The Lowest Heaven

by Alastair Reynolds

  What else can be said of the Patiens is that cold incommodes them not at all, nor heat, nor thinness of ayr; but as to how their boddies are constituted, with what Juices their Veins are supply’d, and what Sense they are capable of, we can but say that their Life is other than Ours. They exist according to an other logick of life, and distribute their Governance according to a different oeconomy entire, which I am perswaded after all my dealings with them.

  The Cristal House

  I shall give a brief account of the Cristal House maintained upon the moon at the pleasure of His Catholick Majesty. It is a very spacious demense, and easy to traverse, for the lightness of the boddy under Lunar influence permits great leaps and gallops. The smell of the dust, there, is offensive, and reeks like gunpowder; although I was assur’d by those dwelling there it is not combustible. This, where the Peruvians have widely water’d the lunar soil, first covering this with such roofage as expand about a quantity of 2 or 3 acre, making a soft black ouze they claim very quick in the cultivation of yams and fruit; and certain the vegetables grow to prodigious sizes, much priz’d for this on the home market. But the expence of maintaining such an establishment is hardly to be defray’d by such market-gardening. I spoke to one who said that, the vegetation breath’d such virtue into the ayr that it would render needless the importation of breathable vapour from the Earth, were it not that the lunar nights grow so cold, and last fully a fortnight long, that the inhabitants of that house are oblig’d to light fires all about to prevent the crops parching with the freeze, and these flames do devour the air that would otherwise be available for the breathing of the inhabitants. But the prestige of maintaining their establishment is great, and the hope, although it is but rarely fulfill’d, of chancing upon discarded ordnance of the Patiens race, comprize sufficient reason for the difficulty of the undertaking.

  We were receiv’d cordially by the Peruvians, who came up to the very double door of the Cometes in one of their contrivances for moving about the Selenic surface; which is a great globe seal’d rubber and leather, fill’d with ayr, such that one man or several may roll it over the ground by running at the curv’d wall. A sac can be inflated and section’d away, through which egress and exit is possible; and Kindermann, Moulville and I wriggl’d with some loss of dignity into this device, leaving only Cano behind to attend to the Cometes. Inside the ball all must shift, and none may be a passenger, or they would be rollt about with the motion of the sphear, so I ran like a rat in a wheel with the others, and so we made it into the Cristal House.

  Here we were handsomely received by the Lord of the farm, Don Frederico de Vouert, and we toasted the health of our respective kings, His Boreal Majesty and His Catholick Majesty, and ate steaks cuts from the yams grown therein which were very tasty, and ate jerked beef also. My Spanish and Portugueze being equally indifferent, and Don Frederico not speaking French (tho’ I expected it of him) we convers’d tolerably well in Lattin, and so grew cordial gabbling together like novitiate priests. I presented my Commission to Don Frederico, and render’d it into terms he might understand, and we discuss’d the treaty of amity between our two great empires, which news was a great surpize and joy to him; for the only commerce he has with the Earth comes with the cargoes of ayr and victuals, which being merchanters are not trusted to carry epistles containing matters of State. We talk’d for a time concerning the Patiens, but tho’ he lived a matter of leagues from one of their settlements, yet he had nothing to report on them that I had not heard before. For the truth is, these creatures remain as much a mystery to us as they did when first they appear’d amongst us, forty years since.

  I was honour’d with a tour of the whole House, and admir’d especially the grid of crysytal panes and wrought-iron support that made up the structure. Don Frederico show’d me two suits, moulded and fashion’d most cunningly of indiarubber, with a helmet of iron and a visor of glass, for a man to wear if he ventur’d out upon the Moonic surface. He had worn one himself on divers occasions, he reported; as had his men. But, he said, it was but a poor shift; for on stepping outside the ayr inside the suit puffed and hardened, such that it became near impossible to move the limbs, and perambulation became a matter of great arduosity. We retir’d to the Don’s private quarters, and continu’d diplomatick exchange over glasses of Selenic brandie, most agreeably flavoursome.

  Said he: the union of our two empires will put an short end to the ambitions of Spain, whose history in the Americas had poysoned the people against them even before the arrival of the Patiens.

  To which I replied that, his Boreal Majesty King George wish’d for nothing more heartily than mondial peace, and prosperity for us all. But was he sure, as common report claim’d, that the Spaniards had lost all the Propulse devices they had ever had?

  To which he replied that he believ’d so; that they only had ever had two, and that one had been taken from them by the Brasilian navy, and they themselves have destroy’d the other in the furnace for fear it would fall into the hands of the Turques. And that he, for one, was glad of it; for he was in continual anxiety as to the fragility of his roof, and the ease with which a determin’d enemy could lay waste to the whole Casa Crystall. In the light of what transpir’d, his words were prophetic as Jeremiah.

