The Algebraist Read Online Free PDF Page B

the use of image in the epic, the ethics of boasting and exaggeration.’
    ‘And the delve before?’
    ‘With Cheuhoras alone; an extended lament for his departed parent, some hunting myths from the local near-past and a lengthy translation and disposition on an epic sequence concerning the adventures of ancient plasmatics voyaging within the hydrogen migration, perhaps a billion or so years ago, during the Second Chaos.’
    ‘Before that?’
    Fassin smiled. ‘My extended one-to-one with Valseir, the delve which included my sojourn with the Raucous Rascals of Tribe Dimajrian.’ He imagined he didn’t need to remind his uncle of too many of the details of that particular excursion. This had been the protracted delve which had made his name as a gifted Seer, the six-year journey - by body-time; it had lasted nearly a century by outside reckoning - that had established his reputation both within Sept Bantrabal and the hierarchy of ‘glantine Seers beyond. His exploits, and the value of the stories and histories he had returned with, had been largely responsible for his elevation to the post of Chief Seer-in-waiting in his Sept, and for the offer of marriage to the daughter of the Chief Seer of Sept Tonderon, the most senior of the twelve Septs.
    ‘This takes us back how many years, in real?’
    Fassin thought. ‘About three hundred… Two hundred and eighty-seven, if I recall correctly.’
    Slovius nodded. ‘There was much of that delve released during its course?’
    ‘Almost nothing, sir. The Raucous Rascals insisted. They are one of the more… unameliorated adolescent pods. I was allowed to report that I was alive once per year.’
    ‘The delve before that?’
    Fassin sighed and tapped the fingers of one hand on the fused glass at the side of the pool. What on old Earth could this be about? And could Slovius not simply look up the Sept records for such information? There was a big cantilevered arm thing stowed against the wall of the pool chamber with a screenpad on the end. Fassin had seen this device lowered into place in front of Slovius for him to peer at and prod the keys with his finger stumps. It was, patently, not a very rapid or efficient method of interrogating the house library, but it would answer all these questions. Or the old fellow could just ask. There were servants for this sort of thing.
    Fassin cleared his throat. ‘Most of that was taken up with instructing Paggs Yurnvic, of Sept Reheo, on his first delve. We paid court to traav Hambrier, in one-to-one time with the Dwellers to allow for Yurnvic’s inexperience. The delve lasted barely three months, body-time. Textbook introductory, sir.’
    ‘You found no time to pursue any studies of your own?’
    ‘Little, sir.’
    ‘But some, yes?’
    ‘I was able to attend part of a symposium on deep poetics, with the university pod Marcal. To detail the other attendees I would have to inquire within the Sept records, sir.’
    ‘What more? Of the symposium, I mean. Its subject?’
    ‘If I recall, a comparison of Dweller hunting techniques with the actions of Machine War Inquisitories.’ Fassin stroked his chin. ‘The examples were Ulubis-system local, some regarding ‘glantine.’
    Slovius nodded. He glanced at his nephew. ‘Do you know what an emissarial projection is, Fassin?’
    Fassin looked up at the segment of gas-giant visible through the transparent roof panel. The night terminator was just starting to appear to one side, a line of increasing darkness creeping across the distant cloudscape. He looked back down at Slovius. ‘I may have heard the term, sir. I would not care to offer a definition.’
    ‘It’s when they send a tuned suite of queries and responses to a physically remote location, by light beam. To play the part of an emissary.’
    ‘"They", sir?’
    ‘Engineers, the Administrata. Perhaps the Omnocracy.’ Fassin sat back. ‘Indeed?’
    ‘Indeed. If we are to believe what we are told, the object they send is something