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This book is for John Varley, Arthur C. Clarke, Bob Shaw, Paul McAuley, Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks, Robert Reed, and others of the Big Object Society. On to larger things!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We conferred on scientific and literary matters with many helpful people. Erik Max Francis, Joe Miller, and David Hartwell gave detailed comments on the manuscript. And of course Olaf Stapledon and Freeman Dyson were first.
CAST OF CHARACTERS, COMMON TERMS
SUNSEEKER CREW AND TERMS
Captain Redwing
Cliff Kammash—biologist
Mayra Wickramsingh—pilot, with Beth team
Abduss Wickramsingh—engineer, with Beth team
Glory—the planet of destination
SunSeeker—the ramship
Beth Marble—biologist
Eros—the first drop ship
Fred Ojama—geologist, with Beth team
Aybe—general engineer officer, with Cliff team
Howard Blaire—systems engineer, with Cliff team
Terrence Gould—with Cliff team
Irma Michaelson—plant biologist, with Cliff team
Tananareve Bailey—with Beth team
Lau Pin—engineer, with Beth team
Jampudvipa (shortened to Jam)—an Indian petty officer
Ayaan Ali—Arab woman navigator/pilot
Clare Conway—copilot
Karl Lebanon—general technology officer
ASTRONOMER FOLK
Memor—Attendant Astute Astronomer
Bemor—Contriver and Intimate Emissary to the Ice Minds
Asenath—Chief of Wisdom
Ikahaja—Ecosystem Savant
Omanah—Ecosystem Packmistress
Ramanuji—Biology Savant
Kanamatha—Biology Packmistress
Thaji—Judge Savant
Unajiuhanah—Senior Mistress, Keeper of the Vault Library
OTHER PHYLA
finger snakes—Thisther, male; Phoshtha, female; Shtirk, female
Ice Minds—cold life of great antiquity
the Adopted—those aliens already encountered and integrated into the Bowl
the Diaphanous
FOLK TERMS
Analyticals—artificial minds that monitor Bowl data on local scales
TransLanguage
Long Records
Late Invaders
Undermind
Serf-Ones
the Builders—the mix of species that built the Bowl
Third Variety—Astronomer variety
Astronauts—Astronomer variety
Quicklands
Kahalla
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Cast of Characters, Common Terms
Part I: Essential Error
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Illustration 1
Part II: Sunny Slaughterhouse
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Part III: Status Opera
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Part IV: Sending Superman
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Part V: Mirror Flowers
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Part VI: The Deep
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Part VII: Crunchy Insects
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Part VIII: Counterthreat
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Part IX: On the Run
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Illustration 2
Illustration 3
Illustration 4
Chapter 29
Part X: Stone Mind
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Illustration 5
Chapter 32
Part XI: Double-Edged Sword, No Handle
Chapter 33
Illustration 6
Illustration 7
Illustration 8
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Part XII: The Word of Cambronne
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Part XIII: The Diaphanous
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Illustration 9
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Part XIV: Memory’s Flickering Light
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Afterword: Big Smart Objects
I. How We Built the Books
II. Fun with High Tech
III. Bowl Design
Books by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven
About the Authors
Copyright
PART I
ESSENTIAL ERROR
It is better to be wrong than to be vague. In trial and error, the error is the true essential.
—FREEMAN DYSON
ONE
Memor glimpsed the fleeing primates, a narrow view seen through the camera on one of the little mobile probes. Simian shapes cavorted and capered among the understory of the Mirror Zone, making their way to—what? Apparently, to the local express station of mag-rail. Very well. She had them now, then. Memor clashed her teeth in celebration, and tossed a squirming small creature into her mouth, crunching it with relish.
These somewhat comic Late Invaders were scrambling about, anxious. They seemed dreadfully confused, too. One would have expected more of ones who had arrived via a starship, with an interstellar ram of intriguing design. But as well, they had escaped in their scampering swift way. And, alas, the other gang of them had somehow evaded Memor’s attempt to kill them, when they made contact with a servant species, the Sil. So they had a certain small cleverness, true.
Enough of these irritants! She would have to concentrate and act quickly to bring them to heel. “Vector to intercept,” Memor ordered her pilot. Their ship surged with a thrumming roar. Memor sat back and gave a brief clacking flurry of fan-signals expressing relief.
Memor called up a situation graphic to see if anything had changed elsewhere. Apparently not. The Late Invader ramship was still maneuvering near the Bowl, keeping beneath the defensive weapons along the rim. From their electromagnetic emissions, clearly they monitored their two small groups of Late Invaders that were running about the Bowl. But their ship made no move to directly assist them. Good. They were wisely cautious. It would be interesting to take their ship apart, in good time, and see how the primates had engineered its adroit aspects.
Memor counted herself fortunate that the seeking probe had now found this one group, running through the interstices behind the mirror section. She watched vague orange blobs that seemed to be several simians and something more, as well: tentacular shapes, just barely glimpsed. These shapes must be some variety of underspecies, wiry and quick. Snakes?
The ship vibrated under her as Memor felt a summoning signal—Asenath called, her irritating chime sounding in Memor’s mind. She had to take the call, since the Wisdom Chief was Memor’s superior. Never a friend, regrettably. Something about Asenath kept it that way.
Asenath was life-sized on the viewing wall, giving a brilliant display of multicolored feathers set in purple urgency and florid, rainbow rage. “Memor! Have you caught the Late Invaders?”
“Almost.” Memor kept her own feather-display submissive, though with a fringe of fluttering orange jubilance. “Very nearly. I can see them now. The primate named ‘Beth’ has a group, including the one I’ve trained to talk. I’m closing on them. They have somehow mustered some allies, but I am well armed.”