Emma Newman

It’s the first rule of any change to a licensing agreement: it’s not for the benefit of the end user, no matter what they say.

She speaks with the authority of the ignorant.

I often expect the worst. This is one of the rare times when I’m hoping for it.

All too easy to find the needle when you know exactly where to look in the haystack.

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?”