59,000 Lights
Chapter 1
Glossary Info: Next to terms that probably will be confusing for people who have never read works by Iain M. Banks i will place a number, in bold, in brackets next to the term, A glossary of all the words will be placed at the bottom of the chapter.
Disclaimer:
All recognizable Characters, events, places, plots and Ideas belong to authors including but not limited to J.K Rowling, Iain Banks/ Iain M. Banks & Ruskbyte (for the first 2 chapters at least). No copyright infringement is intended and no money is being made from any aspect of this work.
Similarities: Some years ago I read a fan fiction called 'Culture Schock' by a author who goes by the name of 'Ruskbyte' Some of you will be familiar with it of course. This Fanfiction has a very similar storyline to my own. Prior to beginning this story i did not go back and read it, somewhat of a oversight now that I look back, this has had the effect of quite a number of details being the same as in "Culture Shock'. the two reasons for this are. 1, I remembered more than I thought I had when writing the first two chapters, at the time they just struck me as good ideas rather than memories. and 2, I am using details from the Culture novels or my understanding of the Culture universe that i am either unable to or unwilling to change. This will be things like how citizens of the culture react in certain situations ect.
To some of course this will be considering this copying, I apologise most profusely to these people. It was entirely unintentional. I blame my rather good if not confusing memory. If it helps you can think of it as a re-imagining of a very very good story. Once again I am sorry! Hopefully I will have this issue ironed out by chapter 3 as it was only after I posted chapter 2 that i re-read 'culture shock.' I am once again very sorry.
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At the end of a deserted street a small rip appeared in the fabric of reality then it was gone, replacing it were an un-humanly beautiful woman, and a floating sphere surrounded by an odd colored aura showing his mood. Currently a light brown, human equivalent to a slight frown.
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3 Minutes earlier.
The GCU(1) 'Precise Nature Of The Catastrophe' focused. Energy levels were off the charts, exceeding those that should be possible on a level 3 planet(2) by some millennia. What more they were cantered on a point less that a meter square.
The GCU quickly contacted Skaffen-Amtiskaw, Diziet Sma personal companion, friend and assistant, the whole process taking under 0.000001 of a second. He then went on to explain the situation to the sentient drone, taking a further 0.000003 seconds.
They decided it couldn't wait.
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3 Minutes later.
"What do we know?" asked Sma to her companion.
"Not alot I'm afraid. By the time the ship managed to turn its sensors to the source of the disturbance the fluctuation had died down. What the GCU has managed to glean from further analysis of the fluctuation is that what ever caused it connected to both layers of the hyperspace (3) at the same time."
Diziet stopped in her tracks and stared at the drone in disbelief. "That's impossible"
"Not impossible, just tens-of-thousands of years above our ability to replicate." came the reply.
"How much energy was released? Surly if your telling the truth the ground were standing on wouldn't exist."
"Not only the ground we're standing but the entirety of this solar system, and most likely the 17 closest others. Luckily it was contained"
At this point they rounded a corner and saw what was probably the remains of a cottage in a style popular in the area, perhaps a little larger than normal.
"I though you said it had been contained?" she asked.
"Yea I did, I just didn't specify how well." was the quick response. His aura showing light annoyance in the form of pale red.
As they approached the ruin, a noise began to erupt from under a pile of rubble. Diziet's biological instincts kicked in and she was off at a run. Not a human run but a culture sprint. Covering the roughly 100-meter gap in just 4 seconds, a testament to the efficiency of her biological augmentations(4).
Skaffen-Amtiskaw was following behind at a more leisurely pace. By the time he arrived Sma was halfway to the source of the noise. Digging through rubble to get to it. Skaffen-Amtiskaw used his effectors(5) to remove the final pieces and deliver it into Sma's hands.
What Sma was holding appeared to be a human baby, it had an open wound on its head in the style of a lightning bolt. And it was screaming. She gently began to rock it back and forward in the fasion she had seen done on this crazy planet hundreds of times before.
"How did this child survive the destruction?" she asked slightly in disbelief.
