The Mistake Not …, a Culture vessel of indefinite age, hazy provenance and indeterminate class but generally reckoned to be some sort of modestly tooled-up civilian craft rather than a part of the Culture’s allegedly still slowly shrinking military resources, had been detailed to rendezvous with the Liseiden fleet by the clinker sun of Ry. The result of an experiment carried out by the General Systems Vehicle that had constructed it decades earlier, and not even officially classed as an Eccentric, the craft’s real status had always been moot. Regardless, currently it was seconded to the Contact section for the occasion of the Gzilt Subliming. Seemingly eager to make a good impression, the ship made sure to be at the rendezvous point especially early.
- Hydrogen Sonata, Chapter Three: (S -23)
Description of size by an alien race.
“Size? What size is it?”
“In the order of a couple of kilometres, though that’s just the outer field envelope.”
“‘In the order of.’”
“Best we’ve got, sir.”
- Hydrogen Sonata, Chapter Three: (S -23)