Kindle Notes & Highlights
Ultranauts, evidenced by their tendency towards paleness, spindly build,
Ultranaughts: pale, spindly build
hair in the customary Ultra manner, fashioned in thick braids to indicate the number of reefersleep stretches they had done,
Ultra hair braids shokw how many refersleeps they had
Skyjacks—at least here—made up a significant portion of the others she saw. They were spacedwellers to be sure, but they did not crew interstellar ships and so their outlook was very different to the wraithlike Ultras, with their dreadlocks and old-fashioned expressions.
Skyjacks wore dreadlocks
Icecombers were a Skyjack offshoot; psychomodified for the extreme solitude which came from working the Kuiper belt zones, and they kept themselves to
Icecombers were iceminers, and of necessity loners
Gillies were aquatically modified humans who breathed liquid air; capable of crewing short-range, high-gee ships: they constituted a sizeable fraction of the system’s police force.
Gillies could breath liquid air in high-G ships, used as police
Conjoiners: descendants of an experimental clique on Mars who had systematically upgraded their minds, swapping cells for machines, until something sudden and drastic had happened. In one moment, they had escalated to a new mode of consciousness—what they called the Transenlightenment—precipitating a brief but nasty war in the process.
Conjoiners: bioengineered body parts for brains, starting a war, and walked around with huge cranial lobes--to shed the excess heat generated by the machines in their heads
He was a SISS scientist working at one of the permanent stations near what was now called Lascaille’s Shroud, in the trans Tau Ceti sector. Lascaille was also one of a team kept on permanent standby should there ever be a need for human delegates to travel to the Shroud, although no one considered that this was very likely.
Team kelt on standby for forst contact with the Shrouds
“The Jugglers offer the key, Doctor.” Sylveste was too shocked to interrupt. “It was explained to me,” Lascaille continued blithely. “While I was in Revelation Space.”
The Jugglers offer the key. Itxwas explained to me while i was in Revelation Space.
“There was a time when the Shrouders travelled between the stars,” Lascaille said. “Much as we do now—although they were an ancient species and had been starfaring for many millions of years. They were quite alien, you know.”
The Shrouders used to rravel in space
“The Pattern Jugglers have been around for a long time and they’re to be found on many worlds. All starfaring cultures in this part of the galaxy encounter them sooner or later.”
Pattern Jugglers have been around a.long time; every space-faring race meets them eventually
“Whoever—or whatever—visits the Jugglers is remembered by them. Remembered absolutely, that is—down to the last cell; the last synaptic connection. That’s what the Jugglers are. A vast biological archiving system.”
Jugglers Are.a.vast.biological archiving.system
the Shroud is a protective structure. What lies within are… not just the Shrouders themselves, but technologies which are simply too powerful to be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. Over millions of years, the Shrouders combed the galaxy seeking harmful things left over by extinct cultures—things which I can almost not even begin to describe to you. Things which may once have served good, but which are also capable of being used as weapons of unimaginable horror.
Shrouders collected and stored all the galaxy's destructive weapons
means of manipulating spacetime, or of moving faster-than-light… other things which your mind literally can’t encompass.”
Incliding space warps
“Why didn’t it just kill you?” “It must not have been completely confident in its judgement.” He paused. “In Revelation Space, I did sense doubt. Vast arguments taking place around me, quicker than thought. In the end, caution must have won the day.”
Why didn't the Shroud just kil you?
there must have been.aolme doubt in its mind i was truly alien
He nodded at the chalk drawing. “Memorise this figure, and hold it in mind when you swim.” “That’s all?” “It will suffice. The internal representation of this figure in your mind will instruct the Jugglers as to your needs. You’d better take them a gift, of course. They don’t do something of this magnitude for free.” “A gift?” Sylveste was wondering what kind of gift one could possibly offer to an entity which resembled a floating island of seaweed and algae. “You’ll think of something. Whatever it is, make sure it’s information-dense. Otherwise you’ll bore them. You wouldn’t want to bore
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Memorize this figure, and bring the Shroud an information-dense gift
They existed on a number of worlds, all of them dominated by single planet-sized oceans. The Jugglers were a biochemical consciousness distributed through each ocean, composed of trillions of co-acting micro-organisms, arranged into island-sized clumps.
