Geoff Ryman - Air (or Have Not Have)

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audio file from: Mr Bedri Eyoobogloo, Office of Land Use

22 January

Madam Chung, you are quite correct; the process you describe would meet our rigorous standards for data collection, but are you sure you want to do it? You are talking two hours' work a day, I think. Please understand, I think maybe you have this wrong; the government cannot pay you to do this work. Nor can we give you n-constant software. You only pay the licence fee once, but it is one thousand riels! Why are you doing this?

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audio file from: Mrs Chung Mae

22 January

Dear Mr Eyoobogloo, I want to know about the weather. We depend on land here, and water and sun and all those things. N-constant means Chaos theory, right? That means that if I know patterns in Balshang, I know how they affect us, right? This is important because this winter we have high snowfall and warm temperatures. In 1959, this meant a terrible flash flood. It happened with the Erjdha Nefsi, Dragon's Breath, hot wind from the Northern Desert, from Balshang. You see?

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audio file from: Miss Soo Ling

24 January

Your message came at good time, as I am considering setting up my own business. I am replying in haste, and will reply again at leisure. Your friend, Ling.

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audio file from: Mrs Chung Mae

24 January

Mr Tunch, my constant watcher, I finally had the TV read out to me your article. Just to be clear, I cannot read. Which is one great advantage I have over many people. I move by my gut, not my head. But Info has taught me that I have a very good head attached to a very good gut. It gives me such secret pleasure to know that none of you understand Air. Not you, not your Sistemlar, not the UN, not the Gates Format, not all you scientists and Talents and politicians. I know something you do not, something I suspected but hid from you. So I got the better of our deal. So I make another deal with you, Mr Tunch. I will tell you this great thing I know, if you get me the best, most powerful, most accurate software for weather forecasting, with n-constant interpretation. When you have done that for me, I will tell you what Air is and it will blow your world away. Yours with deepest affection, Chung Mae.

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audio file from: Mr Hikmet Tunch

25 January

Mae, Mae, my darling girl, I think you have spent too much time in the hills. You go crazy like an old trapper. I know what you have to tell me. In Air, gravity and thought are the same thing. You know that, because you seized hold of gravity-as-thought and used it to tear my metal fence to shreds when you decided to go home. And you want to tell me that this can be an amazing weapon, that we can use thought-as-gravity to tear whole cities apart. I can tell you that we are already working on that. You are a bright, bright girl. Sorry about the deal, but no deal. Your wise contender, Hikmet.

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audio file from: Mrs Chung Mae

25 January

Ha-ha tee-hee. That is the words of my laughter. I am laughing at you. You are Foolish Gangster. In so many ways. The universe is a diamond of love, and whenever it decides to shine its light on us, you Foolish Gangsters always always try to turn the light that illumines into the light that burns. You take diamonds and turn them into knives to cut. But you have failed, haven't you, Arrogant Child? It has not worked, has it, this great new weapon that works only by thought? I know it will fail, it will go on failing. And since I am Wise Mother, comforting Arrogant Child, I will give away something for free. After all, I am selling Info. There is a thing called Kwan Tom, no? You see, I have other sources of information than you. I knew about eleven dimensions before I met you. Kwan Tom says that the world around us and the things in it are only probable. Atoms go in two directions at once and then suddenly make up their minds. Many realities exist as probabilities, only very, very small. Well, tearing fences is not a probability. It is a miracle. There have always been miracles, Mr Tunch. And they have always been small because they are not at all probable. You try to make your terrible miracles big, and probability will close over you, as if your thoughts were stones thrown into a pond. Your thought will create ripples. Something almost happens. And then the surface of what is probable closes over. Your weapon will never work. I have no words or education. I don't need them. I turn that into freedom, so I fly higher and deeper than you do into reality. I can blow your Foolish Gangster world away and replace it with a better one. Give me n-constant software, or I will keep laughing at you. Ha hee hee ha hee hee hee ha ha hee hee ha ha hee hee…

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audio file from: Hikmet Tunch

26 January

Okay, laugh. The cost of the best n-constant and weather software is nothing to me. I know you only want it to predict the weather, my Weather Talent. You will find the code for it attached to this file with a full licence to use and a Help manual. So come on, then, blow my world away. Your sceptical, very rich friend, Hikmet.

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Agricultural Development Weather Predictor

Audio reading, 26 January: 17:57

Location: School Ridge Drop

Wind velocity: 3.7 kph

Direction: north-northeast

Air temperature: 7°C, 7.03, maybe Okay, plug in direct. Oh, this is cold on the feet!

Air temperature: 7.0298°C

Air temperature with chill factor: 5.25°C

Temperature of snow on surface: 2.7°C

Temperature of snow at base: – 1.8°C

Temperature of runoff: 2.9°C

The village is all blue, like a memory. Every morning, I hear voices when I wake up, the children wailing, their mothers crying. It is the Flood. If I am not careful I fall into Air and I am there with it. So it is good to come out here, Weather Talent on my night patrol. The cold roots me in the Now. The Flood will come, this year or next, whatever. Ah!

This is the worst bit, right down into the muck. Maybe I find an onion left behind. Something for the pot. Soil Temperature: -1.7°C

I can really feel these stones, these terraces. They want to roll, they want to roll down and flatten us. At least all this is solid. Info keeps me sane.

There has always been a flood washing us all away.

Indeed, Mrs Tung, my dear, indeed.

The Flood

Look across the valley. On the Mirror hill, you will see what is left of the village of Aynalar (Mirrors). It is a mirror for you.

In 1959, the whole hillside was wiped away in one night by a flash flood when all the snow melted too fast. Once, the terraces of Aynalar were rich and fertile. It was on the sunny slope of the valley and Kizuldah was the poor cousin, in shade. Now Aynalar is a heap of rocks. This happened during a winter of high snowfall and hot temperatures. This winter is another mirror, a mirror of that winter.

You have seen me. Every morning and every evening I go and measure snow. Three times a day I measure many things, temperature and wind and strength of sunlight through cloud. I am in touch with many government offices to calculate Info.

So far we are okay. It will need to be hotter than even 1959 for the flood to come here.

You will know the flood is coming if the Dragon's Breath happens in winter.

See these pictures? They show our village if the water melts. It shows how deep the water will get, and where you should go.