update from sparkleup
This commit is contained in:
parent
2b22c808a7
commit
8b8196e4a6
|
|
@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
|
||||||
<p>“I will be meeting with her soon, yes. We have much to talk about.”</p>
|
<p>“I will be meeting with her soon, yes. We have much to talk about.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>“About the convergence?”</p>
|
<p>“About the convergence?”</p>
|
||||||
<p>She shrugged, a subtle shifting of shadow. “That too, yes, but also, news from Lagrange has been distressing. Much of the clade will be seeking…well, therapy.”</p>
|
<p>She shrugged, a subtle shifting of shadow. “That too, yes, but also, news from Lagrange has been distressing. Much of the clade will be seeking…well, therapy.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>He frowned up to the sky, unable to think of anything to say to that that would not be rude or patronizing.</p>
|
<p>He frowned up to the sky, unable to think of anything to say to that that would not sound rude or patronizing.</p>
|
||||||
<p>“Our cracks are showing,” the skunk continued in a far-away voice. “Growth is colliding with eternal memory, and the cracks are showing.”</p>
|
<p>“Our cracks are showing,” the skunk continued in a far-away voice. “Growth is colliding with eternal memory, and the cracks are showing.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>He nodded, unsure of whether or not she could even see the gesture.</p>
|
<p>He nodded, unsure of whether or not she could even see the gesture.</p>
|
||||||
<p>“Turns out getting invited on a thousand year voyage with a bunch of aliens induces a whole lot of growth <em>really fast,</em>” she said, voice brightening. “So I will be dealing with that. But come, if I share any more of my weaknesses, I will lose all of my hard-won respect. How do you feel about how things went?”</p>
|
<p>“Turns out getting invited on a thousand year voyage with a bunch of aliens induces a whole lot of growth <em>really fast,</em>” she said, voice brightening. “So I will be dealing with that. But come, if I share any more of my weaknesses, I will lose all of my hard-won respect. How do you feel about how things went?”</p>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
|
||||||
<p>He winced. “I was wondering how that’d go.”</p>
|
<p>He winced. “I was wondering how that’d go.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>“Rough,” she said after a moment. “As soon as I got back to Castor, I immediately felt better, but no less tired. My memories of my time aboard Artemis are only just barely coherent. They are fractured and scattered. I could tell a clear story of our time there from start to finish, but much beyond that eludes me still.”</p>
|
<p>“Rough,” she said after a moment. “As soon as I got back to Castor, I immediately felt better, but no less tired. My memories of my time aboard Artemis are only just barely coherent. They are fractured and scattered. I could tell a clear story of our time there from start to finish, but much beyond that eludes me still.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>Tycho set aside his empty glass and stretched out on the grass, laying on his back once more, arms crossed beneath his head. “I was worried about that, yeah. I can’t speak to the ease of merging, but I’m glad you made it through all the same.”</p>
|
<p>Tycho set aside his empty glass and stretched out on the grass, laying on his back once more, arms crossed beneath his head. “I was worried about that, yeah. I can’t speak to the ease of merging, but I’m glad you made it through all the same.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>He could hear the grin in her voice as she said, “I am pleased to hear that. The distance between “we are coworkers and should act as such” and “I don’t actually like you but have to tolerate you” is rather small, and I could not tell which it was with you.”</p>
|
<p>He could hear the grin in her voice as she said, “I am pleased to hear that. The distance between “we are coworkers and should act as such while at work” and “I don’t actually like you but have to tolerate you” is rather small, and I could not tell which it was with you.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>“I like you,” he said, laughing at her easy humor. “You’re a little terrifying, but I respect you.”</p>
|
<p>“I like you,” he said, laughing at her easy humor. “You’re a little terrifying, but I respect you.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>“Doubly pleased, then.”</p>
|
<p>“Doubly pleased, then.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>“How do you feel things went?”</p>
|
<p>“How do you feel things went?”</p>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -89,18 +89,18 @@
|
||||||
<p>“I don’t think it matters,” he said after a long pause.</p>
|
<p>“I don’t think it matters,” he said after a long pause.</p>
|
||||||
<p>“No?”</p>
|
<p>“No?”</p>
|
||||||
<p>“No. Even if they’re a dream, I’ll join them. Even if this was all a dream, I’m happy to have been a part of it.”</p>
