The Hydrogen Sonata
Chapters - Iain M. Banks
Chapter 1: One (S -24)
The Gzilt warship 8*Churkun intercepts a small Zihdren-Remnanter vessel at the planetary fragment Ablate. The Remnanter ship carries a Ceremonial Guest bearing a message for the Gzilt ahead of their Subliming. Despite the Remnanter ship's protests and pleas for diplomatic courtesy, the Churkun demands the sealed information be released, forces the ship to comply, then destroys both it and the crater facility, breaking its promise to let the vessel depart.
Chapter 2: Two (S -23)
Vyr Cossont practises the notoriously difficult Hydrogen Sonata on her elevenstring on a deserted terrace of the Girdlecity on Xown, twenty-three days before the Subliming. During a break she recalls encountering a young family with a child who have chosen not to Sublime, and a fraught visit to her mother Warib, who is embarrassed by Cossont's extra pair of arms. Commissar-Colonel Etalde arrives in a military flier with troopers and re-commissions Cossont for an unspecified secret emergency, taking her and her familiar Pyan aboard.
POV: Vyr Cossont·On page: Pyan, Commissar-Colonel Etalde, Warib
Chapter 3: Three (S -23)
The Culture ship Mistake Not...... waits at a dead star system to rendezvous with the Liseiden Scavenger fleet, monitoring their comms traffic as they discuss its mysterious nature. While the fleet arrives and formalities begin, the ship's sub-routines detect an anomalous weapon-blink from Ablate, the site where the Zihdren-Remnanter ship was destroyed. The Mistake Not... realises something serious has happened and flags the information to its home GSV.
POV: Mistake Not...
Chapter 4: Four (S -22)
Septame Septame Banstegeyn, the most powerful Gzilt politician, manoeuvres through the final session of parliament, consolidating control over transitional committees. In a secret meeting deep beneath the parliament building, Marshal Chekwri briefs him on the leak from the destroyed Churkun to the Fourteenth Regiment's HQ. They discuss options and Chekwri reveals she has already dispatched the battle-cruiser Uagren with a special forces team to Izenion, where the Fourteenth is based, giving Banstegeyn decision points at thirty-eight, forty-five, and fifty-three hours.
POV: Septame Banstegeyn·On page: Marshal Chekwri, President Geljemyn
Chapter 5: Five (S -22)
The Culture warship Caconym is contacted by its old friend the Pressure Drop, which reveals the Zihdren-Remnanter situation and the destruction of their ship. The Pressure Drop recruits the Caconym into an advisory group investigating the crisis, explaining that the Remnanter message mentioned a near-mythically ancient Culture citizen named Ngaroe Ngaroe QiRia who might help prove its claims about the Book of Truth. The two ships begin coordinating military assets and intelligence gathering across Gzilt space, including re-arming the Passing By...'s escort ships.
Chapter 6: Six (S -21)
Above the Gzilt main fleet the Ronte mass-display continues its slow ship-dance through the long approach to Subliming day. Across the disputed space, the Kakistocrat aboard a Liseiden cruiser recalls the Mistake Not... from the deal it had been brokering with the Scavengers, and the ship begins to wind back to Zyse on its own quiet schedule.
POV: Vyr Cossont·On page: Pyan, Commissar-Colonel Etalde·Mentioned: Ngaroe QiRia
Chapter 7: Seven (S -20)
Deep beneath the Gzilt parliament, General Reikl briefs the surviving senior staff after the Fzan-Juym asteroid headquarters is destroyed in a coordinated strike. Vyr Cossont is woken from her stasis aboard the Eshri shuttle to find Pyan, Etalde and the simulationist sim-soldier Eglyle Parinherm re-commissioned around her, and as she comes round she remembers her one face-to-face encounter with Ngaroe QiRia at Perytch IV.
POV: Vyr Cossont·On page: Ngaroe QiRia, Pyan, Eglyle Parinherm, General Reikl
Chapter 8: Eight (S -20)
The Caconym visits the Zoologist, a Mind that once Sublimed and returned, housed within its own substrate. The ship asks for any help the Zoologist might provide regarding the Sublime and the current crisis. The Zoologist describes the profound inadequacy of returning from the Sublime to the Real but promises to think about helping. Meanwhile, communications between Culture ships reveal the Zihdren-Remnanters want the matter kept confidential, frustrating the investigation.