Jugglers exist on planets with huge oceans as particles of combined consciousness
“They grew something in the chasm,” Manoukhian said. “Right down in the depths. They call it the Lilly.”
Grew something in Chasm: they call it Lilly
Sylveste and Lefevre approached closer to the Shroud than any human being had ever done, even Lascaille.
Silvestre And Lefebvre approached the Shroud closer than even Lascaille.
Sylveste lost contact with her just as the craft burst asunder. Her air was sucked quickly out, but the decompression did not happen quickly enough to entirely snatch away her screams. Lefevre was dead.
Leferve tried to escape when she couldn't keep concentrating on the music, but failed and screamed as ahe died
The study station and the lighthugger were lifeless, almost destroyed. Some kind of gravitational spasm had passed him by and peeled them open, eviscerating them just as thoroughly as Lefevre’s craft had been.
destroyed as well were the xspace staTion nd the lighthugger they'd travelled in to get there
When the recuperative processes were in swing he was able to sleep, finally—not daring to believe that he would actually succeed.
Silvestre Repaired the ship for one persom
But the message that was imparted to him was so brutally alien that Sylveste could not begin to put it into human terms. He had stepped into Revelation Space.
He stepped into Revelation Space
He almost pitied them, though in that moment the sight revealed in the lights purged all normal thought. It was an alien city.
Bubble underground is alien city
“Does the phrase Sun Stealer mean anything to you yet?”
Does the phrase Sun Stealer mean anything to you, yet?
Eighteen months since Nils Girardieau had shown him the buried city; a year since their wedding had been mooted and then put on hold until he had made significant progress on the translating work. Now he was doing exactly that—and it scared him. No more excuses, and she knew it as well as he did.
18 months trying to translate, and the same amount of time since Silvestre and Pascale planned to.marry
“Yes, except you’re forgetting the creation myth.”
Creation .myth
They made an agreement with the god they called Birdmaker, trading the ability to fly for the gift of sentience. On that day, they raised their wings to heaven and watched as consuming fire turned them to ash, for ever excluding them from the air. So that they might remember their arrangement, the Birdmaker gave them useless, clawed wing-stubs—enough to remind them of what they had forsaken, and enough to enable them to begin writing down their history. Fire burned in their minds too, but this was the unquenchable fire of being. That light would always burn, the Birdmaker told them—so long as
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Gave up wings in return for souls, with understnding that should they ever take flight again, they would lose their souls
“But if that’s the case, the figure on the spire…” “Is a big two-fingered salute to whatever god they used to believe in.”
Winged figure on spire is taunt to their gods
“Me neither. Which suggests something else entirely.” “Like what?” “That a new god moved in. One with wings.”
That suggests a new god moved in--one with wings
Each machine was cased in alloy of a greenish-bronze hue. Though each of the devices was large enough to be a medium-sized spacecraft in its own right,
Guns--all bronze in green/brown alloy, and bigger than a spaceship
learning was restricted entirely to what it could perceive through Khouri’s own senses. Maybe the implant could hook into data networks even if Khouri herself were not interfaced, but while that might have been possible, it seemed unlikely; there was too much risk of the implant itself being detected by the same systems.
Madomessele could work only by talki ng to Khouri; she couldn't plug in directly for fear of detection
It’s too dangerous, and I think Khouri is too valuable to risk.” She stopped, swallowed, and drew breath into her lungs for what she knew would be the hardest thing to say. “I think we need another recruit—someone less gifted.
Volvonya pleads for an intermediate recruit, saying Khouri is too valuable.
Sajaki hits her; knocks her to the ground
Girardieau studied it with barely masked horror. “Was it painful?” “Of course not. We’re not sadists, you know.” Sylveste smiled, secretly enjoying Girardieau’s discomfort.
“Was it painful?” “Of course not. We’re not sadists, you know.” Sylveste smiled, secretly enjoying Girardieau’s discomfort.