  Are you much bother’d with the Patien, in this place? I enquir’d of him. To which he made answer, not much; that they kept themselves to themselves, tho’ they watch’d their goings & comings not without anxiety, for (he said) they are capricious, and swarm from task to task, and follow not great plan, It is my belief we have acquir’d their devices only thro’ their carelessness, and should they become aware of us it would be of a sudden, and then they would swarm upon us and devour us verily as locusts do.

  But we are better able to defend ourselves, I observ’d, because we have acquir’d their devices. And with this he was in agreement.

  He then teaz’d me, the brandie working visibly in his manner, that tho’ King George permitt’d the world to believe he had but four Propulse devices, yet the rumours were he had six.

  I of course refus’d to discuss such Statecraft, tho’ in joviall manner enough; and we parted on good terms. But one of the Cristal House’s men, leading me below to quarters, ask’d whether we thought it politick to employ a Bavarian in our crew. I inform’d him that Pilot Kindermann was from Northern Prussia, and serv’d in the Baltic navy a time; but this Peruvian (whose name, he said, was Hermann) assur’d me he that he not only spoke tolerable German, but knew a Bavarian accent from a Prussian. I, being somewhat incommoded with liquor, decided to leave any further inquiry to the morn. This, I now regret.

  I was oblig’d to sleep in a chamber cut from cold Selenic rock, below the floor of the crater, with my two crewmen; such spaces being but hard-worked and the rock all granite, so they had as yet fashioned but a few. Nor did I enjoy a long sleep, for some hours I was awoken by the sound of some thunder and catarwawling from above. And by the time I had rows’d myself fully, and dressed, and hurry’d above, we found a scene of commotion.

  One of the panes of cristal having broke, or been shatter’d, a quantity of ayr had fled into the Selenic sky; and tho’ the pane had been soon restor’d—for the Pervuians are practised at repair, as well they might be given that their very life depends upon it, yet Don Frederico was gravely concern’d at his supply of breathable. How could it come that your cristal is broke? I asked of him. To which he replied that meteors sometimes fell from the heavens, but that he did not put aside the possibility of treachery from within, since the fragments of cristal would on either occasion be thrown outside by the uncompressing wind of ayr leaving the House. I ask’d after the resupply of his ayr, and he put upon himself a sober face and said that there was a week more before any new balons might be expected; and that the Selenic night began in three days. You can hardly credit, Señor Ingles, how quick, he said, the cold comes, and how unsupportable it be without a fire be lit. Yet fire would consume his breathable, and so he declar’d t
hey must ready for the cold. According to his own report the ayr itself turns icy, and can only be made vapour by being heated in a great copper cauldron they keep for that purpose.

  I of course took my leave of them; for tho’ he pressed his continued hospitality upon us, yet he had no need of three subjects of King George breathing up his ayr. Yet before we could pass out there was more anxiety, for one of Don Frederico’s men was found smitted and prone, by the exit. Salts and liquor reviv’d him, yet how he came to have been laid out he could not say; only that he had heard something amongst the foliage of the plantation, and had receiv’d a pate-blow when he look’d into it, from whom he knew not. It seem’d to me (yet am I no surgeon) that he had been struck across the forehead by a sabre, for the red groove ran from eye to hairline.

  I felt some anxiety on account of our departure seeming suspicious, giv’n this wicked development; yet the preciousness of ayr was a consideration not to be gainsaid, and the fellow look’d fair to recover, and after many assurances of our amity and concern we three clamber’d ungainly into the sphear, with one of Don Frederico’s men. For after delivering us to the Cometes Georgius, there must be one fellow yet remaining to roll the sphear back to the Cristal House.

  What transpir’d with Kindermann

  Don Frederico bade us farewell, and made us the gift of one of his indiarubber suits; although disavow’d his own generosity, and claiming it worse than useless, yet was I glad to have it. We rolled the sphear with ease along the paved road, and with difficulty among the dusty portion of our way. But at last we return’d to the Cometes Georgius, and though I hurry’d Moulville and Kindermann before me, yet did Kindermann loiter back; and so contriv’d it that he was the last, save only Don Frederico’s man, to leave the sphear. Then, turning before the seal was broke, he withdrew from his shirt a pistol, and began gabbling something in Spanish. I order’d him to put up his Arms, but he shriek’d, and discharg’d the gunn; and I am very sorry to say that Don Frederico’s man receiv’d a bullet in his ribs; for he fell back with terrible rapidity and his blood leapt so far and high to spatter the sides of sphear it look’d as tho’ it had come to life and been gifted with powr’s of flight.

  Cano, the coward, hid his head under his arms; but Moulville wrangled with the Pilot, attempting to get his firearm from him, but there was a terrifick discharge, and smoak in gouts, and Moulville fell away holding his estomach. He was not kill’d, but in great pain, and I held him as well as I could, though his gore soak’d hot into my own shirt and trowsers. Kindermann was in a state of the greatest agitation at these two sanguine offences, and whoop’d like a cockerel, brandishing his gun and jabbering in incomprehensible fashion. I, the while, berated him with great vehemence, that he was a traitor to His Majesty and the basest of villains. But, he told me, amongst a deal of matter I could not follow very clearly, that George was no Majesty of his, that he was a subject of His Catholick Majesty Charles of Spain. And, as it later transpir’d, Don Frederico’s other man had been right; for he was no Prussian, but a born and rais’d Bavariaman, who has secretly and long espous’d the Cisalpine Kingdom, who have thrown their lot, howsoever foolishly, with the Mediterranean Alliance, all of whom recognize none but the Spain king as their Lord.

