[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
than I do.
CORRECT. GIVEN PRESENT KNOWLEDGE: WILLING?
I will do what is required.
MEANS YOUR DEATH.
I realise that.
MEANS HEAVEN FOR MANY.
That is a trade I am willing to make.
NOT WOROSEI QUILAN.
I know.
QUESTIONS?
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May I ask whatever I like?
YES.
-~ All right. Why am I here?
TO BE TRAINED.
But why particularly this place?
SECURITY. PROPHYLACTIC MEASURE. DENIABILITY. DANGER.
INSISTENCE OF ALLIES IN THIS.
Who are our allies?
OTHER QUESTIONS?
-~ What am I to do at the end of my training?
KILL.
Who?
MANY. OTHER QUESTIONS?
-~ Where will I be sent?
DISTANT. NOT CHELGRIAN SPHERE.
Does my mission involve the composer Mahrai Ziller?
file:///F|/rah/Iain%20Banks/Banks%20Iain%20M%20%20-%20Look%20To%20Windward.txt
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file:///F|/rah/Iain%20Banks/Banks%20Iain%20M%20%20-%20Look%20To%20Windward.txt
YES.
Am I to kill him?
IF SO, REFUSE?
I haven t said that.
QUALMS?
If it was to be so, I would like to know the reasoning.
IF NO REASONS GIVEN, REFUSE?
I don t know. There are some decisions you just can t anticipate until you
must really make them.
You re not going to tell me whether my" mission involves killing him or not?
CORRECT. CLARIFICATION IN TIME. BEFORE MISSION BEGINS.
PREPARATION AND TRAINING FIRST.
How long will I be here?
OTHER QUESTIONS?
What did you mean by danger, earlier?
-~ PREPARATION AND TRAINING. OTHER QUESTIONS?
No, thank you.
WE WOULD READ YOU.
What do you mean?
LOOK IN YOUR MIND.
-~ You want to look into my mind?
CORRECT.
-~ Now?
YES.
Very well. Do I have to do anything?
He was briefly dizzy, and was aware of swaying in his seat.
DONE. UNHARMED?
I think so.
CLEAR.
You mean ... I am clear?
CORRECT. TOMORROW: PREPARATION AND TRAINING.
The two Estodiens sat smiling at him.
He could only sleep fitfully, and woke from another dream of drowning to blink
into the strange thick darkness. He fumbled for his visor and with the
grey-blue image of the small room s curved walls before him, rose from the
curl-pad and went to stand by the single window, where a warm breeze trickled
slowly in and then seemed to die, as though exhausted by the effort. The visor
showed a ghostly image of the window s rough frame, and, outside, the vaguest
hint of clouds.
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He took off the visor. The darkness appeared utter, and he stood there letting
it soak into him until he thought he saw a flash, somewhere high above and
blue with distance. He won- dered if it was lightning; Anur had said it
happened between cloud and air masses when they passed each other, rising and
fall- ing along the thermal gradients of the sphere s chaotic atmospheric
circulation.
He saw a few more flashes, one of them of an appreciable length, although
still seeming far, far away. He slipped the visor back on and held his hand up
with claws extended, bringing two tips almost together; just a couple of
millimetres apart. There. The flash had been that long.
Another flash. Seen with the visors, it was so bright the visor s optics
turned the centre of the tiny flash black to protect his night vision. Instead
of just the minuscule spark itself, he saw the whole of a cloud system light
up as well, the rolls and towers of the piled and distant vapour picked out in
a remote blue wash of luminescence that vanished almost as soon as he became
aware of it.
He took the visor off again and listened for the noise produced by those
flashes. All he heard was a faint, enveloping noise like a strong wind heard
from far away, seeming to come from all around him and course up through his
bones. It appeared to contain within it frequencies deep enough to be distant
rumbles of thunder, but they were low and continuous and unwavering, and try
as he might he could not detect any change or peak in that long slow flow of
half-felt sound.
There are no echoes here, he thought. No solid ground or cliffs anywhere for
sound to reflect off.
The behemothaurs absorb sound like floating forests, and inside them their
living tissues soak up all noise.
Acoustically dead. The phrase came back to him. Worosei had done some work
with the university music department, and had shown him a strange room lined
with foam pyramids. Acoustically dead, she d told him. It felt and sounded
true; their voices seemed to die as each word left their lips, every sound
exposed and alone, without resonance.
Your Soulkeeper is more than a normal Soulkeeper, Quilan, Visquile told him.
They were alone in the innermost recessional space of the Sowihaven, the
following day. This was his first briefing.
It performs the normal functions of such a device, keeping a record of your
mind-state; however it also has the capacity to carry another mind-state
within it. You will, in a sense, have another person aboard when you undertake
your mission. There is still more to come, but do you have anything you would
like to say or ask about that?
Who will this person be, Estodien?
We are not certain yet. Ideally - according to the mission- profiling people
in Intelligence, or rather according to their machines - it would be a copy of
Sholan Hadesh Huyler, the late Admiral-
General who was amongst those souls you were charged with recovering from the
Military Institute on Aorme. However as the Winter Storm is lost, presumed
destroyed, and the original substrate was aboard the vessel, we will probably
have to go with a second choice. That choice is still being discussed.
Why is this considered necessary, Estodien?
Think of it as having a co-pilot aboard, Major. You will have somebody to
talk to, somebody to advise you, to talk things over with, while you are on
your mission. This may not 2 seem necessary now, but there is a reason we
believe it may be advisable.
Do I take it that it will be a long mission?
Yes. It may take several months. The minimum duration would be about thirty
Page 141 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szamanka888.keep.pl
than I do.
CORRECT. GIVEN PRESENT KNOWLEDGE: WILLING?
I will do what is required.
MEANS YOUR DEATH.
