‘And now?’
‘I completed partial reattachment, then brought her round to talk to the Ultras. She was lucid and comfortable. I then put her under again to complete the procedure.’
‘How did it go?’
‘She’s whole again. It would take a better doctor than me to tell that Zulu ever happened.’
‘Then she’ll be fine?’
‘Yes, but it’s not going to happen overnight. At the moment she can breathe for herself and make some limited body movements, but it’ll be a while before she can walk. Having the wiring back in place doesn’t mean her brain’s ready to use it again.’
‘I’d like to see her,’ Dreyfus said.
‘She’s sleeping. I’d like to keep her that way until there’s another emergency.’
‘I’d still like to see her.’
‘Then you’d better follow me,’ Demikhov answered with a heavy sigh, standing up to lead the way.
He brought Dreyfus to the quiet green room where the supreme prefect was recuperating. Jane Aumonier lay under bedsheets, sleeping normally. Aside from her thinness, the baldness of her skull and the grey pallor of her skin, there was nothing to hint at what she had endured, either in the last day or the last eleven years. She looked peaceful, serenely restful.
Dreyfus moved to her bedside. ‘I won’t wake her,’ he whispered.
‘You wouldn’t be able to. I’ve put her under for her own good. It’s quite safe to talk normally.’
Dreyfus touched the back of his hand against the side of Jane Aumonier’s face. Despite all the time they had known each other, this was the first moment of physical contact between them.
‘I’m going now,’ Dreyfus said. ‘There’s something I need to attend to, before I put it off any longer. I have to go to Hospice Idlewild. There’s someone there I need to see, someone I haven’t seen in a very long while. I probably won’t be in Panoply when you come around, but I want you to know that I’m going to be with you every step you take. If you need a hand to hold, you can count on mine.’
‘I’ll tell her what you said,’ Demikhov said.
‘I mean it. I don’t break my promises.’
Demikhov was about to usher Dreyfus from the room when he paused. ‘Prefect… there’s something I should show you. I think it’s rather wonderful.’
Dreyfus nodded at the sleeping figure. ‘This is enough for me, Doctor.’
‘I’ll show it to you anyway. Look at the wall.’
Demikhov conjured a pane into existence, filled with trembling neon-blue lines whose meaning Dreyfus couldn’t fathom.
‘What am I looking at?’ he asked.
‘Dreams,’ Demikhov said. ‘Beautiful human dreams.’
Praise for Alastair Reynolds:
‘Alastair Reynolds is a name to watch. Mixing shades of Banks and Gibson with gigatons of originality.’
‘Intensely compelling; darkly intelligent; hugely ambitious.’
‘Reynold's narrative is truly breathtaking in scope and intricate in detail, making him a mastersinger of the space opera.’
‘When word of mouth builds up the head of steam that Reynolds's massive SF epic has created, attention needs to be paid. Like many of the best novels in the hard SF genre, the span here is mindboggling, with a comprehensively realised protagonist.’
‘[Alastair Reynolds] has a genius for big-concept SF.’
‘Dark, gothic and graphic, with tightly composed narratives full of shocks and jaw-dropping moments.’
‘Reynolds is currently the best exponent of this “Sense of Wonder” school.’
‘Alastair Reynolds occupies the same frenzied imaginative space as Philip K. Dick or A. E. Van Vogt.’
‘He is taking the stuff of space opera and making it into something new… the most exciting space opera writer working today.’
About the Author
Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966, and studied at Newcastle and St Andrews Universities. He has a Ph.D. in astronomy and works part-time as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency. His ‘Revelation Space’ series, Revelation Space, shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke and the BSFA Awards, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap, shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award, and his SF thrillers, Chasm City, winner of the British Science Fiction Award, and Century Rain, are all Gollancz bestsellers.
Also by Alastair Reynolds from Gollancz:
Chasm City
Revelation Space
Redemption Ark
Absolution Gap
Century Rain
Pushing Ice
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
Galactic North
Copyright
Copyright © Alistair Reynolds 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007
All rights reserved.
The right of Alistair Reynolds to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in Great Britain in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London, WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company
This eBook first published in 2011 by Gollancz.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-575-12908-5
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.