how this world was more curved than flat, trying to occupy my mind with something other than the knowledge that I barely existed in whatever world Gale Brisa was seeing.
I think it was that night we did Gale's chapter. She sat between Esner and Tensi, and they talked more about these stories Esner was interested in, all the ones that imagined a variety of futures, everything from inhospitable worlds made hospitable to humans fighting aliens for galactic supremacy, all of it rather depressing when you thought of our situation, ninety-eight or ninety-nine worlds, whatever it was back then, circling the Sun, following the orbit Mars once used when Mars still existed, all of us wondering, in the backs of our minds, which world would go next, what minor error or oversight would cancer-growth into the death of another world, another nine or ten thousand souls, all their stories gone.
Everyone at dinner seemed to be in a good mood, maybe because Esner and Gale were now getting along. It was like we'd all forgotten the kind of things she'd said during the week, or the rest of us didn't add it up until we read the story itself.
Alice lives on Haynlayn back during the time of the Thousand Worlds, and she's lost a father, an aunt, two cousins, and a brother to the war against the Minds. The brother she'd despised until he was declared dead, and now she can only think about how much she misses him. On her worlds tour, she purposely goes to the worlds that have some contact with Minds. Because she's from Haynlayn, the source of conflict with the Minds, she normally would be forbidden entry on certain worlds. But she has a set of forged documents: She has a different last name and a different DNA profile, one more likely to match the gene pools found on Confluence, a Mind-friendly world.
She makes her way around, finds groups of students her age, and on one Mind-friendly world, she ends up joining a group that explores the mystical side of life. They contact the remembered dead who live in Mindspace. One member of the group claims to have communicated with something or someone that claimed to be one of the Minds. Finally Alice makes contact with the Last Ones.
I've sat in library reading chairs. You sometimes watch the other readers. You lose focus when someone laughs out loud or when someone says, Oh, my. However, each person is reading something different: You can only see their external reaction to an internal event unfolding within their skulls. But here, there was a sudden silence; you suddenly knew that everyone had stopped breathing. A chair creaked. Someone had sat up, and I listened to the shifting of the chair and of fabric as they removed the headsets.
"Listen,” Esner said. “You are writers. Not priests. Keep reading."
A set of footsteps receded; a door closed. Some people have to dramatize the level to which they've been offended.
The rest of us stayed with Alice, who was as shocked as we. No one ever talked about the Last Ones, the humans who didn't fight, who didn't flee, but who allowed their minds to be recorded before their actual space was turned into Mindspace. Alice befriends one. He, perhaps she, calls themself Junior. At times Junior takes human form, changing sex and clothes, and sometimes Junior is a pyramid or a sphere; one time he's a dragon.
Alice arranges a private conversation with Junior so no other Last Ones or Minds can eavesdrop. “Help us,” she says. “You can help cause damage. You can help us bring down the Minds."
"Why?” Junior asks.
"Isn't it obvious? The human race is in trouble. They've taken everything. We have no extra resources. No place to grow. They kill us."
"Then don't attack. If you don't attack, they won't kill."
"What's the difference? With nowhere to go, we'll eventually die out."
"You should all come here,” he says. “No one ever need die again."
Despondent, feeling almost lifeless, Alice returns to Haynlayn knowing the coordinates of where the Last Ones live.
I think it was that night we did Gale's chapter. She sat between Esner and Tensi, and they talked more about these stories Esner was interested in, all the ones that imagined a variety of futures, everything from inhospitable worlds made hospitable to humans fighting aliens for galactic supremacy, all of it rather depressing when you thought of our situation, ninety-eight or ninety-nine worlds, whatever it was back then, circling the Sun, following the orbit Mars once used when Mars still existed, all of us wondering, in the backs of our minds, which world would go next, what minor error or oversight would cancer-growth into the death of another world, another nine or ten thousand souls, all their stories gone.
Everyone at dinner seemed to be in a good mood, maybe because Esner and Gale were now getting along. It was like we'd all forgotten the kind of things she'd said during the week, or the rest of us didn't add it up until we read the story itself.
Alice lives on Haynlayn back during the time of the Thousand Worlds, and she's lost a father, an aunt, two cousins, and a brother to the war against the Minds. The brother she'd despised until he was declared dead, and now she can only think about how much she misses him. On her worlds tour, she purposely goes to the worlds that have some contact with Minds. Because she's from Haynlayn, the source of conflict with the Minds, she normally would be forbidden entry on certain worlds. But she has a set of forged documents: She has a different last name and a different DNA profile, one more likely to match the gene pools found on Confluence, a Mind-friendly world.
She makes her way around, finds groups of students her age, and on one Mind-friendly world, she ends up joining a group that explores the mystical side of life. They contact the remembered dead who live in Mindspace. One member of the group claims to have communicated with something or someone that claimed to be one of the Minds. Finally Alice makes contact with the Last Ones.
I've sat in library reading chairs. You sometimes watch the other readers. You lose focus when someone laughs out loud or when someone says, Oh, my. However, each person is reading something different: You can only see their external reaction to an internal event unfolding within their skulls. But here, there was a sudden silence; you suddenly knew that everyone had stopped breathing. A chair creaked. Someone had sat up, and I listened to the shifting of the chair and of fabric as they removed the headsets.
"Listen,” Esner said. “You are writers. Not priests. Keep reading."
A set of footsteps receded; a door closed. Some people have to dramatize the level to which they've been offended.
The rest of us stayed with Alice, who was as shocked as we. No one ever talked about the Last Ones, the humans who didn't fight, who didn't flee, but who allowed their minds to be recorded before their actual space was turned into Mindspace. Alice befriends one. He, perhaps she, calls themself Junior. At times Junior takes human form, changing sex and clothes, and sometimes Junior is a pyramid or a sphere; one time he's a dragon.
Alice arranges a private conversation with Junior so no other Last Ones or Minds can eavesdrop. “Help us,” she says. “You can help cause damage. You can help us bring down the Minds."
"Why?” Junior asks.
"Isn't it obvious? The human race is in trouble. They've taken everything. We have no extra resources. No place to grow. They kill us."
"Then don't attack. If you don't attack, they won't kill."
"What's the difference? With nowhere to go, we'll eventually die out."
"You should all come here,” he says. “No one ever need die again."
Despondent, feeling almost lifeless, Alice returns to Haynlayn knowing the coordinates of where the Last Ones live.
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