Use of Weapons (Culture, #3)

by Iain M. Banks

Holy shit,” the drone said one day as she sat in her cabin, reviewing cautiously optimistic reports on the peace conference back home (for so she had started to think of it, she admitted to herself ). “What?” She turned to the machine. It looked at her. “They just changed the course schedule for the What Are the Civilian Applications?” Sma waited. “That’s a Continent class GSV,” the drone said. “Subclass Prompt, one of the limiteds.” “You said it was a General; now it’s a Limited; make up your mind.” “No, I mean it’s a limited edition; the go-faster model; even nippier than this beast, once it gets going,” the drone said. It floated closer to her, fields set a weird mixture of olive and purple, which she seemed to remember indicated Awe. She’d certainly never seen that expression on Skaffen-Amtiskaw before. “It’s heading for Crastalier,” it told her. “For us? For Zakalwe?” she frowned. “Nobody’ll say, but it looks like it to me. A whole General Systems Vehicle, just for us. Wow!” “Wow,”