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This book is for John Varley, Arthur C. Clarke, Bob Shaw, Paul McAuley, Alastair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks, Robert Reed, and others of the Big Object Society. On to larger things!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We conferred on scientific and literary matters with many helpful people. Erik Max Francis, Joe Miller, and David Hartwell gave detailed comments on the manuscript. And of course Olaf Stapledon and Freeman Dyson were first.

CAST OF CHARACTERS, COMMON TERMS

SUNSEEKER CREW AND TERMS

Captain Redwing

Cliff Kammash—biologist

Mayra Wickramsingh—pilot, with Beth team

Abduss Wickramsingh—engineer, with Beth team

Glory—the planet of destination

SunSeeker—the ramship

Beth Marble—biologist

Eros—the first drop ship

Fred Ojama—geologist, with Beth team

Aybe—general engineer officer, with Cliff team

Howard Blaire—systems engineer, with Cliff team

Terrence Gould—with Cliff team

Irma Michaelson—plant biologist, with Cliff team

Tananareve Bailey—with Beth team

Lau Pin—engineer, with Beth team

Jampudvipa (shortened to Jam)—an Indian petty officer

Ayaan Ali—Arab woman navigator/pilot

Clare Conway—copilot

Karl Lebanon—general technology officer

ASTRONOMER FOLK

Memor—Attendant Astute Astronomer

Bemor—Contriver and Intimate Emissary to the Ice Minds

Asenath—Chief of Wisdom

Ikahaja—Ecosystem Savant

Omanah—Ecosystem Packmistress

Ramanuji—Biology Savant

Kanamatha—Biology Packmistress

Thaji—Judge Savant

Unajiuhanah—Senior Mistress, Keeper of the Vault Library

OTHER PHYLA

finger snakes—Thisther, male; Phoshtha, female; Shtirk, female

Ice Minds—cold life of great antiquity

the Adopted—those aliens already encountered and integrated into the Bowl

the Diaphanous

FOLK TERMS

Analyticals—artificial minds that monitor Bowl data on local scales

TransLanguage

Long Records

Late Invaders

Undermind

Serf-Ones

the Builders—the mix of species that built the Bowl

Third Variety—Astronomer variety

Astronauts—Astronomer variety

Quicklands

Kahalla

CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Cast of Characters, Common Terms

Part I: Essential Error

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

    Illustration 1

Part II: Sunny Slaughterhouse

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Part III: Status Opera

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Part IV: Sending Superman

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Part V: Mirror Flowers

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Part VI: The Deep

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Part VII: Crunchy Insects

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Part VIII: Counterthreat

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Part IX: On the Run

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

    Illustration 2

    Illustration 3

    Illustration 4

Chapter 29

Part X: Stone Mind

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

    Illustration 5

Chapter 32

Part XI: Double-Edged Sword, No Handle

Chapter 33

    Illustration 6

    Illustration 7

    Illustration 8

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Part XII: The Word of Cambronne

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Part XIII: The Diaphanous

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

    Illustration 9

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Part XIV: Memory’s Flickering Light

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Afterword: Big Smart Objects

      I. How We Built the Books

     II. Fun with High Tech

    III. Bowl Design

Books by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven

About the Authors

Copyright

PART I

ESSENTIAL ERROR

It is better to be wrong than to be vague. In trial and error, the error is the true essential.

—FREEMAN DYSON

ONE

Memor glimpsed the fleeing primates, a narrow view seen through the camera on one of the little mobile probes. Simian shapes cavorted and capered among the understory of the Mirror Zone, making their way to—what? Apparently, to the local express station of mag-rail. Very well. She had them now, then. Memor clashed her teeth in celebration, and tossed a squirming small creature into her mouth, crunching it with relish.

These somewhat comic Late Invaders were scrambling about, anxious. They seemed dreadfully confused, too. One would have expected more of ones who had arrived via a starship, with an interstellar ram of intriguing design. But as well, they had escaped in their scampering swift way. And, alas, the other gang of them had somehow evaded Memor’s attempt to kill them, when they made contact with a servant species, the Sil. So they had a certain small cleverness, true.

Enough of these irritants! She would have to concentrate and act quickly to bring them to heel. “Vector to intercept,” Memor ordered her pilot. Their ship surged with a thrumming roar. Memor sat back and gave a brief clacking flurry of fan-signals expressing relief.

Memor called up a situation graphic to see if anything had changed elsewhere. Apparently not. The Late Invader ramship was still maneuvering near the Bowl, keeping beneath the defensive weapons along the rim. From their electromagnetic emissions, clearly they monitored their two small groups of Late Invaders that were running about the Bowl. But their ship made no move to directly assist them. Good. They were wisely cautious. It would be interesting to take their ship apart, in good time, and see how the primates had engineered its adroit aspects.

Memor counted herself fortunate that the seeking probe had now found this one group, running through the interstices behind the mirror section. She watched vague orange blobs that seemed to be several simians and something more, as well: tentacular shapes, just barely glimpsed. These shapes must be some variety of underspecies, wiry and quick. Snakes?

The ship vibrated under her as Memor felt a summoning signal—Asenath called, her irritating chime sounding in Memor’s mind. She had to take the call, since the Wisdom Chief was Memor’s superior. Never a friend, regrettably. Something about Asenath kept it that way.

Asenath was life-sized on the viewing wall, giving a brilliant display of multicolored feathers set in purple urgency and florid, rainbow rage. “Memor! Have you caught the Late Invaders?”

“Almost.” Memor kept her own feather-display submissive, though with a fringe of fluttering orange jubilance. “Very nearly. I can see them now. The primate named ‘Beth’ has a group, including the one I’ve trained to talk. I’m closing on them. They have somehow mustered some allies, but I am well armed.”