"Sensors indicate a force field around child allowing only organic material through but excludes synthetic, what's more he appears to be the source"
She stared at Skaffen-Amtiskaw increduacly "you mean to tell me that a child no older than the age of 2 is generating a force field, and a semi permeable one at that?"
Skaffen-Amtiskaw aura quickly turned an embarrassed green. "I know how stupid this sounds, but it's easily detectible. I even have asked the catastrophe to check and he comes up with the same result."
A few moments passed while the child calmed, and the drone communicated with the catastrophe. The discussion getting more heated as it went on.
"The catastrophe has asked to tell you what the boys energy signature is the same as the signature of the object that caused the initial fluctuation." His aura slowly turning a deeper shade of green as he continued. "It would appear that this child is the original source and cause of this destruction."
"So your telling me not only does this child have a energy signature that is detectible in high orbit, he is generating a semi-permeable force field, that by the way even the culture would having trouble replicating."
"I know how crazy that all sounds, but its what our sensors are tellin..."
"Not only that" she interrupted "but also that this baby connected to both levels of hyperspace, at the same time. Something that is far far beyond even the culture's technological reach."
"As I was saying before. I know mad this all sounds. But there is undisputable evidence. No matter what we want to believe, this child of a basic civilization can achieve things that a highly involved(6) species can't."
"So what's to be done with it?" she asked of the drone.
"Just to let you know it's a boy, you calling it a thing all the time irritates me. "
"Fine, what is to be done with the boy?" she re-asked the drone.
"A moment if you'll please" responded the drone. Skaffen-Amtiskaw who used the next 4 seconds for the purpose of having a very, very long debate about what to do with the child.
Eventually the answer came "it all depends on you, and more specifically what you want to do with the child. If you are willing to and other local contact(7) minds(8) agree to it. You can keep the child as your own and raise him as a citizen of the culture. If not he will be left here in the hands of the local authorities and most likely sent to an orphanage."
"And the catastrophe's view is?"
"That the culture would most likely what to know how the boy connected to the superior(9) and inferior(10) layers of hyperspace at the same time. And on a more personal level it feels you should take the child, it seems to have been left for dead and no government agencies are here yet so no question will be raised, they will assume he died with his mother and father."
"That's settled then, as long as the contact minds consent I will be keeping him and raising him, there is no doubt that we can take better care of him than this planet ever could."
"You do realize that it could take months for all the votes from the contact minds to come in? That mean hanging around here on this good awful planet for extra time."
"I know the consequences of my choice. Its worth it even if I have to stay here for another year." she nestled him in closer to her chest. "Get us off this planet will you?" she asked in a distracted and offhand manner.
And with that they disappeared once more into the air.
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By all accounts Voldermort was dead, and Harry Potter was alive. Just as the prophecy foretold. Celebrations were kicking off around the country. But Dumbledore still had work to do. And the most important came first, recovering Harry Potter from the ruins of his parents' cottage. The cottage belonging to some of his favorite former pupils, not that headmasters were meant to have favorites of course.
He collected Minerva and Hargid from their various locations and apparated to his house in Godric's Hollow. They quickly exited the house and at a brisk walk proceeded to the site of the destruction. But much to all their suspire stood in front of the house a woman who appeared to be cradling something to her chest and a floating metallic sphere.
This set off alarm bells in Dumbledore's head. It looked as if people had got to Harry before he could. But before he could cry out, or do anything to stop them, they disappeared having not seen his little party.
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An hour later
Dumbledore was dismayed. The boy who lived (as all the papers were now calling him) had disappeared just moments after his triumph. They had spent 20 minutes (a very long with the use of magic at your disposal) digging through the rubble of the house to try and locate Harry, but in his heart of hearts Dumbledore knew Harry was gone.
He had immediately apparated back to his office and had checked his instruments used to measure harry general wellbeing, distance and location. Buts that's not what Dumbledore cared about at this point, as long as he was feeling anything it didn't matter. He needed to know where he was.
