Look to Windward
Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]
Categories: [ Books ]
The Culture is an association of evolved species in the galaxy who have merged and created together a new culture. Among other things, they meddle secretely in the development of other spieces to make them step toward peace and enlightenment. Sometimes this fails, and as it was the case with Chel, the specie falls into civil war. But the Chelgrian religion requires every fallen warrior to be avenged with the death of an enemy in order to be allowed to move into the afterlife. Some Chelgians have then planned to kill four billion Culture citizens on the Masaq' Orbital, a gigantic ring-shaped structure orbiting around a Hub, itself orbiting around a sun. The Orbital is controlled by a Mind, an AI which takes care of most of the automatic systems, as well as of the people through avatars. Most of the deaths will be souls of dead people, stored in the Hub, where the Mind also resides. The Chelgrian sent on this suicide mission is Quilan, who is desperate to die since he lost his wife in the war. He is accompanied with Huyler, a veteran officer who resides in Quilan's brain, within Soulkeeper modified to allow Quilan and Huyler to communicate. Huyler's mission is to take control of Quilan in case the latter gets cold feet. But the mission fails, because Huyler is actually an agent of the Culture, who had been turned around while his soul was stored, after his bodily death. But the Mind of Masaq' also wishes to die (because of having lost his twin during a war, almost 1000 years ago) and he proposed Quilan to die with him. The originators of the plot on Chel are assassinated, but no other action is taken by the Culture against the Chelgrian people. In the end, Huyler gets a new body and a new life in the Culture.