  He turn’d his attention to sealing the door with the sphear, and now it was plain his intent was nothing less than stealing the Cometes Georgius and delivering it to his masters, with what consequence for the war who can say? But whilst occupied in this business he dar’d not set down his pistol, and in fact discharg’d it a third time. I do not believe he intended this latter shot, for he yell’d with surprise; but the bullet passed through the open door and pricked the fabrick of the sphear. Conditions lunarian are such that this pinhole ripped precipitously into a great gash; and my ears fill’d with roaring, like the surf of some vasty invisible sea, and all the matter inside the vessel flew about in a whirl. In the noyse the door was at last clos’d, tho’ I cannot say whether Cano or Kindermann achiev’d it; and we were left panting.

  Kindermann held his pistol upon us, and cough’d fit to burst his lung. But Cano was in too great a terror to affect anything, and Moulville was shifting colour in his face blue and darker. Await the moment! Kindermann cry’d, and instruct’d me to peep through the hole. My head being convenient beside a porthole I did as he said; but my back was also against the spigot below, which led to our own balon of ayr, and this I kept clos’d.

  The sight thro’ the porthole was one to hurt the heart. For it was now apparent that Kindermann has secret’d a fuz’d barrel or device about the Cristal House, and had lit the fuze as we went. I doubt not (tho’ he did not confirm such from his own lips) that the man struck on the forehead was Kindermann’s doing; and that he had been discover’d laying this trap and shot the fellow, the ball grazing his brow and caroming away to break a pane in the cristal roof. The fellow was lucky not to have his skull broke, and to have surviv’d the encounter; yet unlucky in what thereafter followed. For I saw the explosion burst the cristal roof; and throw a great mass of debris into the black Selenic sky. The force with which this detonation smote the House is not to be express’d, no more than the agility with which glitterish shards of shatter’d cristal flew in every direction; but the most puzzling part of all was the Perfect Silence in which it all occur’d.

  I called Kindermann Madman and Devil and Lunar-Fawkes to his face, but he agitation was no lessen’d by the successful accomplishment of this wicked plot. ‘We shall lay the blame for this at the door of the Patiens,’ he declar’d; and bestirr’d him to the Propulse. I doubted not that he would now pilot the Cometes to Spain, and indeed he betook us all into the lunaric sky with celerity. But rather than departing the Moon straight, instead we overflew the wrecked site of the Peruvian house. I saw the dead boddies of some, their names I know not and I know not whether Don Frederico was among them; but there they lay blackn’d and sprawled in the dust, their eyes black as coals. For the ayr at such a hight, as is well known, is so severe that only to step out of door is to cause the skin to bruise as if from a blow. I have spoke with men who have lost eyes and fingers to the tugg of the lunar ayr, which in fact is no ayr at all. Yet also there are men, with whom I have conversed, who swear that, as with the at the top of mountains, it is merely a matter of accustomizing the mouth to the rarity; and schoolemen say that this is the ayr the angels themselves do breathe. Certain, the Patien take no harm from it, and prefer it to the thicker medium, altho they are not incapacitated by the thickest ayr, as I have myself seen, much as pearl divers are at ease at differing depths of water. (And I have read in Nieuwentyt, and do concurr with him, that what we call Water and what we call Ayr are in truth but the same material according to differing degrees to tenuousness, which can plainly be seen in that ayr frequent distils into rain and seeks again to fall).

  Kindermann divided his attentions between holding his pistol upon us, and steering the craft towards the Tranquil Sea; which destination he announced to all of us in that vessel. The landscape of the Moon below is grey to a degree hardly to be believ’d; where the sunlight is hard upon it a silver and in patches quicksilver hue may be seen; but elsewhere it is dreary leaden and poyson’d blue in colour. I order’d cowering Cano to fetch some water for Moulville, altho’ I had littel hope for his survival; and when Cano had oblig’d me, trembling, he return’d to his corner.

  There is a Patien’s camp at the Tranquil Sea, I observ’d.

  There is, he replied. And thither we shall do to make what mischief we may, before returning to the Earth and the court of King Charles of Spain. When I press’d him as to his reasons, he expatiated, growing increasing breathless as he went on. That the Patiens were the enemy, common to all mankind; and that the war between King Charles and his enemies was a tragickal distraction; that mankind must unite against the common threat before it was too late.

  I rebuk’d him for his folly, hoping in truth only to hurry him along with speaking, for I could feel in the strictness
of my own throat the shortest way the air was going, and I kept the spigot tight under my right hand, behind my small-back, and in no wise did circulate fresher air with that handle.