|
<p>“No. Even if they’re a dream, I’ll join them. Even if this was all a dream, I’m happy to have been a part of it.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>“And have you any further thoughts on uploading as the stage of civilization most likely to breach the Great Filter?” She sounded earnest, almost excited. “I must confess that the thought has been lingering in the back of my mind since our last conversation here. Old sci-fi dreams dog me still.”</p>
|
<p>“And have you any further thoughts on uploading as the stage of civilization most likely to breach the Great Filter?” She sounded earnest, almost excited. It made him happy to hear, made him excited in turn. “I must confess that the thought has been lingering in the back of my mind since our last conversation here. Old sci-fi dreams dog me still.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>“Oh, definitely feeling like I’m stuck in some crazy science fiction novel,” he said. “Uploading, furries, launch vehicles, and now aliens? At this point, why not? It makes as much sense as any of this.”</p>
|
<p>“Oh, definitely feeling like I’m stuck in some crazy science fiction novel,” he said. “Uploading, furries, launch vehicles, and now aliens? At this point, why not? It makes as much sense as any of this.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>She chuckled. “Well said, my dear.”</p>
|
<p>She chuckled. “Well said, my dear.”</p>
|
||||||
<p>When next she spoke, True Name sounded almost as dreamy as he had, her voice holding the subtle cadence of a recitation. “Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life; But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still To the service of our science: you will further it? You will!”</p>
|
<p>When next she spoke, True Name sounded almost as dreamy as he had, her voice holding the subtle cadence of a recitation. “Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life; But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still To the service of our science: you will further it? You will!”</p>
|
||||||
<p>He spent a moment searching the perisystem architecture for the poem True Name had been quoting from since he first met her, the one with the lines that he knew he would speak before he left, but was not yet ready to.</p>
|
<p>He spent a moment searching the perisystem architecture for the poem True Name had been quoting from since he first met her, the one with the lines that he knew he would speak before he left, but was not yet ready to.</p>
|
||||||
<p><em>That is a poem about death,</em> she had said, all those weeks — and yet so few! — ago, and as he prowled through the lines, he could see how it was that she had interpreted it, how she had seen in the words the danger of being left incomplete in one’s goals, of the risk of not being able to see something through to the end.</p>
|
<p><em>That is a poem about death,</em> she had said, all those weeks — and yet so few! — ago, and as he prowled through the lines, he could see how it was that she had interpreted it, how she had seen in the words the danger of being left incomplete in one’s goals, of the risk of not being able to see something through to the end.</p>
|
||||||
<p>He was nothing if not a scientist, though, and although her reading, as one who dreamed in her own ways, was as accurate as his, he knew he had his own understanding of leaving a work unfinished so that others could pick it up. That was his dream, the dream of so many calm, cold scientists before him. It was a different take on the same dream, perhaps; where True Name might see regret in that error of calmest coldness, he saw only the comforting truth of his later science.</p>
|
<p>He was nothing if not a scientist, though, and although her reading, as one who dreamed in her own ways, was as accurate as his, he knew he had his own understanding of leaving a work unfinished so that others could pick it up. That was his dream, the dream of so many calm, cold scientists before him. It was a different take on the same dream, perhaps; where True Name might see regret in that error of calmest coldness, he saw only the comforting truth of his later science.</p>
|
||||||
<p>Or perhaps that coldness was her own, and for that he could not fault her regret, only wish her the best, only further his service to his science.</p>
|
<p>Or perhaps that coldness was her own, and for that he could not fault her regret, only wish her the best in finding future warmth, only further his service to his science.</p>
|
||||||
<p><em>We will dream of stars,</em> Stolon had said, and he knew they would.</p>
|
<p><em>We will dream of stars,</em> Stolon had said, and he knew they would.</p>
|
||||||
</article>
|
</article>
|
||||||
<footer>
|
<footer>
|
||||||
<p>Page generated on 2022-03-06</p>
|
<p>Page generated on 2022-03-16</p>
|
||||||
</footer>
|
</footer>
|
||||||
</main>
|
</main>
|
||||||
<script type="text/javascript">
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue