There had been a human soul in that skull only a few hours earlier, and now no authority in the universe… — Alastair Reynolds

There had been a human soul in that skull only a few hours earlier, and now no authority in the universe could bring her back. We were like monkeys sitting around a fire that had just extinguished, wondering why the warmth and light had gone away.

p. 307Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0