Charles E. Gannon

“In the face of crisis, I will choose unauthorized action over disastrous inaction.”

“Weiner-Kutkh waved airily. “I seem to have been born lucky.”“Said every cheater who’s ever lived,” Caine retorted.”

“When such leaders act in opposition to their sworn duties, they compound injustice with disgrace.”

“Human, do you derive some strange pleasure by using different words to reiterate the same misperceptions?”

““It is in the nature of social creatures to crave approval and approbation, to build a temple out of what they have told themselves they are and must be.”Oduosslun stared at Riordan. “Reject that reflex. Reject the simplistic narrative. Reject the opiating allure of presuming you know your own destiny. Rather, embrace the ineluctable truth that you are not preordained saviors in the midst of a mythic cycle, any more than we were the guardians and guarantors of civilization. Like us, you are simply another species living out the consequences of what came before.””

““Whatever destiny we assign to ourselves also defines our doom. It is there, lurking, waiting, from the instantiation of sentience. It is the antipodal defect of the virtue we call ‘foresight.’””

“Riordan almost smiled. “You sound like another historian I know.”“Historian?” She stiffened. “I am an observer. I do not claim to convey a unified story, just the pieces for which I have data.””

“It was the oldest, most primal fear of humankind, inculcated by eons of brutal lessons which, titrated down into their purest form, became age’s invariable advice to youth: beware the things and places you do not know.Because out there, beyond the flickering ring of the tribal fire, on the unlit streets of concrete cities, in the unending depths of space—there lay an unquantifiable, unbounded potential for death.”

““Aren’t you even going to wish me luck?”“We do not believe in luck, Caine Riordan. However, I wish enlightenment unto you. In every passing second.””

“Whose tutelage led you into those fishless waters?”

“Stupid creatures tend to be stubborn creatures.”

“I guess that, living in a sanitized world, you’ve forgotten this basic lesson: if you want to stay free or stay alive, never play by your opponent’s rules. Particularly when your opponent is more powerful than you are. Do the unexpected. Turn on your pursuer. Attack the attacker.”

“Riordan surveyed the scene again. Knowing that it could not be other than perfect made it seem less remarkable, much in the way a constructed vista in a theme park could never quite compare with a less perfect one discovered in nature. This was merely a technological achievement, and the price of its perpetual perfection was its inability to inspire a sense of grandeur.”

““Is Glamqoozht just a place name or does it mean something?”“It translates imperfectly as Council Hub.”Riordan was guardedly hopeful. “Sounds like it’s a place to get questions answered and decisions made.” Unless, of course, it was like human capitals.”

“These matters should incite more urgent investigation than the technology you arrogated from your attackers. But like most primitive cultures, your reflex is one of stimulus and response: to focus entirely on the issues and actions of the moment.”

““You mean, control my instincts?”“No, most of your species can learn to do that. The true challenge is whether you can control your predisposition to assume moral equivalencies where none exist.””

“You are impetuous. But then again, you are human.”

“Your conjecture is reasonable but inaccurate.”

““Damn it, Dad. You make me crazy.”“That’s part of my job as a parent. If I read the manual correctly.””

“The reality, both now and historically, was that whatever the future held, change was always uneven in distribution and irregular in timing.”