“I’m not a bad man, Ilia. I’m just someone who knows exactly what needs to be done.” “Like you said, always… — Alastair Reynolds

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.

Volyova did not like planets at the best of times, and gas giants struck her as an unreasonable affront to human scale and frailty. In that respect, they were almost as bad as stars.

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.