Super-State

by By Brian Aldiss

  * * * *

  Super-State

  By Brian Aldiss

  Scanned & Proofed By MadMaxAU

  * * * *

  Black clouds were gathering over the mountains to the north. Lightning flashed through them. But in the valley, on that happy day, sunlight lay like cream in a bowl.

  Guests had been arriving all morning. The most popular form of conveyance was by pleasure steamer from the nearest big town. A grand temporary quay had been built for the occasion. People pouring from the steamers stepped on to the quay beneath an archway decked with flowers. A band welcomed them, playing spirited airs such as ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ and ‘Cow-Cow Boogie’.

  Less favoured among the guests arrived at the cluster of new pavilions by luxury coach, which travelled by specially constructed roads — roads which were infinitely superior to the old towpath they overlaid.

  Some guests drove in by automobile. Planes brought others of the privileged, settling on the new airstrip, which was ablaze with landing and fairy lights. But the most stylish way to arrive was by one’s own helicopter.

  Early helicopter arrivals naturally included the party of the President, the de Bourceys, in two helicopters. The de Bourceys were escorted immediately to the Pavilion of Perennial Peace, constructed in an Oriental style, where they retired to relax behind drapes, to be seen by no one for some hours.

  The de Bourceys were followed by the Gonzales Clayman party. Emerging from their helicopter, they toured the extensive site in a stretch limo before retiring to the Rotunda of Regal Relaxation, from the windows of which they might glance discreetly at the Pavilion of Perennial Peace.

  Rose Baywater arrived with her partner, dapper Jack Harrington, the art supremo, and her admirer, General Gary Fairstepps. They came in the lady novelist’s wasp-striped helicopter, and went immediately to their own hotelette — one of a grand line of hotelettes painted each in a separate colour — where Rose sank into a warm bath to float for an hour and think rose-coloured thoughts.

  Laura Nye, aged and frail, and her friends, including the famous, if speechless, Francine Squire, arrived on the steamer Con Amore and claimed their hotelette, where they immediately ordered champagne and aspirins.

  The strapping young singer and entertainer, Olduvai Potts, arrived on a plane, to be greeted by the Master of Banquets, impeccably dressed Wayne Bargane. Olduvai was casually dressed. His large blunt face remained solemn, even when he acknowledged the plaudits of the crowd.

  A little later, Olduvai was prevailed upon to sing his current hit song, ‘Once a Fabulous Holiday’ — to great applause. He was interviewed for the ambient by no less a person than Wolfgang Frankel, the dandyish media mogul. On this occasion, Frankel had on his shoulder a hooded goshawk. ‘It’s also having a fabulous holiday,’ he quipped. Olduvai nodded but did not smile.

  Archbishop Byron Arnold Jones-Simms flew in half an hour before the ceremony was scheduled to begin, to walk perfumed among the gathering crowds, permitting his hand to be kissed at six-metre intervals.

  The Archbishop also permitted himself a few words with Wolfgang Frankel, along the lines of the world being too much with us, late and soon. So we must try to make it a better world.

  And still the sun shone. And still the sky darkened over the northern hills. And still the band played on the landing stage, as did a classical quartet in the vast hospitality hall, and a pop group in the Place of Ceremonies. Fountains also played. In the cinema erected for the occasion, Sweetness and Lifebelts, the latest movie to be made from a Baywater novel, was playing.

  The increasing throng of guests moved between these landmarks, stopping at champagne bars or seafood rotundas or little souvenir stalls or carousels on the way The guests chattered among themselves, on the whole remaining with their own groups, sometimes calling out with artificial cries of delight to friends newly encountered. The air was full of the tinkle of voices and glasses.

  One of the outstanding guests, who had stationed himself at a table by the Rotunda of Regal Relaxation, was a large, heavily built man known only by the name Gabbo. Gabbo wore a white suit, lavishly decorated with gold lapels and the starburst of the IGOEU, the International Golden Order of the European Union. Gabbo Laboratories had invented the ambient, the world’s first cohesive intercommunication system.

