Excession Read online

  @n•]

  xGCU Fate Amenable To Change

  o {to}GSV Ethics Gradient

  & as requested:

  Significant developmental anomaly.

  c •{trans.:8th-level-of-accuracy galactic location}

  (@n•).

  ∞

  4) [tight beam, M16 {Special Circumstances Section High Level Code

  Sequence}, relay, received@n•

  xGCU Fate Amenable To Change

  oGSV Ethics Gradient

  & only as required:

  Developmental anomaly provisionally rated EqT {trans.: Equivalent-

  Technology}, potentially jeopardising, found here c•.

  My Status: L5 secure, moving to L6ˆ {trans.: Contact Mind prophy-

  lactic system security levels}.

  Instigating all other Extreme precautions.

  ∞

  5)[broadcastMclear, received@n•]:

  *xGCU Fate Amenable To Change

  oGSV Ethics Gradient

  & *broadcast*:

  Ref. 3 previous compacs {trans.: communication-packages}

  [ref 1-3 above].

  Panic over.

  I misinterpreted.

  It’s a Scapsile Vault Craft.

  Ho hum.

  Sorry.

  Full Internal Report to follow immediately in High Embarrassment Factor code.

  BSTS. H&H. BTB. {trans. “BSTS. H&H. BTB.” = “Better Safe Than Sorry. Hale & Hearty. Back To Business.” (pre-agreed OK signal between Escarpment Class General Contact Unit Fate Amenable To Change and General Systems Vehicle Ethics Gradient, confirmed.)} ∞

  End Signal Sequence.

  ‘Is that it?’ she cried, staring at the drone. ‘That’s the most boring--!’

  ‘No it isn’t; look!’

  She looked back; the text scrolled on.

  ∞

  [Pre-refereed security clearance granted - Ref. Phage Rock.]

  [Signal Sequence log unlocked, re-enabled.]

  ∞

  (“TextTrans” Record Event function disabled.)

  ∞

  Signal Sequence resuming:

  ∞

  ...6) [stuttered tight point, M32 SCantk {trans.: Special Circumstances absolute-need-to-know Level Maximum Encryption Code

  Process}, relay, TrackedCopy4, received@n•, check to read:

  [x].

  Being read @n• in ECent Command Space on Phage Rock by:

  “Text-Trans” (recognised Archaic, v891.4, non sentient. NB: “Text-Trans” Record Event function will remain disabled to document

  End-Read-point).

  (so cleared)

  &

  Phage-Kwins-Broatsa Ulver Halse Seich dam Iphetra

  (so cleared)

  &

  Escaruze Churt Lyne Bi-Handrahen Xatile Treheberiss

  (so cleared).

  Sentient sight of the following document will be recorded.

  Each check to proceed:

  [x]

  [x].

  Thank you. Proceeding:]

  NB: Attention: The following is a screen-written text-only dynamically

  scrolled discrete-assimilation-opportunity document which may not be

  vocalised, glyphed, diaglyphed, copied, stored or media-transferred

  in any conventionally accessible form. Any attempt to do so will

  be noted.

  Please adjust reading speed:

  [default/human].

  NB: IMPORTANT: Established SC secrecy methodology applies at M32

  level - see following schedule re. definitions, precedents, warnings,

  likely sanctions and punishments. You are strongly advised to study

  this schedule carefully if you are not already fully familiar--

  [override]

  [Schedule read-out aborted.]

  ‘You weren’t supposed to do that!’ Churt Lyne yelped.

  Ulver had spotted the part of the text panel that overrode the read-out, and pressed it. She snorted. ‘Shh!’ she said, nodding at the screen. ‘You’re missing it!’

  Begin-Read point of Tracked Copy document #SC•.c4: +

  xGCU Fate Amenable To Change

  oGSV Ethics Gradient

  & strictly as SC cleared:

  Excession notice @•.

  Constitutes formal All-ships Warning Level 0 [(in temporary sequestration) - textual note added by GSV Wisdom Like Silence @•].

  Excession.

