asked to make my visit what you might call an officially authorised one. One of Mr Hippinse’s colleagues contacted me earlier with an offer of help. I turned that first offer down but on arrival here I discovered a message from those one might term my employers asking me to take a professional interest in events on Sursamen, so I have had to change my mind.” She glanced at Hippinse, who grinned, first at her, then at the two Sarl men. “My employers have even seen fit to send a representation of my immediate superior to the ship to assist in planning the mission,” she added.
A personality construct of Jerle Batra had been emplaced within the Liveware Problem’s Mind. If that wasn’t a sign that the ship was a secret asset of SC, she didn’t know what would be, though they were still denying this officially.
“Something may be amiss on Sursamen,” Djan Seriy said. “Something of potentially still greater importance than King Hausk’s death, however terrible that may be to us. Something that involves the Oct. What it is, we do not know.” She nodded to Ferbin. “Whether this is linked in any way to our father’s murder, we also do not know.” She looked at Ferbin and Holse in turn. “Returning to Sursamen might be dangerous for you both in any event. Returning with me may be much more dangerous. I may attract more trouble than you’d have discovered yourselves and I will not be able to guarantee your safety, or even guarantee that I can make it my priority. I am going back, now, on business. I shall have duties. Do you understand? You do not have to accompany me. You would be welcome to stay here or be taken to some other part of the Culture. There would be no dishonour in that.”
“Sister,” Ferbin said, “we go with you.” He glanced at Holse, who nodded sharply.
Anaplian nodded. She turned to Hippinse. “How soon can you get us to Sursamen?”
“Five hours in-shuttle to clear Syaung-un and synch the pickup. After that; seventy-eight hours to a stop over Sursamen Surface.”
Djan Seriy frowned. “What can you cut off that?”
Hippinse looked alarmed. “Nothing. That’s already engine-damage speed. Need an overhaul.”
“Damage them a bit more. Book a bigger overhaul.”
“If I damage them any more I risk breaking them altogether and leaving us reduced to warp, or limping in on burst units.”
“What about a crash-stop?”
“Five hours off journey time. But bang goes your stealthy approach. Everybody’ll know we’re there. Might as well spell it out with sunspots.”
“Still, option it.” She frowned. “Bring the ship in afap and snap us off the shuttle. What’s that save?”
“Three hours off the front. Adds one to journey time; wrong direction. But a high-speed Displ—”
“Do it, please.” She nodded briskly. The silvery sphere reappeared. The door that had slid towards them started to slide back again almost immediately. Djan Seriy calmly unfolded herself and looked round the three men. “We speak no more of any of this until we’re on the ship itself, agreed?” They all nodded. Djan Seriy pushed herself away towards the retreating plug of door. “Let’s go.”
They were being given exactly ten minutes to get themselves together. Ferbin and Holse found a place nearby in the hub section that had a tiny amount of gravity, windows looking out to the vast, slowly twisting coils of the great Nestworld of Syaung-un which surrounded them, and a little bar area with machines that dispensed food and drink. Djan Seriy’s drone thing went with them and showed them how everything worked. When they dithered it made choices for them. They were still expressing amazement at how good it all tasted when it was time to go.
The Displace may show up. A crash-stop certainly will, the personality construct of Jerle Batra told Anaplian as she watched first the little micro-Orbital 512th Degree FifthStrand, and then Syaung-un itself, shrink in size on the module’s main screen. The two structures shrank at very different rates, for all that the little twelve-seat craft they were in, a shuttle off the Liveware Problem, was accelerating as fast as Morthanveld statutes allowed. 512th Degree FifthStrand disappeared almost immediately, a tiny cog in a vast machine. The Nestworld stayed visible for a long time. At first it seemed almost to grow bigger, even more of it coming into view as the shuttle powered away, before, along with its central star, Syaung-un finally started to shrink.
Too bad, Djan Seriy replied. If our Morthanveld friends are insulted, then so be it. We’ve pitty-patted round the Morthanveld long enough. I grow tired of it.
You assume a deal of authority here, Seriy Anaplian, the construct — currently housed in the shuttle’s AI matrix — told her. It is not for you to make or remake Culture foreign policy.
Djan Seriy settled in her seat at the back of the shuttle. From here she could see everybody.
I am a Culture citizen, she replied. I thought it was entirely my right and duty.
You are one Culture citizen.
Well, in any case, Jerle Batra, if my elder brother is to be believed, my other brother’s life is in severe danger, the cold-blooded murderer of my father — a potential tyrant — is lord of not one but two of Sursamen’s levels, and, of course, the majority of the Oct front-line fleet may be converging on my home planet, for reasons still unclear. I think I am entitled to a little leeway here. Talking of; what is the latest on the Oct ships? The ones that may or may not be heading for Sursamen.
We’re picking up nothing untoward so far, last I heard. I suggest you update when you’re on the Liveware Problem.
You aren’t coming with us?
My presence, even in construct form, might make this look too official. I won’t be coming with you.
Oh. This probably meant the construct was going to be wiped from the matrix of the shuttle, too. It would be a kind of death. The construct didn’t sound too upset about it.
You do trust the Liveware Problem, I assume? she sent.
We have no choice, Batra replied. It is all we have available.
You are still denying it is officially SC?
The ship is what it says it is, Batra told her. However, to return to the subject: the trouble is that we don’t have any ships in the relevant volumes to be able to check on what the Oct are really doing. The Morthanveld and Nariscene do have the ships and don’t seem to have spotted anything either, but then they’re not looking.
Perhaps it is time we told them to start looking.
Perhaps it is. It’s being discussed.
I’m sure. Would this involve lots of Minds blathering?
It would.