  In consequence, Gabbo was wealthy enough now to be known only by his solitary absurd sobriquet, although he had been born humble Martin Richter in a small town in Lower Saxony — wealthy enough now, as one commentator put it, ‘to buy the Louvre with the Mona Lisa thrown in’. His amusement was to fund rather bad movies; the film Lovesick in Lent was collecting adverse critiques this very week. Consorting with Gabbo was Casim Durando, the director of the aforesaid Lovesick in Lent, of whom it had been said that he was reptilian enough to make Komodo dragons renounce the name of reptile.

  Gabbo sat poised and highly polished, as if a part of his chair, his sleek dark hair gleaming, with his inseparable companion, Obbagi. Obbagi was a tall faceless robot or android, for which Gabbo used the term, when he used it at all, of randroid. Obbagi was reputedly extremely intelligent, and usually spoke for Gabbo. Just as he was speaking now with the cordial Wolfgang Frankel. Frankel was drinking champagne. Obbagi had a glass before him but did not drink.

  ‘Weddings must be endured,’ Obbagi said. His voice came from somewhere deep within him. He had no mouth to move. ’Endurance is fine. It is enjoyment which is oppressive. I fortunately do not have to pursue enjoyment.’

  Wolfgang gave a rather forced laugh, and the goshawk stirred on his shoulder. For this occasion the star German media man wore a parody of an eighteenth-century satin costume, gleaming in silver. ‘Enjoyment certainly helps to pass the time.’

  The randroid intoned, ’I am unaware of the passage of time.’

  Gabbo had not spoken until now. He made a rare interjection.

  ‘As long as one is aware one is living on a largely criminal planet, enjoyment is rather a limited occupation. Don’t you agree, Obbagi?’

  ‘One sees everywhere a pretence at enjoyment.’

  ‘Oh, forget gloom, you two!’ exclaimed Wolfgang. ‘Gloom is out of fashion in our benevolent super-state. Why, I have been talking to the fiendishly clever Paulus Stromeyer, who even now, if I understand him correctly, is inventing a new form of mathematics which will produce equality for rich and poor.’

  ‘He only invents rules. Stromeyer is like an android,’ said Obbagi, austere as ever. ‘I mean one of the separate species of android, the ALF21s — put on the market designedly stupid so as to flatter human egos. I find human beings contemptible, as does Gabbo.’

  ‘I never saw a good man less like an android than Stromeyer,’ said Wolfgang. He drained his champagne glass, nodded affably to Gabbo, and passed on.

  ‘His appearance is strange,’ said the faceless randroid.

  ‘That goes for his bird too,’ agreed Gabbo.

  * * * *

  ‘What fun!’ said Stephanie Burnell to her husband. ’How are they going to cap this event when their divorce comes through?’

  Karl Lebrecht, strolling with them, replied, ‘It’s the nearest thing to a stately pleasure dome since Kublai Khan decreed one.’

  ‘Just think how lovely this valley must have been before the de Bourceys spotted it,’ said Roy Burnell.

  ‘Don’t be so grumpy!’ said Stephanie, laughing and taking his arm. She was not really attending to him, gazing instead on the amazing gowns most of the women were wearing. Everyone was endeavouring to look their best.

  Karl said, ‘Seen from another perspective, this valley is only temporary The Earth is a theatre of change, brought about not only by the shifting of continents but also by destructive strikes from chunks of rock from outer space.
’

  Thoughtlessly, Stephanie said, ‘Let’s hope one doesn’t hit just now.’

  With a rooted dislike of such superficial responses, Karl said, ‘In the history of the Earth, there have been five great mass extinctions, all caused by strikes of meteors arriving from space. The earliest being in the Ordovician, four hundred million years ago.’

  ‘Don’t be so gloomy!’ Stephanie said. ‘Look at that fabulous dress. Who is that woman? I love the way the Victorian look is coming back!’

  ‘It’s the novelist, Rose Something,’ said Roy. ‘I think.’

