Iain Banks - The Algebraist

— And how do you know all this? he asked her.

He saw her shake her head. — Spies everywhere, Fass, she told him, almost rueful. — We have a lot of friends.

— I’m sure.

Did he believe her? Well, until further notice.

The Beyonders had known about the List, about the Transform. Like, it seemed, a lot of people, they had known long before he had. He’d only discovered what he’d stumbled upon during that long-ago delve when he’d been told along with everybody else by the projection of Admiral Quile in the Hierchon’s palace. By then the Beyonders had long since sent their own fleet to the system Zateki, believing — like the Jeltick who had first deciphered the information he’d retrieved and had understood its significance — that the Transform was there, in the Second Ship. And they’d already met defeat at the hands of the Voehn. Half the fucking galaxy seemed to have been buzzing round Zateki, searching for a ship that wasn’t there, if it even ever had been, and meanwhile he’d known nothing.

— You could just have asked me to look for it for you, Fassin told her.- I’d have started the search for the Transform in Nasq. centuries ago if you guys had just fucking asked.

She looked at him for a long time, an expression on her face of… he wasn’t sure: sadness, pity, regret, despair?

· What? he sent.

· The truth? she asked him.

· The truth.

· Fassin. She shook her head. — We didn’t trust you.

He stared back at her.

Fassin told her what he thought he’d discovered, what he believed he’d worked out. She didn’t believe him.

· You coming with us?

· Can I? May I?

· Of course. If you want.

He thought. — Okay, he sent. He thought some more.

— Though I’ve one last person to see first.

When the visitor arrived, Setstyin was water-bathing. This was a new fashion, not unpleasant. His servant announced that Seer Fassin Taak was here to see him. Setstyin felt surprise and elation, and a kind of delicious, if slightly grim, anticipation.

“Tell Seer Taak I am very delighted indeed to welcome him,” he told his servant. “Ask him to wait in the upper library. Do all you can to make him comfortable. I shall be with him in ten minutes.”

“Fassin! Wonderful to see you! I really can’t tell you! We thought — well, we really feared the worst, I swear. Where have you been?”

Fassin didn’t seem to know what to say. “I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you,” he said quietly, eventually.

The little gascraft floated in the middle of the library. The circular space was lined and floored with crystal stacks. Light came from a translucent ceiling and a single great door giving out onto a broad, rail-less balcony.

Setstyin’s house was in the city of Aowne, mid-gas in the equatorial zone. Deep orange and yellow clouds swung slowly past the wide window.

“You think so?” Setstyin said. “Do feel free to try me. And, please, is there anything I can do? Come, let’s sit.”

They rested in a pair of dent-seats with a low table between them. A rather more substantial and grand desk lay just to one side.

“Well, it’s a long story I have for you,” Fassin said.

“My favourite kind!” Setstyin exclaimed, gathering his long robes about him.

Fassin took a moment, as if collecting his thoughts. The fellow seemed, Setstyin thought, dulled, a little slow compared to how he’d appeared before.

Fassin told the suhrl something of his adventures since he’d last seen him, aboard the Planetary Protector (Deniable) Isaut. He also told him a little more of what he’d been doing before, as well, apologising for any hesitations or forgetfulness; he’d been through a lot recently and some memories were still sort of shuffling their way forward into the light again after being lost. He didn’t say exactly what it was he had been told to look for and bring back, and he wasn’t able to tell the Dweller very much that happened after the Voehn attacked the Velpin, but he went into as much detail as he felt was possible.

“I don’t understand,” the Dweller said. “You’re saying you were… you were in other stellar systems? You were on the other side of the galaxy? I… I just don’t…”

“I could not have been more sceptical myself,” Fassin said. “I did all the tests I could think of, but I certainly seemed to be in the places the truetwin captain claimed I was in.”

“They can do wonderful things with fully immersive VR, you know,” Setstyin said awkwardly.

“I know. But this was either real or something well beyond even fully immersive virtual reality.”

Setstyin was silent for a moment. “You know — and please, don’t take this ill — you do look rather, ah, beaten up, Fass my boy.” The Dweller was looking at the various dents and scars that the little gascraft had picked up during its last few months of use. The malfunctioning left manipulator arm hung awkwardly at the flank of the arrowhead, slightly out of true. Fassin felt almost ashamed of the gascraft’s appearance, as though he’d turned up in a rich gentleman’s library in dirty rags.

“Yes,” he agreed. “As I say, I won’t pretend my memory is all it used to be. The gascraft’s storage has suffered and my own brain doesn’t seem to be as sharp as I remember it being.” He laughed. “But I know what I saw, what I felt and heard and tasted. I stood on rocks watching the swell-waves of a salt ocean breaking, and I was really there, Setstyin. I was there.”

The Dweller ruffled his sensory mantle and made the tiny up-and-down sigh-motion. “Well, I’m sure you believe what you believe, Fassin, and I would always tend to believe you rather than not. However, many other people wouldn’t be so forgiving. I’m not sure it would be a good idea to make too big a fuss about this.”

“You could be right.”

“And… I mean to say… If this wormhole thing is so secret, why were you taken to — or apparently taken to — the far side of the galaxy, or to anywhere… anywhere outside Ulubis?”

“To prove the myth was real. Some people, some Dwellers, think it’s time for change. They might not know all the details, but they want the truth known. Nobody wants to take responsibility for just telling a non-Dweller, but some bumpkin might be pushed in the right direction. And that’s me, I suppose; bumpkin number one. Deniable bumpkin number one.”

“And this… travelcaptain? Who was he again?”

“A truetwin.”

“Yes, I’ve heard they often are. I didn’t realise they even pretended to travel so far afield. What was his — their name?”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t betray that confidence.”

“Of course, of course.” Setstyin seemed to think. “So, if there is this, ah, wormhole thing near Nasqueron, who does it belong to? Who controls it? And, it has to be asked, where exactly is it? Aren’t they rather large and obvious, these wormhole ports?”

“They can be made quite small. But yes, you’d think people would have noticed them by now.”

“Well, yes.”

“And I’d guess they’re operated by a club or fraternity or something like the same sort of organisation that takes care of planetary defence.”

“Hmm. That would be… fairly obvious, I suppose.”

“That’s why I came to you, Setstyin,” Fassin said. “I wondered if you’d heard anything about this, about a group of Dwellers who used these portals.”

“Me?” The Dweller reacted as though surprised, almost shocked. “Well, no. I mean, none of this would be the sort of thing I’d normally get involved with. But, this would be quite something, would it not? I mean to say, if it turned out there was this wormhole here all the time. Wouldn’t it?”