Excession

dim in the car for a while as it traversed a short tunnel, then another door ahead of it dilated and it shot out into a huge open, mist-filled space where the view just disappeared amongst clouds and haze.

The interior of God'shole habitat was sectioned off into about forty individually isolable compartments, most of them crisscrossed by a web-work of frames, girders and tubular members, partly to provide additional strength for the structure but partly because these created a multitude of places for the Affront to anchor the nest spaces that were the basic cellular building-block of their architecture. There were more open compartments every few sections along the habitat, filled with little more than layers of cloud, a few floating nest space bundles and a selection of flora and fauna. These were the sections which more closely mirrored conditions on the sort of mainly methane-atmosphered planets and moons the Affront preferred, and it was in these the Affront indulged their greatest passion, by going hunting. It was one of these immense game reserves that the car was now crossing. Genar-Hofoen looked downwards again, but he couldn't see a hunt in progress.

As much as a fifth of the whole habitat was devoted to hunting space, and even that represented a huge concession to practicality by the Affront; they'd probably have preferred the proportions to be about half-and-half hunting space and everything else, and even then have thought they were being highly responsible and self- sacrificing.

Genar-Hofoen found himself wondering again about the tradeoff between skill-honing and distraction that took place in the development of any species likely to end up as one of those in play in the great galactic civilisation game. The Culture's standard assessment held that the Affront spent far too much time hunting and not nearly enough time getting on with the business of being a responsible space-faring species (though of course the Culture was sophisticated enough to know that this was just its, admittedly subjective, way of looking at things; and besides, the more time the Affront spent dallying in their hunting parks and regaling each other with hunting tales in their carousing halls, the less they had for rampaging across their bit of the galaxy being horrible to people).

But if the Affront didn't love hunting as much as they did, would they still be the Affront? Hunting, especially the highly cooperative form of hunting in three dimensions which the Affront had evolved, required and encouraged intelligence, and it was generally — though not exclusively — intelligence that took a species into space. The required mix of common sense, inventiveness, compassion and aggression required was different for each; perhaps if you tried to make the Affront just a little less enraptured by hunting you would only be able to do so by making them much less intelligent and inquisitive. It was like play; it was fun at the time, when you were a child, but it was also training for when you became an adult. Fun was serious.

Still no sign of a hunt in progress, or even of any herds of prey animals. Just a few filmy mats and hanging verticals of floating plant life. Doubtless some of the smaller animals which a few species of the prey-creatures themselves predated would be hanging munching away on the membranes and gas sacs of the flora, but they were invisible from this distance with the haze preventing closer inspection.

Genar-Hofoen sat back. There was no seat to sit back on because the monorail car wasn't built for humans, but the gelfield suit was imitating the effects of a seat. He wore his usual gilet and holster. At his feet was his gelfield hold-all. He looked at it, then prodded it with a foot. It didn't look much to be taking on a round trip of six thousand light years.

— Bastards, the module said inside his head.

— What? he asked it.

— They seem to enjoy leaving everything to the last moment, the module said, sounding annoyed. ~ You know, we only just finished negotiating for the hire of the ships? I mean, you're due to leave in about ten minutes; how late can these maniacs leave things?

— Ships plural? he asked.

— Ships plural, the module said. ~ They insist we hire three of their ridiculous tubs. Any one of which could easily accommodate me, I might add; that's another point at issue. But three! Can you believe? That's practically a fleet by their standards!

— Must need the money.

— Genar-Hofoen, I know you think it amusing to be the cause of the transfer of funds to the Affront, but might I point out to you that where it is not to all intents and purposes irrelevant, money is power, money is influence, money is effect.

— 'Money is effect', Genar-Hofoen mused. ~ That one of your own, Scopell-Afranqui?

— The point is that every time we donate the Affront extra means of exchange we effectively become part of their expansionist drive. It is not moral.

— Shit, we gave them Orbital-building technology; how does that compare with a few gambling debts?

— That was different; we only gave them that so they'd stop taking over so many planets and because they didn't trust the Orbitals we made for them. And I'm not talking about your gambling debts, however outrageous, or your bizarre habit of bidding-up the price of bribes. I'm talking about the cost of hiring three Affronter Nova Class Battle-Cruisers and their crews for two months.

Genar-Hofoen almost laughed out loud. ~ SC isn't putting that on your tab, is it?

— Of course not. I was thinking of the wider picture.

— What the fuck am I supposed to do? he protested. ~ This is the fastest way of getting me where SC wants me to be. Not my fault.

— You could have said No.

— Could have. And you'd have spent the next year or so biting my ear about not doing my duty to the Culture when I was asked.

— Your only motive, I'm sure, Scopell-Afranqui said sniffily as the monorail car slowed. The module went off-line with an ostentatious click.

Prick, Genar-Hofoen thought, unheard.

The monorail car passed through another couple of habitat section walls, exiting into a crowded-looking industrial section where the keel skeletons of newly begun Affronter ships rose out of the haze like oddly inappropriate collections of spines and ribs, ornate elaborations within the greater framework of buttresses and columns supporting the habitat itself. The monorail car continued to slow until it drew to a stop within a web-tube attached to one of the structural members. The car started to drop, almost in free-fall.

The car vibrated. In fact, it was rattling. Genar-Hofoen had grown up on a Culture Orbital where only sporting vehicles and things you built yourself for a laugh ever vibrated; normal transport systems rarely ever even made a noise unless it was to ask which floor you wanted or whether you'd like the on-board scent changed.

The monorail car flashed through a floor and into another gigantic hangar space where the towering shapes of half-finished craft rose like barbed pinnacles out of the mist-shrouded framework of slender girders below. The bladed hulls of the ships blurred past to one side.

— Wee-hee! said the gelfield suit, which thought Affronter free-fall was just a total hoot.

— Glad you're amused, Genar-Hofoen thought.

— I hope you realise that if this thing crashes now, even I won't be able to stop you breaking most of your major bones, the suit informed him.

— If you can't say something helpful, shut the fuck up, he told it.

Another floor rushed up to meet the car; it plummeted through to a vast, misty hall where almost-finished Affronter ships rose like jagged sky-scrapers. The car came juddering and screeching to a halt near the floor of the huge space — the suit clamped around him in support, but Genar-Hofoen could feel his insides doing uncomfortable things under the effects of the additional apparent gravity — then the car cycled through a pair of airlocks and rumbled down a dark tunnel.

It came out on to the edge of the underside of the habitat where, a succession of docks shaped like giant rib-cages disappeared away along the lazy curve of the little world; there was a lot of glare but a few bright stars shone in the darkness. About half the docks were occupied, some with Affronter ships, some with craft from a handful of other species. Dwarfing all the others were three huge dark craft, each of which looked vaguely as though it had been modelled by taking a free-fall aerial bomb from one age and welding onto it a profusion of broad swords, scimitars and daggers from an even earlier time and then magnifying the result until each was a couple of kilometres in length. They hung cradled in docks a few kilometres off; the car swung round and headed towards