The State of the Art(70)

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