Look to Windward

Space, Time

~ fear and the sudden tearing pain, the huge white-furred face suddenly filling his vision; the despair and terror and the anger at having been betrayed as he woke and tried — too late, far too late — to bring his hands up in what would have been a futile gesture anyway, then the ferocious thud as the creature’s huge jaws slammed into his neck, and the agony of the steel-like hold and the instant constriction, the cutting-off from air, and the shaking; neck snapping, brain rattling, dislodging him from sense and life…

Something rasped against his neck; there went aunt Silder’s necklace. The shaking went on. Something thin and broken whipped tinily against his neck as the blood sprayed out and the breath was worried out of him. You bastard, he thought, slipping away again from the savage side-to-side thrashing.

The pain went on, fading, as he was dragged now, held by the neck, through the alien ship. His limbs hung limp, cut off from his brain; he was a rag, a broken puppet. The corridors still smelled of rotting fruit. Eyes gummed with his own blood. Nothing to be done, nothing to hope for.

Mechanical noises. Then the feeling of being dropped. A surface beneath him. Released, his head felt barely joined to his body, rolling onto its side.

Sounds of growling and tearing and slashing, sounds he felt ought to connect to pain, to some sensation at least, but which meant nothing. Then silence, and darkness, and the inability to do anything but witness this slow fading-away of sensation itself. And another small pain near the nape of his neck; a final, tiny jab, like an afterthought; almost comical.

Failed. Failed to get back. Failed to warn. Failed to be the hero. It was not supposed to end this way, dying a lonely, painful death, conscious only of betrayal, fear and hopelessness.

Hissing. Fading. Cold. Movement; being scraped along inside a sudden, chill breeze.

Then utter silence, utter cold, and no weight whatsoever.

Uagen Zlepe, scholar, felt cheated that his blood-gummed eyes prevented him from seeing the distant stars in their vacuum-naked state as he died.

~ Great Yoleusenive, this is that which was found in the without by the servants of the Hiarankebine six thousand and three hundred beats to aft. It was brought within the world for the inspection of the Hiarankebine, which sends these remains with its esteem and compliments, believing that your self might add to the sum of knowledge with its revered evaluation.

~ This form may have been known to the one to whom you address your remarks. Its appearance brings associations, memories. They are old, though. Now beginning is a deep search of our long-term memory archival storage capacity. This will take some time to complete. Let us talk further on the subject before us while said search is taking place.

~ Very well. Of interest is that the analysis of the creature’s cellular instruction set indicates that the form in which it appears here is not that with which it was first birthed. A representation of the form it would have according to the original cellular instruction set is shown here:

~ That form was once known to us, we are sure, just as this one might have been once known to us. The representation that you have shown here corresponds to the form which is, or was, known as human. Appended to the deep search of our memory archives which was mentioned earlier will be the image that you are showing here. This search has not discovered anything of note thus far. It will take a little longer to complete because of the appendment of the visual image of the human form to it.

~ Human. This is interesting to us, though the nature of the interest is historical.

~ The creature concerned would appear to have accrued injuries that are not those one would associate with exposure to the conditions which prevail in the without, that is primarily the lack of medium, which absence is commonly termed vacuum, and the associated lack of any temperature save the most negligible.

~ Yes. The creature’s neck is not supposed to be of the appearance that one may see here, either in the form shown physically before us or in the form which has been recreated in visual form from the biological assignment array. Similarly, its torso appears to have been forcefully and injuriously opened, while these surfaces seem to have been lacerated.

~ The creature has been bitten, gouged and slashed.

~ Such are the actions one would most naturally associate with the alterations to the creature’s physiology.

~ What is known of these injuries, and in particular what is known of their timing relative to the apprehension of the object from the without?

~ It is believed that this damage was incurred very shortly before the creature was expelled from whatever medium-containment artifact it inhabited prior to said expulsion. The various injuries indicate that the creature was in a state not compatible with the continuance of its life — save for immediate and most highly enabled medical assistance — before its expulsion into the without, where it would, naturally, die. The circulatory fluid has sprayed out here, here and here and then frozen subsequently as a result of the low temperatures encountered in the without.

~ The frozen nature of the creature as we see it here is as it was when it was found originally, then.

~ That is the case. The medium-repelling bubble in which it can be seen to reside was emplaced before its induction from the without. Only very small particles of its body have been brought to ambient conditions to allow the analyses concerning which we have already communicated.

~ These small and widespread tissue damages would indicate that the creature was at least still of a temperature approximate to its normal and healthy operating state and possibly still in an alive condition when it was expelled into the without. Would it be the case that the Hiarankebine might agree?

~ It is the case.

~ This level of most-small damage would indicate that the creature’s remains have been exposed in the without for a long time, an interval which might be of the order of a significant proportion of a Grand Cycle, though not in the order of many such intervals.

~ The Hiarankebine is of a similar belief.

~ Is it the case that the direction and velocity of the creature’s remains at the time of its discovery have been recorded?

~ It is. The creature’s remains were static in the without according to accepted definition number three to within approximately the speed of slow breath at standard temperature and pressure. Such vectoriality was of an orientation similar to the world’s to within a quarter-paring.

