snowflakes.Actually it was searching for a pair of
identical ice crystals.It had - has - a collection; not
holes or figure break-downs, but actual samples of
ice crystals from every part of the galaxy it has
ever visited where it found frozen water.
It only ever collects a few flakes each time, of
course; a saturation pick-up would be inelegant.
I suppose it must still be looking.What it will do if
it ever does find two identical crystals, it has
never said.I don't know that it really wants to find
them, anyway.
But I thought of that, as I left the glittering,
grumbling city beneath me.I thought - and I still
dream about this, maybe once or twice a year - of
some drone, its flat back star-dappled, quietly in
the steppes or at the edge of a polynya off
Antarctica, gently lifting a single flake of snow,
teasing it away from the rest, and hesitating
perhaps, before going, displaced or rising, taking
its tiny, perfect cargo to the orbiting starship, and
leaving the frozen plains, or the waste of ice, once
more at peace.
7: Perfidy, Or, A Few Words
From 'The Drone'
Well, thank goodness that's over.I don't mind
telling you this has been an extremely difficult
translation, not helped at all by Sma's intransigent
and at times obstructive attitude.She frequently
used Marain expressions it would be impossible to
render accurately into English without at least a
three-dimensional diagram, and consistently
refused to redraft or revise the text to facilitate its
translation.I have done my best, but I can take no
responsibility for any misunderstanding caused by
any part of this communication.
I suppose I had better note here that the chapter
titles (including that for Sma's covering letter, and
this) and sub-titles are my own additions.Sma
wrote the above as one continuous document (can
you imagine?), but I thought it better to split the
thing up.The chapter titles and sub-titles are,
incidentally, also all names of General Contact
Units produced by the Infracaninophile
manufactury in Yinang Orbital which Sma refers to
(without naming) in Chapter Three.
Another thing; you will notice that Sma has the gall
to refer to me simply as 'The Drone' in her letter.I
have humoured her matronizing whim quite long
enough, and now wish to make clear that my name
is, in fact, Fohristi-whirl Skaffen-Amtiskaw
Handrahen Dran Easpyou.I am not self-important
and it is irresponsible of Sma to suggest that my
duties in Special Circumstances are some sort of
atonement for past misdeeds. My conscience is
clear.
Skaff