  They sipped champagne. Karl thought it as well to change the subject.

  Said he, ‘You see the big guy with the frightening android by the main hall? That’s Gabbo!’

  ‘My God, Gabbo!’ Stephanie exclaimed. ‘What’s he doing here?’

  ‘I understand he is funding this show, rather than de Bourcey. They say he is watching for strange behaviour. It’s his hobby.’

  ‘No use looking at us, then!’

  ‘What do you think, Francine?’ Ann Squire asked her scintillating daughter. She saw it as her role in life to persuade Francine to talk.

  ‘Oh, quite,’ said Francine Squire.

  * * * *

  ‘Y’see, they’ve at last managed,’ said General Gary Fairstepps, looking appreciatively at Rose Baywater as she stepped from her shower in their peach-coloured hotelette, ‘to create in reality a world such as you create in your novels. Youth, beauty, peace, plenty . . .’

  ‘Oh, plenty of plenty,’ she said, draping round her body a huge pink towel. ‘I love plenty of plenty, don’t you? It’s so utterly nice.’

  He stroked his moustache in a mannered way. He was handsome in an ugly kind of way, kind in an ugly manner. ‘Depends what it’s plenty of.’

  Although he fancied Rose, the silly bitch made some daft remarks at times.

  ‘Ancestry counts for much, Rose. Plenty of ancestry — that’s the thing. What’s your background?’

  ‘Oh, very ordinary, Gary. Though my grandmother on my father’s side was a Temptress-of-the-Bedchamber to King Hengist of Denmark. We’ve gone downhill since those glory days . . .’

  Fairstepps grunted. ’At least you have a hill to go down. Now my great-great-grandfather — I may have mentioned this before — he died a hero’s death at the battle of Damenbinden-am-Maine in 1881. My great-grandfather wrote a history of his cavalry regiment, the Twelfth Przewalski’s Horse. Breeding counts for something.’

  He was going red in the face as he attempted to remove his boots, adding, ‘Military elite, that’s we Fairstepps. Our family motto, “I Will If You Will”. Blood will out, dear.’

  ‘Oh, I hope not,’ Rose said. ‘Not in that sense.’

  ‘Bit of a thunderstorm over the hills,’ said Jack Harrington, in a tone suggesting he realised his remark was irrelevant. ‘Just to remind us that the weather is fine here for the privileged.’

  ‘Don’t know why they invited me,’ said Fairstepps. ‘Can’t say I’m much of a party-goer.’

  ‘But you’re important, Gary. Not like me.’

  ‘That’s true,’ admitted Fairstepps. ‘These bloody boots . . .’

  ‘I’m really quite a valley person myself,’ the novelist said, as if to snub her partner further. Certainly Jack was a pallid man — but pallidly wealthy. ‘Valleys were invented for me, but you, you foxy old thing —’ now she was addressing Fairstepps’— you were born to conquer mountains.’

  ‘Only in a godforsaken place like Tebarou,’ the general responded, laughing as if she, or possibly he, had made a joke.

  * * * *

  In the seafood bar, Jane Squire, who had reverted to her maiden name after her divorce, contemplated a large reproduction of a Dutch painting of prawns and lobsters which loomed over the counter. She was the centre of a cheerful group, which included a spectacularly beautiful and slender young woman at whom all men threw admiring glances when they passed by. This young woman’s name was Francine Squire. Francine Squire was the daughter of Ann Squire and Kevin Krawstadt, and the new star of Gabbo Films. She was already too famous to join in the conversation at the bar. Francine merely sat there poised, an unsampled espresso before her, and scintillated.

  Jane was being chatty, excited by the event. She was an elegant woman. Her usual country garments were put away and she was dressed with unaccustomed smartness for the occasion. Nowadays, she tended to put on middle-aged weight and had begun to dye her hair black; but she and her sweet temper remained highly desirable to many older men.

  Her friend, Kevin Krawstadt, came under that classification. After ordering a glass of white wine, he said, joshingly, ’Does the painting make you feel hungry, Jane — presumably its chief aim?’