~ The deep search which it was intimated was begun remains under way but has still failed to discover anything of interest. What other results from the particles that have been brought to ambient conditions have been added to the store of knowledge?

~ Some of the frozen liquid taken from the edges of the wound which the creature suffered upon its neck region has provided biological instruction set information which tends to indicate that the wound-inflicting agent may have been an individual of the species known as the Lesser Reviled.

~ That is interesting. Their name was earlier the Chelgrians, or the Chel, before the outrage that befell the Sansemin occurred. To what level of completeness was the analysis of the human form which was found to be implicit in the creature that we see before us taken?

~ Sufficient to provide the image which is seen here.

~ It is the case that a more complete image of the creature, even to the order of recreated biological corporeality, might further refine and focus the knowledge of the creature’s species’ place in the greater world of all life.

~ This might be accomplished with equal honour and ability by the Hiarankebine or by that to which these remarks are respectfully addressed.

~ The task is one we are happy to assume. It is noted that the creature is still clothed and has about its neck a piece, or the remains of a piece, of jewellery. Is it the case that an analysis of any depth regarding these extraneous objects has been carried out?

~ It is not, mighty Yoleusenive.

~ The deep search of our stored and non-volatile and off-system recall functions which it was intimated was earlier begun has now concluded. The creature that is before us was of the name Uagen Zlepe, a scholar who came to study the embodiment of the self to which you speak from the civilisation which was once known as the Culture.

~ These names are not known to us.

~ No matter. The body of this creature must have drifted in the without for a little over the period accounted for by one complete world-cycle, waiting here with that close-to-imperceptible fore-directed drift which was earlier mentioned, until the world fulfilled another revolution about the galaxy and sailed again into this region of space. This is good to know. This piece of information ramifies and completes. It adds considerably to the sum of knowledge, as will be explained in a report to be prepared for the Hiarankebine. Is it possible for that to whom these remarks are addressed to attend the finalisation of said report, the more expeditiously to convey it to the Hiarankebine?

~ It is.

~ Good. It may then be worthwhile carrying out further investigations, which that to whom you have addressed your remarks would be glad to undertake. It is to be hoped that the Hiarankebine will share the pleasure that is both experienced and anticipated by the Yoleusenive. A series of events which before had no conclusion now may have. This is satisfying to ourselves.

His eyes flicked open. He stared straight ahead. Where there should have been the awful white-furred face above him, jaws hinging open, or the cold stars spinning slowly as he tumbled, there was instead a familiar figure, hanging upside down from a branch inside a large, brightly lit circular space.

He was sitting up in a sort of cross between a bed and a giant nest. He blinked, ungumming his eyes. It did not feel as though it had been blood keeping them shut.

He squinted at the creature hanging a few metres in front of him. It blinked and turned its head a little.

“Praf?” he said, coughing. His throat felt sore, but at least it was properly connected to his head again.

The small, dark creature shook its leathery wings.

“Uagen Zlepe,” it said, “I am charged with welcoming you. I am 8827 Praf, female. I share the bulk of the memories associated with the fifth-order Decider of the 11^th Foliage Gleaner Troupe of the dirigible behemothaur Yoleus which was known to you as 974 Praf, including, it is believed, all those regarding yourself.”

Uagen coughed up some fluid. He nodded and looked around. This looked like the interior of Yoleus’ Invited Guests’ Quarters, with the sub-divisions removed.

“Am I back on Yoleus?” he asked.

“You are aboard the dirigible behemothaur Yoleusenive.”

Uagen stared at the hanging creature in front of him. It took him a moment or two to work out the implications of what he’d just heard. He felt his mouth go dry. He swallowed. “The Yoleus has… evolved?” he croaked.

“That is the case.”

He put his hand up to his throat, feeling the tender but whole flesh. He looked slowly up and around. “How was I,” he began, then had to stop and swallow and start again. “How was I brought back? How was I rescued?”

“You were found in the without. You wore a piece of equipment which stored your personality. The Yoleusenive has repaired and reconstructed your body and quickened your mind-life within said body.”

“But I wasn’t wearing any…” Uagen began, then his voice trailed off as he looked down to where his fingers were stroking the skin around his neck where, once, there had been a necklace.

“The piece of equipment that stored your personality was where your fingers are now,” 8827 Praf confirmed, and clacked her beak once.

Aunt Silder’s necklace. He remembered the tiny sting at the back of his neck. Uagen felt tears well in his eyes. “How much time has passed?” he whispered.

Praf’s head tipped to one side again and her eyelids flickered.

Uagen cleared his throat and said, “Since I left the Yoleus; how much time has passed?”

“Nearly one Grand Cycle.”

Uagen found he could not speak for a little while. Eventually he said, “One… one, ah, galactic, umm Grand Cycle?”

8827 Praf’s beak clacked a couple of times. She shook herself, adjusting her dark wings as though they were a cloak. “That is what a Grand Cycle is,” she said as though explaining something obvious to someone just hatched. “Galactic.”

Uagen swallowed on a dry, dry throat. It was as though it was still ripped out and open to the vacuum. “I see,” he said.