Redemption Ark

There were choices to be made, harder choices than I would have liked, and I realised that I had been neglecting them because of their very difficulty.

And even if what they showed you is true, that doesn’t begin to make it right. The cause might be just, Felka, but history’s littered with atrocities committed in the name of righteousness.

Clavain saw it all with sudden, heart-stopping clarity: all that mattered was the here and now. All that mattered was survival. Sentience that bowed down and accepted its own extinction—no matter what the long-term arguments, no matter how good the greater cause—was not the kind of sentience he was interested in preserving.

They had been in love, desperately in love, but the universe cared nothing for the vicissitudes of the human heart.

She would worry, just as you worry. It’s the people who don’t worry—those who never have any doubts that what they’re doing is good and right—they’re the ones that cause the problems.

He had never lost that mingled combination of awe and terror that welled up in him when confronted by the routinely huge distances of space.

But make no mistake. My counterpart is capable of a great deal of ruthlessness in pursuit of a just cause. He believes he has right on his side. And men who think they have right on their side are always the most dangerous sort.

I don’t question your loyalty, Skade. I just wonder exactly what it is you’re loyal to.

Don’t overestimate your familiarity with technologies you barely understand. It could be your undoing.

It was one of the oldest tricks of mob-management: give them a hate figure.

In Clavain’s experience, it was the less comforting possibility that generally turned out to be the case. It was the way the universe worked.