Planetfall

I’m not going to let that stupid, crazy woman convince everyone that doing this to me is God’s work! She’s just bored and if they knew—

He doesn’t answer. I can’t stand these little silences from him. They’re too loud.

As a scientist, I know this is madness. But I also know this is an act of faith.

There’s no sound except the wildlife staking out territories and calling for a mate. The sounds are different here than on Earth, but the purpose seems the same. “This is my patch!” they scream. “I want sex! Come and shag me! I’ll give you strong babies.” It’s the same stuff humans say most of the time. We just dress those needs up in fancier linguistic clothes.

That was the second major lie I told that week. It gets easier, in some ways; now I lie without expending any effort. But I think each one has its own weight. One alone may barely register, like a grain of sand in the palm of one’s hand. But soon enough there’s more than can be held and they start to slip through our grasp if we’re not careful.

I’m always careful.

I think that interpreting events as signs from God is a slippery slope.

Once you let someone into the building it’s harder to keep them out of all the rooms.

There may be only a thousand or so people here, but it’s easy enough to make the pressure of conformity irresistible. Hell, sometimes we only need one other person to make us fall into line.

These are intelligent, rational people and they just absorb all this shit without even thinking about it. Are they so desperate to hold on to something that they’ll ignore the facts? How long can they do that?

“Do you agree with her?”

His face crumples with concentration. “I don’t know. She says me arriving when I did is a sign. But I decided to come here because of the storm. Does that mean God killed everyone I knew to make me do that?”

Saying it’s a sign from God is an interpretation, not a fact.

The simple truth emerges like a bubble of swamp gas and just as foul.

One should never break a sacred law when under the influence of psychoactive substances.

It’s no easier to climb down than it is to go up. It just torments a different set of muscles.

Guilt sometimes comes from stupid places.

I think “majority” is one of my least favorite words. It’s so often used to justify bad decisions.

He’s trying to get me to confess some fictional problem to him and I won’t fall for it.