The Hydrogen Sonata

with the rest of the galactic community — and discovered that there had indeed been a species called the Zihdren around at the time the Book of Truth had come to light, though they had since Sublimed — that belief in their own predestined purpose and assured distinctiveness had persisted, and it was, arguably, that imperturbable sense of their own uniqueness that had prevented them from joining the Culture all those thousands of years ago.

So, the Pressure Drop sent, the BoT provably gets so much right, insists that the Gzilt are Special — destined for something singular, fabulous and epoch-shaping — yet once the Gzilt get to a certain stage of development the Book effectively falls silent, with nothing further to predict, and becomes just another dusty text to be filed with the rest, while the suspicion grows amongst those not utterly credulous that while the Zihdren may indeed have had a part in the Book and were certainly a reputable and constructive part of the galactic community of their time, they were hardly exceptional; just another banally evolved species hustling along as best they could within the convection cells of the galactic soup cauldron — if exotic in their immaterial nature, by humanoid standards — who eventually ended up in the great retirement home of the Sublimed like everybody else.

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Maybe the Gzilt should have swallowed their pride and joined the Culture when they had the chance. Or perhaps they seek their own Subliming as a consolation.

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I hadn’t finished. You interrupted again.

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You were wittering again.

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Anyway, there is indeed evidence that the Gzilt believe their own presence amongst the Sublime will somehow change things dramatically for the better there…

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Ha!

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… I thought that might precipitate a response. However, to continue: also that they — wilfully, against all evidence — regard Subliming not as retirement but as promotion.

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Ha, again.

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So, matters are set up as they are, and the Gzilt are on the very brink of the Big Outloading, when along comes a Zihdren-Remnanter ship with a guest for the festivities bearing a message that is basically a confession.

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Of what exactly?

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Of exactly what, I have not been told, but I think we can guess.

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Mistake, accident, prank, deliberate interference?

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Something like that. Only the message does not get through, the human-ish guest-entity is never delivered, the ship is intercepted. The Remnanter ship is destroyed.

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Destroyed?

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Profoundly so.

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That is… bold. Or desperate. And how do you know all this? There’s been nothing in any report.

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It’s recent, few people know and none of them thought it in their interests to go public. Our Remnanter friends asked me to contact you as somebody they’ve had dealings with in the past regarding the Sublimed, especially the Zihdren.

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Even so, to what end? What am I supposed to do?

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Two things. One, form part of an advisory group, with myself, to handle whatever may come of this from our point of view. Two, use some of your contacts to help clear up what’s going on here.

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Have we been asked by the Gzilt to do this?

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Good grief no! For now, it’s best they know nothing, given that they or some faction within them appear to have instigated hostilities.

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Then why are we even thinking of getting involved?

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Well, arguably we owe the Gzilt some care and attention just on general principles, not to mention consideration due to their honorary fellow-traveller Culture status, but, more to the point, the Zihdren message to the Gzilt mentioned an individual, a human from the first generation to think of themselves as Culture citizens. He was around ten thousand years ago, at the time of the negotiations which gave rise to the Culture in the first place. This individual was named as perhaps being able to help provide proof that what was claimed in the message to the Gzilt was actually true.

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So, not long dissolved in some group-mind, then. Stored, I take it?

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Not Stored. In fact, never Stored. Still with us, still alive, still extant and functioning, twenty-five to thirty full lifetimes after you’d have expected any ordinary humanoid mortal to have decently abandoned the corporeal. Indeed, longer-living than any known still independent Mind or even high-level AI from the time. Like the fucker’s decided to outlive everybody or set a record or something. But alive, somewhere, probably still within the Culture.

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Seriously?

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No kidding.

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No. I refuse to accept this. This is a myth. One of our myths. Romantic, nonsensical. A wish; desired but for ever without proof.

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Nevertheless, our Remnanter chums seem to think this geriatric geezer is still with us.

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Being loosely attached to a civ long-Sublimed does not make the Zihdren-Remnanter infallible. Or even necessarily reliable.

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Their record in such matters is good, though. I’ve spoken with a few fellow Minds about all this and it is reckoned the information must be taken seriously. Also, that you should be a member of any advisory group, part of the tactical-strategic oversight team. What do you say?

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