On wedding day, Silvestre gives Father-in-law-to-be Niles a vial
Was it painful?
Of course not; what do you think we are--sadists?
“Somehow, this was important to the Amarantin. And I think it might have some bearing on the Event.”
We have to get to the moon of the neutron star-- before it kills us, Silvestre says to Niles
“We have to explore it, and find out what killed the Amarantin. Before it kills us as well.”
We have to explore the moon of the neutron star before it kills us
“So what is?” The lift they were in was decelerating. “The name Sylveste mean anything to you?” Sajaki asked. Khouri did her best to act normally, as if the question were reasonable,
On the way to taking Khouri to meet the Captain, they fess up that trade isnot their object.
Than what is?
Did you ever hear of a man called Silvestre? (Irony--second time Khouri's had thatsame dialogue)
“So what is?” The lift they were in was decelerating. “The name Sylveste mean anything to you?” Sajaki asked. Khouri did her best to act normally, as if the question were reasonable,
Volvonya and Skagki take Khouri to the Captain, revealing along the way that they actually aren't a trade ship.
Have you ever heard of the name Silvestre?
[Khouri, shocked, because she had an identical conversation with Mademoiselle before she left]Sure, but the father or the son?
Both, actually.
“Wait though; which Sylveste are we talking about here? The older one, the guy who botched up those immortality experiments? Or his son?” “Technically speaking,” Sajaki said, “both.”
The older one, the guy who botched up those immortality experiments? Or his son?” “Technically speaking,” Sajaki said, “both.”
Wait, which Silvestre you taking abolut--father or son?
Technically, both.
“I knowingly manifest in one incarnation only, the biological form now speaking.” “And you affirm that you are not wittingly manifested via alpha-level or other Turing-capable simulacra, in this or any other solar system?”
Sylvestre swears he's not an alpha-level simulation
“Behold the wedding gun,” the Ordinator said, holding the box aloft.
Behold the wedding gun ( a syringe)
Calvin was able to try out his radical cybernetic theories on Brannigan, while Brannigan was made well and became something more than he had been before Calvin’s work. You might describe it as the perfect symbiotic relationship.”
“You’re saying the Captain was a guinea pig for that bastard’s monstrosities?”
The Captain needed repair, and Calvin could experiment with his radical biometric theories
arranged to have every subsequent second of his life monitored by recording systems. Every second: waking, sleeping, whatever. Over the years, machines learnt to emulate his behaviour patterns. Given any situation, they could predict his responses with astonishing accuracy.” “Beta-level simulation.” “Yes, but a beta-level sim orders of magnitude more complex than any previously created.”
Cal created an unusually accujrate Beta-level simulation, very close to alphba level
he was able to pass off the clone as his son.” “Dan,” Khouri said, the monosyllabic word carving its own angular shape in the refrigerated air.
Cal was able to clone himself and pass his clone off as his son, Dan
“Not that Dan knows any of this,” Volyova said. “He’d be the last person Calvin wanted to know. No; Sylveste is as much party to the lie as any of the populace ever were. He thinks he’s his own man.”
Dan doesn't know this--thinks he'his own man
“Cal’s precautionary measure was still useful to us,” Sajaki said. “There was enough of Cal’s expertise encoded in the beta to mend the Captain. All we had to do was persuade Dan to let Calvin temporarily inhabit his mind and body.” “Dan must have suspected something when it worked so easily.”
The last repair, they had to persuade Dan to let Cal's beta-level sim inhabit his body, temporarily
The periods when Cal took over were more akin to some kind of violent possession. Motor control was a problem: in order to suppress Dan’s own personality, we had to give him a cocktail of neuro-inhibitors. Which meant that when Cal finally got through, the body he found himself in was already half-paralysed by our drugs.
To work, had to suppress Dan's own personality with drugs, so practically had a.drunk surgeon
wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences for Dan. Quite painful, he said.” “But it worked.” “Just. But that was a century ago, and now it’s time for another visit to the doctor.”
it was painful to Dan.
And now we need him to do it again