On page: Caconym, Pressure Drop, The Zoologist
Chapter 9: Nine (S -19)
On Eshri, the dead trooper's suit begins twitching as hostile forces probe the crashed shuttle. The Passing By... observes events from above Zyse while its re-armed escort ships depart. Colonel Colonel Agansu, aboard the Uagren approaching Izenion, contacts General Reikl and her surviving crew who have taken refuge in a solar research station. After a chilling exchange where Reikl curses him defiantly, Agansu watches as the station is dropped into the star, killing all aboard. Back on Eshri, the shuttle is breached and Vyr Cossont is blown into vacuum before being rescued.
POV: Vyr Cossont·On page: Pyan, Eglyle Parinherm, Colonel Agansu, General Reikl
Chapter 10: Ten (S -18)
Vyr Cossont awakens aboard the Mistake Not......, rescued by its avatar Berdle. In flashbacks, she recalls more of her time with Ngaroe QiRia on Perytch IV, including his explanation of how he stores memories throughout his body and the Warm, Considering's avatar playing the elevenstring perfectly, crushing her spirit. Back in the present, Berdle explains the situation and tries to learn Cossont's mission. After she reveals she needs to reach the Ospin system, the ship agrees to take her there while Septame Banstegeyn plots with Marshal Chekwri about the attack and schemes with Ambassador Mierbeunes to reverse the Scavenger vote.
POV: Vyr Cossont·On page: Berdle, Pyan, Eglyle Parinherm, Ngaroe QiRia, Septame Banstegeyn, Marshal Chekwri·Mentioned: Mistake Not...
Chapter 11: Eleven (S -17)
Culture ships exchange signals coordinating their response, forming an ad-hoc advisory group. The Ronte celebrate being granted Preferred Scavenger status. Septame Banstegeyn walks with Trime Yegres, who warns him that his political grip is loosening as the Subliming approaches. Scoaliera Tefwe, an ancient friend of Ngaroe QiRia's, is woken from Storage aboard the LSV You Call This Clean? and agrees to be transmitted as a mind-state copy to search for QiRia, starting at Dibaldipen Orbital where a drone who may know his location resides.
POV: Septame Banstegeyn·On page: Scoaliera Tefwe, Marshal Chekwri·Mentioned: Vyr Cossont, Ngaroe QiRia
Chapter 12: Twelve (S -16)
Vyr Cossont and Berdle arrive at Xown's Girdlecity instead of Ospin, as the ship has traced Ngaroe QiRia's visit five years earlier under the alias Yutten Turse. They board the airship Equatorial 353, home to the Last Party, and meet the flamboyant Ximenyr, Master of the Revels, who knew QiRia but reveals nothing useful about where he might be or what he might have left behind. Colonel Colonel Agansu, following in the Uagren, debates whether to investigate the airship or continue pursuing the Culture ship.
POV: Vyr Cossont·On page: Berdle, Pyan, Ximenyr, Colonel Agansu·Mentioned: Ngaroe QiRia
Chapter 13: Thirteen (S -15)
Septame Banstegeyn meets the avatar Ziborlun briefly in an observation pod, the Culture ships agree to continue investigating, and Tefwe and the Mistake Not... discuss the engine-damaged ship's plan to wake Eglyle Parinherm as a decoy. The chapter's first mention of the Culture trying to find the elusive Smile Tolerantly is set up - the old QiRia accomplice that "disappeared up its own wazoo" centuries ago.
POV: Septame Banstegeyn·On page: Scoaliera Tefwe, Jelwilin·Mentioned: Ngaroe QiRia
Chapter 14: Fourteen (S -14)
Septame Banstegeyn tightens his hold on the aide-de-camp Orpe and slips the poison-delivery device into her care that will go off when she next stands close to President Geljemyn. Across the orbital, Scoaliera Tefwe rides an aphore through the long desert to the cave of the retired drone Hassipura Plyn-Frie, the only lead left on the trail of QiRia's body.