  Confirmed precedent-breach. Type K7ˆ. True class non-estimal. Its status: Active. Aware. Contactiphile. Uninvasive sf {trans.: so far}. LocStatre {trans.: Locally Static with reference to}: Esperi (star).

  First ComAtt {trans.:CommunicationAttempt} (its, following shear-by contact via my primary scanner @•) @• in M1-a16 & Galin II by tight beam, type 2A. PTA {trans.: Permission To Approach} & Handshake burst as appended, x@ 0.7Y {trans.: (light) Year}. Suspect signal gleaned from Z-E {trans.: Zetetic Elench}/Ialsaer ComBeam {trans.: CommunicationBeam} spread, 2nd Era. xContact callsigned “I”. No other signals registered.

  My subsequent actions: maintained course and speed, skim-declutched {?} primary scanner to mimic 50% closer approach, began directed full passive HS {trans.:HyperSpacial} scan (sync./start of signal sequence, as above), sent buffered Galin II pro-forma message-reception confirmation signal to contact location, dedicated track scanner @ 19% power and 300% beamspread to contact @ -25% primary scanner roll-off point, instigated 2exponential {?}slow-to-stop line manoeuvre synchronised to skein-local stop-point @ 12% of track scanner range limit, ran full systems check as detailed, executed slow/4 {?}swing-around then retraced course to previous closest approach point and stop @ standard 2ex curve {?}. Holding there.

  Excession’s physical characteristics: (¡am!) {trans.: anti-matter} sphere rad. 53.34km, mass (non-estimal by space-time fabric influence - locality ambiently planar - estimated by pan-polarity material density norms at) 1.45x813t. Black-body surface, stipple granular, fractal within .0012-1344mm range, open to (field-filtered) vacuum, anomalous field presence inferred from 821 kHz leakage. Affirm K7ˆ category by HS topology & eG {trans.: (hyperspatial) energy Grid} links (inf. & ult.) {trans.: (the hyperspatial directions) infra and ultra}. eG link details non-estimal. DiaGlyph files attached.

  Associated anomalous materials presence: several highly dispersed detritus clouds all within 28 minutes, three consistent with staged destruction of >.1 m3 near-equiv-tech entity, another ditto approx 38 partially exhausted M-DAWS .1cal rounds {trans.: Miniaturised-Drone Advanced Weapon System nanomissiles}, another consisting of general hi-soph level (O2-atmosphered) ship-internal combat debris. Latter drifting directly away from excession’s current position. Retracks of debris clouds’ expansion profiles indicate mutual age of 52.5 days. Combat debris cloud implicitly originating @ point 948 milliseconds from excession’s current position. DiaGlyph files attached.

  No other presences apparent to within 30 years.

  My status: H&H, unTouched. L8 secure post system-scour (100%). ATDPSs {trans.: Auto Total Destruct Protocol Suites}engaged. CRTTDPSs {trans.: Coded Remote-Triggered Total Destruct Protocol Suites} engaged.

  Repeat:

  Excession eGrid (inf. & ult.) linked, confirmed.

  eGrid link details non-estimal.

  True class non-estimal.

  Awaiting.

  @n• ...

  ... PS:

  Gulp.

  (Document binary choice menu, [1 = Yes or 0 = No]:)

  Repeat? [.]

  Inspect Reading history? [.]

  Read previous comments? [.]

  Attach comments? [.]

  Read appendices? [.]

  All the above (0 = leave doc): [.]

  ‘We’ll dip out here for now,’ the drone said.

  All the above (0 = leave doc):[0]

  End-Read point Tracked Copy document #SC•.c4: +

  NB: The preceding Tracked Copy document is not readable/copyable/

  transmissible without its embedded sec
urity program.

  NB: IMPORTANT: Communicating any part, detail, property, interpretation or attribute of the preceding document, INCLUDING ITS

  EXISTENCE--

  [override]

  [Post-document warning read-out aborted.]

  ‘I wish you’d stop doing that,’ the drone muttered.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said. Ulver Seich shook her head slowly at the text hanging in the air in front of her and the drone Churt Lyne. She took a deep breath. Suddenly, she felt quite entirely sober. ‘Is this as important as I think it is?’