And that was proving a problem. It was his location that mattered to him. And all the instruments he had to check this were obviously deluded. The Globe he had sitting on his desk designed to show Harry's location with a red x was currently showing nothing. And the counter device next to it was just as mad, it was counting up to around 20,000 miles and then counting down to a few hundred at a constant speed. At the current rate, it completed a circuit every 20 minutes; the only possible explanation to his phenomenon was that Harry was in a state of constant motion, a literal impossibility.
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The boy was in his new cabin, adjoining Diziet's, not a hard task with a ship capable of holding 450 culture citizens, currently carrying 2 and drone. He was asleep.
Diziet was sitting in the lounge area of her rooms.
"Diziet during your expedition to the surface, and the eventual retrieval of the child 3 people appeared in your environs with no-prior warning."
Diziet glanded some snap to wake her self up "so there is another involved species interfering with this planet? I mean who else has the technology to carry out displacement(11)?" she asked to the Catastrophe, quietly adding an "I knew it" to the end
"Not quite, the data from the occurrence shows that no technology was used in the process. It seems to have been caused by a human with an energy signature similar, but not the same as the child's. It appears he under jumped the grid(12) going to the inferior layer of hyperspace, allowing him to move relatively short distances instantaneously"
"So what your telling me is that the child is not alone in his ability to harness and manipulate the energy of the grid?"
"Precisely." came the response of the catastrophe.
At this a holographic display(13) engaged. It showed three forms appearing in a house in the vicinity of the ruin. Two of the people had a red energy signature, varying in shades, and the other was a strange muted brown, but he still stuck out due to his sheer size.
They exited the house at a rapid pace and proceeded down the street and turned a corner and stooped in their tracks, The camera then zoomed out to reveal a woman, a baby and a drone. The woman was a yellow colour, the drone a white and the boy almost blocking out the woman and the drone, a shining, searing red.
Just as the form of the brighter of the two reds from the group of 3 began to rush forward, the woman, the child and the drone vanished.
The man who had run forward collapsed to his knees in despair. A cry echoing about him. The giant moved towards him and picked him up as if he weighed nothing. The other red signature walked towards the giant holding the man, the now clear definition of a woman helped the giant place the man on his feet and steady him.
"We lost him, we lost Harry Potter the greatest wizard this world has probably seen since Merlin himself, the boy how defeated He-who must not be named."
"It may appear that way but what if it wasn't harry, what if that bundle the woman was holding was a just an object and not a chid, Who would kidnap a child from the ruins of his own home moments after the death of him mother and father."
"Your right as ever Minerva" the man said visibly steeling himself; he almost appeared to grow taller. "We shall check the ruins all is not lost till the fat lady sings." He quietly chuckled for no apparent reason and went to join his collogue Minerva.
The recording began to play at a higher speed, covering around 20 minutes in the space of 1. What appeared to be happening was that pieces of rubble and debris were being moved and stacked directed by short, blunt objects in their hands.
Once it was clear there was nobody there the man quickly gathered up the other people, they then disappeared into thin air. But not before one last remorseful glance around.
"Would you mind explaining what just happened there." Diziet asked of the mind.
I think the first section is self-explanatory, they came to find the boy you have in the room adjoining this one, the boy they called Harry Potter. The next bit is slightly harder to interoperate. But the footage combined with sensor scans give the picture of the people with the red energy signature manipulating the inferior hyperspace layer and focusing it through pieces of wood they were holding in there hands, They appear to be what the people of this world would call wizards and witches, this is backed up by the man with the red energy signature naming Harry as "the greatest wizard this world has probably seen since Merlin himself." A character from what appears to be a fictional story dating back over 2000 years ago.
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Glossy:
(1)GCU: General Contact Unit. One of the smallest open space ships the culture uses, Capable of carrying between 150 and 500 citizens depending on class and configuration. Act as: Ambassadors, scouts and light transports; also main warship in peacetime. Classes include: Mountain Class, Ridge Class, Escarpment Class, River Class, Troubadour Class (retired)
(2)Level 3 planet: Planet in early stages of industrialization. Primary Specie/s Has basic understanding of science and the rules that govern the universe.
