《Jonathan Hamilton One Of Our Bastards Is Missing》作者： - Paul Cornell【EP

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One of our Bastards is MissingPaul CornellTo GET TO Earth from the edge of the solar system depending on the time of year and the position of the planets you need to passthrough at least PolandPrussia and Turkey and youd probably get stamps in your passport from a few of the other great powers. Then asyou get closer to the world you arrive at a point in the continually shifting carriage space over the countries where this complexity has togive way or fail. And so you arrive in the blissful lubrication of neutral orbital territory. From there its especially clear that no country iswhole unto itself. There are yearning gaps between parts of each state as they stretch across the solar system. There is no congruentterritory. The countries continue in balance with each other like a fine but eccentric mechanism pent up all that political energy dealt withthrough eternal circular motion.The maps that represent this can be displayed on a screen but theyre much more suited to mental contemplation. Theyre beautiful. Theyremade to be beautiful doing their own small part to see that their beauty never ends. If you looked down on that world of countries onto thepink of glorious old Greater Britain that land of green squares and dark forest and carriage contrails and then you naturally avoidedlooking directly at the golden splendor of London your gaze might fall on the Thames valley. On the country houses and mansions andhunting estates that letter the river banks with the names of the great. On one particular estate: an enormous winged square of a house withits own grouse shooting horizons and mazes and herb gardens and markers that indicate it also sprawls into folded interior expanses. Todaythat estate seen from such a height would be adorned with informational banners that could be seen from orbit and tall pleasure cruiserscould be observed docked beside military boats on the river and carriages of all kinds would be cluttering the gravel of its circular drivesand swarming in the sky overhead. A detachment of Horse Guards could be spotted stood at ready at the perimeter.Today youd need much more than a passport to get inside that maze of information and privilege. Because today was a royal wedding.THAT VISION FROM the point of view of someone looking down upon him was what was at the back of Hamiltons mind.But now he was watching the Princess.Her chestnut hair had been knotted high on her head baring her neck a fashion which Hamilton appreciated for its defiance of the Frenchand at an official function too though that gesture wouldnt have been Lizs alone but would have been calculated in the warrens ofWhitehall. She wore white which had made a smile come to Hamiltons lips when hed first seen it in the Cathedral this morning. In thisgigantic function room with its high arched ceiling in which massed dignitaries and ambassadors and dress uniforms orbited from table totable she was the sun about which