  ‘Almost certainly much more so.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘fuck.’

  ‘Indeed,’ the drone replied. ‘Any other questions so far?’

  She looked at the last word of the GCU’s main signal:

  Gulp.

  Gulp. Well, she could relate to that all right.

  ‘Questions . . .’ Ulver Seich said, staring at the holo screen and blowing her cheeks out. She turned to the drone, her violet ball gown rustling. ‘Lots. First, what are we really . . .? No; hold on. Just take me through the signal. Never mind all the translations or whatever; what’s it actually saying?’

  ‘The General Contact Unit issues an excession notice through its home General Systems Vehicle,’ the drone told her, ‘but it’s prevented from being broadcast by another GSV which the first one obviously contacted before doing anything. The GCU tells us that its sensors clipped this artifact, which then hailed the GCU using an old Elench greeting and an even older Galactic Common Language; then the GCU spends a great deal of the signal detailing how clever it was pretending that it’s slower, not as manoeuvrable and less well equipped in the sensor department than actually it is. It describes the object and a few surrounding bits and pieces of debris which imply there was some sort of small-scale military action there fifty-three days earlier, then it assures us it’s well and unviolated but it’s ready to blow itself up, or let somebody else blow it up if its integrity is threatened . . . not a step a GCU takes lightly.

  ‘However, entirely the most important aspect of the signal is that the object it has discovered is linked to the energy grid in both hyperspatial directions; that alone puts it well outside all known parameters and precedents. We have no previous experience whatsoever with something like this; it’s unique; beyond our ken. I’m not surprised the GCU is scared.’

  ‘Okay, okay, that’s kind of what I thought; shit.’ She belched delicately. ‘Excuse me.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Now, like I was going to say; what are we really dealing with here; an excession, or something else?’

  ‘Well, if you take the definition of an excession as anything external to the Culture that we should be worried about, this is an excession all right. On the other hand, if you compare it to the average - or even an exceptional - Hegemonising Swarm, it’s small, localised, non-invasive, unaggressive, unshielded, immobile

  ... and almost chatty, using Galin II to communicate.’ The drone paused. ‘The crucial characteristic then remains the fact that the thing’s linked to the energy grid, both up and down. That’s interesting, to put it mildly, because as far as we know, nobody knows how to do that. Well, nobody apart from the Elder civilisations . . . probably; they won’t say and we can’t tell.’

  ‘So this thing can do something the Culture can’t?’

  ‘Looks like it.’

  ‘And I take it the Culture would like to be able to do what it can do.’

  ‘Oh, yes. Yes, very much so. Or, even if it couldn’t partake of the technology, at least it would like to use the implied opportunity the excession may represent.’

  ‘To do what?’

  ‘Wehhll,’ Churt Lyne said, drawing the word out while its aura-field coloured with embarrassment and its body wobbled in the air, ‘technically - maybe - the ability to travel - easily - to other universes.’ The machine paused again, looking at the human and waiting for her sarcastic reply. When she didn’t say anything, it continued. ‘It should be possible to step outside the time-strand of our universe as easily as a ship steps outside the space-time fabric. It might then become feasible to travel through superior hyperspace upwards to universes older than ours, or through inferior hyperspace downwards to universes younger than our own.’

  ‘Time travel?’

  ‘No, but affording the opportunity to become time proof. Age proof. In theory, one might become able to step down consecutively through earlier universes . . . well, forever.’

  ‘Forever?’

  ‘Real forever, as far as we understand it. You could choose the size and therefore age of the universe you wanted to remain within, and/or visit as many as you wanted. You could, for example, head on up through older universes and attempt to access technologies perhaps beyond even this one. But just as interesting is the point that because you wouldn’t be tied to one universe, one time stream, you need be involved in no heat death when the time came in your original universe; or no evaporation, or no big crunch, depending.

  ‘It’s like being on an escalator. At the moment, confined to this universe, we’re stuck to this stair, this level; the possibility this artifact appears to offer is that of being able to step from one stair to another, so that before your stair on the escalator comes to the end of its travel - heat-death, big crunch, whatever - you just step off one level down to another. You could, in effect, live for ever . . . well, unless it’s discovered that cosmic fireball engines themselves have a life-cycle; as I understand it the metamath on that implies but does not guarantee perpetuity.’

