Status Updates From Shroud

“That was some high-level thinking. Or it would be, in a human…Our xenobiology primers cautioned against imputing actual intelligence to any aliens we might discover, merely on account of complicated things they…do. Of course, Concern doctrine was very focused on resource extraction…there was always a good commercial use-case for minimizing the potential rights of whoever’s environment you were destroying.”

“‘You are in danger of a demerit when we make contact with the Garveneer though.’ ‘Director,’ Ste Etienne said frankly, ‘if we ever see the inside of the Garveneer again it will be because of me…you will personally carry me around…on your shoulders you’ll be so fucking grateful.’ I actually held my breath. Despite everything…I was still enough of a slave to my socialization to be horrified.”

“‘Right then.’ Ste Etienne still sounded calm, in a situation where calmness was surely insanity, and ranting and shrieking should have been the norm. It was only her presence that stopped me howling like a wounded animal, honestly. Only the discovery that sheer social embarrassment was apparently a stronger driver for me than fear of death.”

My power of reading is too weak to conquer this narration but I’ll be back stronger than never before…to this book…or author…in my native language.