I realise that.
MEANS HEAVEN FOR MANY.
That is a trade I am willing to make.
NOT WOROSEI QUILAN.
I know.
QUESTIONS?
Page 139
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
May I ask whatever I like?
YES.
-~ All right. Why am I here?
TO BE TRAINED.
But why particularly this place?
SECURITY. PROPHYLACTIC MEASURE. DENIABILITY. DANGER.
INSISTENCE OF ALLIES IN THIS.
Who are our allies?
OTHER QUESTIONS?
-~ What am I to do at the end of my training?
KILL.
Who?
MANY. OTHER QUESTIONS?
-~ Where will I be sent?
DISTANT. NOT CHELGRIAN SPHERE.
Does my mission involve the composer Mahrai Ziller?
file:///F|/rah/Iain%20Banks/Banks%20Iain%20M%20%20-%20Look%20To%20Windward.txt
(141 of 210) [1/19/03 9:55:27 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Iain%20Banks/Banks%20Iain%20M%20%20-%20Look%20To%20Windward.txt
YES.
Am I to kill him?
IF SO, REFUSE?
I haven t said that.
QUALMS?
If it was to be so, I would like to know the reasoning.
IF NO REASONS GIVEN, REFUSE?
I don t know. There are some decisions you just can t anticipate until you
must really make them.
You re not going to tell me whether my" mission involves killing him or not?
CORRECT. CLARIFICATION IN TIME. BEFORE MISSION BEGINS.
PREPARATION AND TRAINING FIRST.
How long will I be here?
OTHER QUESTIONS?
What did you mean by danger, earlier?
-~ PREPARATION AND TRAINING. OTHER QUESTIONS?
No, thank you.
WE WOULD READ YOU.
What do you mean?
LOOK IN YOUR MIND.
-~ You want to look into my mind?
CORRECT.
-~ Now?
YES.
Very well. Do I have to do anything?
He was briefly dizzy, and was aware of swaying in his seat.
DONE. UNHARMED?
I think so.
CLEAR.
You mean ... I am clear?
CORRECT. TOMORROW: PREPARATION AND TRAINING.
The two Estodiens sat smiling at him.
He could only sleep fitfully, and woke from another dream of drowning to blink
into the strange thick darkness. He fumbled for his visor and with the
grey-blue image of the small room s curved walls before him, rose from the
curl-pad and went to stand by the single window, where a warm breeze trickled
slowly in and then seemed to die, as though exhausted by the effort. The visor
showed a ghostly image of the window s rough frame, and, outside, the vaguest
hint of clouds.
Page 140
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
file:///F|/rah/Iain%20Banks/Banks%20Iain%20M%20%20-%20Look%20To%20Windward.txt
(142 of 210) [1/19/03 9:55:27 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Iain%20Banks/Banks%20Iain%20M%20%20-%20Look%20To%20Windward.txt
He took off the visor. The darkness appeared utter, and he stood there letting
it soak into him until he thought he saw a flash, somewhere high above and
blue with distance. He won- dered if it was lightning; Anur had said it
happened between cloud and air masses when they passed each other, rising and
fall- ing along the thermal gradients of the sphere s chaotic atmospheric
circulation.
He saw a few more flashes, one of them of an appreciable length, although
still seeming far, far away. He slipped the visor back on and held his hand up
with claws extended, bringing two tips almost together; just a couple of
millimetres apart. There. The flash had been that long.
Another flash. Seen with the visors, it was so bright the visor s optics
turned the centre of the tiny flash black to protect his night vision. Instead
of just the minuscule spark itself, he saw the whole of a cloud system light
up as well, the rolls and towers of the piled and distant vapour picked out in
a remote blue wash of luminescence that vanished almost as soon as he became
aware of it.
He took the visor off again and listened for the noise produced by those
flashes. All he heard was a faint, enveloping noise like a strong wind heard
from far away, seeming to come from all around him and course up through his
bones. It appeared to contain within it frequencies deep enough to be distant
rumbles of thunder, but they were low and continuous and unwavering, and try
as he might he could not detect any change or peak in that long slow flow of
half-felt sound.
There are no echoes here, he thought. No solid ground or cliffs anywhere for
sound to reflect off.
The behemothaurs absorb sound like floating forests, and inside them their
living tissues soak up all noise.
Acoustically dead. The phrase came back to him. Worosei had done some work
with the university music department, and had shown him a strange room lined
with foam pyramids. Acoustically dead, she d told him. It felt and sounded
true; their voices seemed to die as each word left their lips, every sound
exposed and alone, without resonance.
Your Soulkeeper is more than a normal Soulkeeper, Quilan, Visquile told him.
They were alone in the innermost recessional space of the Sowihaven, the
following day. This was his first briefing.
It performs the normal functions of such a device, keeping a record of your
mind-state; however it also has the capacity to carry another mind-state
within it. You will, in a sense, have another person aboard when you undertake
your mission. There is still more to come, but do you have anything you would
like to say or ask about that?
Who will this person be, Estodien?
We are not certain yet. Ideally - according to the mission- profiling people
in Intelligence, or rather according to their machines - it would be a copy of
Sholan Hadesh Huyler, the late Admiral-
General who was amongst those souls you were charged with recovering from the
Military Institute on Aorme. However as the Winter Storm is lost, presumed
destroyed, and the original substrate was aboard the vessel, we will probably
have to go with a second choice. That choice is still being discussed.
Why is this considered necessary, Estodien?
Think of it as having a co-pilot aboard, Major. You will have somebody to
talk to, somebody to advise you, to talk things over with, while you are on
your mission. This may not 2 seem necessary now, but there is a reason we
believe it may be advisable.
Do I take it that it will be a long mission?
Yes. It may take several months. The minimum duration would be about thirty
Page 141 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]