Especially simultaneous landings
What’s for dinner?
Ants will carry avocado pieces inside the robot and build nests.....
Holy guacamole!................................
Californian or Mexican avacados?
I wish I’d known this. I have some ants I need to get rid of. Blasting them into space sounds fun.
I bet ol’ senor Bezos is just itching to sue some more.
Paging Kent Brockman
I look forward to the shipment that accidentally brings cockroaches to the station. They will never be rid of them.
Especially simultaneous landings
A Shortfall of Gravitas
—
Misnamed
Is actually a General Contact Unit (no Class mentioned) in “Look to Windward” and “Matter” called ‘Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall’. GCUs often visit Earth when Special Circumstance personnel need a vacation, or to exchange goods with the Space Force’s X-37B.
(GCUs) are around 20km in size, are fast, independent, general-purpose vessels which the Culture’s Contact group uses for diplomacy, espionage, subversion and sabotage. The Culture has no policy of non-interference and, often tries to change the course of civilizations of whose behavior it disapproves or which it considers in need of advancement ; typically have a crew of Contact members, numbering around 300.
GCUs’ Minds are sometimes somewhat eccentric ; in the early stages of a conflict, GCUs are able to act as warships until GOU (General Offensive Units) and ROU (Rapid Offensive Unit) types become available. Because the Culture is more advanced than most other spacefaring civilizations, GCUs are usually very effective in combat.
As for Iain, despite his brilliance in reporting on conditions in this corner of our Galaxy from 1331 AD to near Present, was an ardent believer in some sort of idealized communism which is reflected in the society of the Culture. Nothing like what we know as communism. He died several years ago of complications due to AIDS.