POV: Septame Banstegeyn·On page: Scoaliera Tefwe, President Geljemyn, Orpe, Hassipura Plyn-Frie·Mentioned: Ngaroe QiRia
Chapter 15: Fifteen (S -13)
Septame Banstegeyn visits a secret weapons archive to procure an assassination device. Vyr Cossont plays the first movement of the Hydrogen Sonata for the ship, which appreciates it. The ship finds footage of Cossont's mother giving a dramatic media interview about her missing daughter. Berdle reveals they may be followed and plans to use the android Eglyle Parinherm to obscure their destination. Cossont finally reveals they are heading for the Incast facility on the Bokri microrbital in the Ospin system.
POV: Vyr Cossont·On page: Berdle, Pyan, Eglyle Parinherm, Septame Banstegeyn, Hassipura Plyn-Frie·Mentioned: Warib
Chapter 16: Sixteen (S -9)
The Culture ships discuss Ngaroe QiRia being tracked to Cethyd but having surgically removed his eyes - where his key memories were stored. Tefwe's copy on Cethyd is killed by Oglari forces during the attempt to contact QiRia. The original Tefwe reviews the experiences of her copies. Meanwhile, Septame Banstegeyn's assassination of President Geljemyn is carried out through a toxin device planted on Orpe, killing both women. Banstegeyn and Chekwri plot to blame the Ronte for both the Eshri attack and the assassination.
POV: Septame Banstegeyn·On page: Marshal Chekwri, Scoaliera Tefwe, President Geljemyn, Orpe·Mentioned: Ngaroe QiRia
Chapter 17: Seventeen (S -8)
Vyr Cossont and Berdle infiltrate the Incast facility on Bokri to retrieve Ngaroe QiRia's mind-state cube. They locate it and Cossont activates it, hearing QiRia's voice confirm his identity. However, the mind-state reveals that QiRia removed the relevant memories from this copy and stored them in his eyes, which he left with Ximenyr on the Girdlecity airship. Colonel Colonel Agansu and a combat arbite attack the facility, and in the ensuing battle Agansu is badly injured but the arbite is destroyed. The ship races back towards Xown.
POV: Vyr Cossont·On page: Berdle, Eglyle Parinherm, Colonel Agansu, Ngaroe QiRia
Chapter 18: Eighteen (S -7)
Tefwe reviews the failed mission to Cethyd where her copy was killed. Warib gives an oblivious interview to intelligence agents sent by Septame Banstegeyn's faction, inadvertently suggesting Vyr Cossont was involved in secret work. The Culture ships receive confirmation that Ngaroe QiRia's memories are stored in his removed eyes, which are likely the jewelled items on Ximenyr's charm necklace on the Equatorial 353. The ship heads back to Xown at maximum speed.
POV: Scoaliera Tefwe·On page: Warib·Mentioned: Ngaroe QiRia, Vyr Cossont
Chapter 19: Nineteen (S -6)
In the aftermath of the previous chapter's killings, Physician General Locuil reports the traces of the toxin device on Orpe's body and reveals that she was pregnant - by Septame Banstegeyn, it is understood. Banstegeyn and Marshal Chekwri scheme to pin both the Eshri attack and the assassination on the Ronte; the evidence chain is to be cleaned, and the political weight of the deaths re-pointed toward the convenient enemy.
POV: Septame Banstegeyn·On page: Marshal Chekwri, Jelwilin·Mentioned: Vyr Cossont
Chapter 20: Twenty (S -3)
The massive GSV Empiricist arrives at Zyse with great ceremony, three days before the Subliming. Septame Banstegeyn attends a reception haunted by visions of the dead Orpe. Marshal Chekwri reveals that the returned Churkun battleship has been positioned at Xown, and it has detected the Mistake Not...... arriving. Colonel Agansu, now inhabiting an android body after his injuries, prepares to board the airship as the Churkun deploys marine arbite platoons around the Equatorial 353.
POV: Septame Banstegeyn·On page: Marshal Chekwri, Colonel Agansu, Empiricist·Mentioned: Mistake Not..., Vyr Cossont