(3)Hyperspace: layers above and below the grid, separates real space from the grid, 4 dimensions, also allows faster than light travel relative to real space. For movement outside of gravity wells, ships move into hyperspace and cease to appear in real space.
(4)Biological augmentations: Change in the genetic structure of a individual to improve some aspect of there physical or mental capabilities.
(5)Effectors: Real culture terms: allows the control on computers from vast distances, also can be used to read date and damage or destroy electrical items. My Terms: Force fields specifically shaped for pushing, pulling, general moving, cutting and fine manipulation of physical objects.
(6)Involved: The players in the galaxy, all very technologically advanced and all hold immense influence on other space faring species in their region of space.
(7)Contact: Section of the culture tasked with the duty of ambassadors in time of peace also the branch charged with discovery and cataloging of new species. In times of war acts as intelligence service along with Special Circumstances or SC.
(8)Mind: A.I with the brainpower of billions and sometimes trillions of culture citizens, the more people it has to look after the more powerful it is. Culture citizens are hundreds of times more intelligent than the average human. Minds are often tasked with the job of running a Ship of Orbital (all ships and other habitats need one.) So Powerful that they simulate entire universes for fun.
(9)Superior Hyperspace layer: hyperspace layer above the grid, area where most ships travel, also allows more energy to be absorbed from the grid than is possible from the inferior layer.
(10)Inferior Hyperspace layer: hyperspace layer bellow grid, less energy can be drawn from inferior that superior layer also were wizards draw their power from.
(11)Displacement: Teleportation like technology. Allows instantaneous travel over distances up to a light second. (1 in 61 million chance of death in transport, not trusted due to combination of bad early safety record and The Culture's view to safety.
(12)The Grid: A layer of pure energy, what ships push against during faster than light travel in hyperspace. Can also be used as a weapon when a rift if opened in fabric of universe and allows untold amounts of raw energy into space. More effective than any other known weapon. Descried as: "the weapon of the end of the universe."
(13)Holographic Display: A Projected display suspended in a force field, this allows it to be manipulated as a solid object, it is also 3D to the extent were you can walk through a representation of the galaxy and the stars will be all around you.
Background on the culture: The Culture is one of the most advanced civilisations in this area of the galaxy at the moment. As well as having easily faster than light travel (up to 233,000 times the speed of light), the culture lives virtually solely on artificial world and orbitals. Only moving to planets when visiting other civilisations. All orbitals and artificial worlds are controlled by minds. (artificial intelligent computers (so powerful they can hold conversations with billions of people while continuing to run the orbital) As well as Artificial worlds many culture citizens live aboard massive ships often tens, and sometimes even hundreds of kilometres long. All of these ships, are controlled by a mind, and for the larger one's up to 3. Names of ships are odd in the culture, they are chosen by the ships mind when they are completed, normally they are very eccentric and usually have no actual meaning, although this is not always the case.
Culture citizenship is not just limited to organic species, it is also available to drones and other as long as they posses a 1.0 value of intelligence they considered citizens, the 1.0 refers to the average intelligence of a culture citizen. By comparison humans would score low. It also acts like seismic readings do the extent that something with a 0.2 value in 10 times smarter than something with a 0.1 value, and 0.3 ids 10 times better than 0.2. so on and so forth.
They virtually worship openness, have a total population probably numbering in the thousands of trillions or quadrillions. The culture also does not posses a unified government, Instead government is conducted by vote of minds in the area a decision need to be made in. If decisions will affect citizens it is often put to a vote with them as well. The culture is a post-scarcity society whey have no concept of money and the idea of possessions is all but abolished.
More can be found on the culture wikipedia page.
Author's Note: I will only ask once, Please can you review as this is my first serious attempt at Fan fiction, I have tried others with very limited success with different account names, If you come across a story by "cure west' that is me, although short, incomplete and totally awful. That was my first atteptpt, i hope i have moved on since.