  Seich looked at the drone for a while, her brows furrowed. ‘Haven’t we ever found anything like this before?’

  ‘Not really. There are ambiguous reports of vaguely similar entities turning up in the past - though they tend to disappear before anybody can fully investigate - but as far as we know, nobody has ever found anything quite like this before.’

  The human was silent for a while. Then she said, ‘If you could access any universe, and go back to one universe at a very early, pre-sentience stage with an already highly developed civilisation ...’

  ‘You could take over the whole thing,’ the drone confirmed. ‘An entire universe would be yours alone. In fact, go back far enough - that is, to a small enough, early enough, just-post-singularity universe - and you could, conceivably, customise it; mould it, shape it, influence its primary characteristics. Admittedly, that sort of control may well remain in the realm of the fantastic, but it might be possible.’

  Ulver Seich drew a deep breath, and, looking at the floor, nodded slowly. ‘. . . And of course,’ she said, ‘if this thing is what it appears to be, it could be an exit, as well as an entrance.’

  ‘Entirely so; it is almost certainly both at once. As you imply; never mind us getting into it, we don’t know what might come out of it.’

  Ulver Seich nodded slowly. ‘. . . Holy shit,’ she said.

  ‘Let’s call up the comments,’ Churt Lyne suggested.

  ‘Can we miss out the preparatory junk at the start?’

  ‘Allow me. There.’

  Read previous comments? [1]

  ‘... And skip all the detailology crap, too. Just who said what.’

  ‘As you wish.’

  (Comments section:)

  x Wisdom Like Silence (GSV, Continent class):

  1.0 As agreed within the informal SC Extraordinary Events Core Group

  (Crisis Preparatory Foresight Sub-Committee, Occasional), we (in multiple mode) have assumed the management of this situation as of n•.

  1.1 The following constitute our introductory remarks.

  2.0 Might we first beg to record that it goes without saying that we are

  not only extremely flattered but also deeply humbled to be placed in a

  position of such importance on the occasion of this grave, profound and indeed one might even say momentous circumstance.

  ‘Po-faced bastard. Are all Continents this up themselves?’

 
; ‘Want me to ask somebody?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m sure we’d get a straight answer to that one.’

  ‘Just so.’

  ‘Hmm. Meanwhile the bullshit rolls on.’

  3.0 Clearly, this is a matter of the utmost consequence. It follows that the manner in which it is presented beyond ourselves must be considered with regard to all the possible ramifications and repercussions such a pan-developmentally crucial subject might reasonably be expected to entail.

  ‘Sit on it, in other words,’ Seich said tartly. ‘What exactly is a Continent class’s multiple mode, anyway?’

  ‘Three-Mind grouping, usually.’

  ‘That’s why it’s saying everything in triplicate . . .’

  3.1 The Excession under consideration is without precedent, but it is also - it would appear - static, and (presently, and again apparently) to all intents and purposes inactive. Thus, caution (born of import, situational stability and imprecedence) would appear to be the order of the moment. We have - as a temporary measure, and with the approval of those comprising the above Group and Sub-Committee who are within reasonable consultative range - deemed the matter to be secrecy-rated such that all discussions and communications regarding it are carried out according to M32 standard.

  3.2 Under the terms of the Temporary Emergencies (Allowed Subterfuges) Post-Debacle Steering Committee report following the Azadian

  Matter, the maximum length of the M32 secrecy interval has been set

  at 128 days standard from n•, with a Mean Envisaged Duration of 96

  days and a full-sub-committee review period of 32 hours.

  3.3 The nearest star to this Excession is called Esperi (under Standard

  Adopted Nomenclature); however, in accordance with M32 procedure

  we propose the code-term Taussig (from the Primary Random EventNaming List) be used regarding this matter henceforth.

  3.4 This concludes our introductory remarks.

  4.0 The following comments will be arranged in sorted-relevance order;

  actual receive-times and context-schedules are available in the usual

  appendices.