‘No need,’ Nicola said. ‘I saw some of these shells being – grown. Once you have starlight and a Xeelee flower, with a little skill to the shaping as it grows you can make anything. The Ghosts are masters of the stuff, even if they are as much in awe of the Xeelee as we are.’
‘And inside these pods? You said the Ghosts were collecting samples. Of what? Have you seen one opened?’
She shook her head. ‘Don’t need to. I can see inside – see through hull plate.’ She turned to the pods with those silvered eyes. ‘I told you. The Ghosts gave me senses beyond the human. Another ambiguous gift. And the stuff inside these pods would be invisible to you, but not to me. I can see them. Lying inside these pods . . .’ She raised her silvered face, as if to a sky. ‘And more of them out in the Galaxy. Gathered in a thick plane in the disc, like a bank of mist – and huge, shining structures out in the halo. Tangled towers.’
Asher evidently recognised the descriptions. She said, a little wildly, ‘Dark matter? Are you seeing dark matter? That sounds like the observations the Gea crew reported, before the mutiny. But they had super-capable neutrino telescopes, and other gear. How is it even possible for you to just see it?’
Nicola shrugged. ‘Ask the Ghosts. I think I must be “seeing” gravity waves, somehow . . . or possibly hearing them. The frequencies are about right, aren’t they? Seems a minor miracle compared to the hyperdrive, for instance. But, yes, they can see dark matter. And now, so can I.’ She looked at Jophiel. ‘Which ought to give you a clue about what they’ve got in those pods, Poole.’
-Xeelee: Redemption, Ch. 20