  ‘Hungry or greedy, most likely.’

  He leant towards her, to say, confidentially, ‘Quite frankly, this whole wedding party is nothing but a celebration of greed.’

  ‘Should art celebrate greed? Or sanctity? Or sorrow?’

  ‘That’s up to the individual artist.’

  Ann Squire, the younger of the two Squire sisters, felt it was her turn to join the conversation. ‘But fashion plays its part. Something that’s unfashionable — painting, a book, music — won’t succeed, will it?’

  ‘Oh, I like anything,’ Jane said carelessly. ’Doesn’t matter to me whether it’s fashionable or not, as long as there’s a visceral appeal. So let’s have some prawns, please.’

  She started to look in her handbag. As she produced a univ card, Kevin Krawstadt reminded her that everything at the party was paid for.

  ‘How shameful,’ Jane exclaimed. ’I suppose we will be beholden to the de Bourceys for ever.’

  ‘What’s beholden?’ asked Bettina, Jane’s daughter, and was ignored. All too conscious of being outshone by her cousin Francine, Bettina was not a radiantly happy young lady. At this stage in her late adolescence, Bettina was wearing her hair with a fringe which flowed down to touch her eyebrows. The effect was, she hoped, simultaneously to attract young men and annoy her mother. In fact, a young man sitting at a nearby table was already attracted. As she was aware.

  ‘I’m already beholden,’ said Ann Squire.

  Laura Nye laughed. ‘One way to the top is to have a good bottom.’ The family knew that it was Francine Squire’s affair with Victor de Bourcey which had landed her a role in the award-winning, much condemned Gabbo Films movie Lovesick in Lent.

  Laura was old and rickety, plagued by arthritis. Nevertheless she sat upright on her stool, conscious of her role as grande dame.

  ‘Well, here’s to the party!’ said Kevin, lifting his champagne glass.

  ‘Is it true that the Queen of Sweden has been invited?’ asked Francine. It was, for her, a long sentence.

  ‘Surely Sweden hasn’t still got a queen!’ exclaimed Laura. ‘What an anachronism! Not that I’m not another anachronism . . .’

  * * * *

  Time for one more cameo before the bells begin to ring.

  Also in the seafood bar, helping themselves to delicious oysters flown in from Australia, sat a learned cluster of people, among them Paulus Stromeyer, the mathematician and philosopher, Amygdella Haze, the amaroli lady, her teenage son Bertie, her lover, the blank-looking Randolph Haven, shortly to make a disastrous decision, and Dr Barnard Cleeping of the Institute of Philosophy, Utrecht.

  Dominating this group was Paulus Stromeyer, a thickset man in his early fifties. Fluffy dark hair surrounded a monk’s tonsure of baldness. His large, rather heavy face was lightened by the brightness of his gaze. Talk about the storm over the mountains had led to Stromeyer’s mention of Faraday’s discovery of electromagnetic induction. Stromeyer thought there was still some of what he called ‘hidden math’ to be squeezed out of the relationship between magnetism and electricity.

  Rather idly, Randolph Haven had suggested that some days of the week contained more electricity than others.

  Now they were discussing — all except young Bertie H
aze, who was gazing yearningly in the direction of Bettina Squire at the nearby table — whether some days were more propitious for weddings than others.

  ‘Today is Tuesday, the thirtieth of June,’ said Cleeping. ‘Hands up all those who can tell me what event took place on a certain thirtieth of June many years ago?’ Cleeping was a smooth man, clean-shaven, short of hair, long on benevolence.

  Paulus Stromeyer ventured a guess. ’Frederick the Great born?’

  Amygdella Haze: ‘Diet of Worms?’

  Randolph Haven: ‘The machine gun invented?’

  Cleeping shook his head. ‘1908. The Tunguska event. Remember? A forest area in Siberia flattened by cometary impact. Had it arrived just five hours later, it would have struck St Petersburg and wiped the city out. Various objects are always swanning in from space and striking Earth. Calculations show that one is due about now.’