We have all made mistakes. The mark of intelligence is to learn from them, and not be bound by the errors of… — Alastair Reynolds

Believe me, Kanu—the one thing you don’t do in emergencies is think things through. Thinking things through gets you a headstone and a nice epitaph. She thought things through. See how that worked out for her.

“And when do we abandon negotiation and start hitting each other with increasingly large sticks?” Ru said.

“Only when we’ve exhausted all the other options,” Vasin said.

The sense of squandered possibility, of better paths now lost to them all, filled him with a sudden rising sadness. He wondered if it was too late to make something better of their world.