The Long Game (The Far Reaches, #4)

by Ann Leckie

I’m bigger than anybody else I’ve ever met. Well, except the humans, but, I mean, humans. They’re not exactly people, right? I don’t know what they are.

“I’m supposed to protect you from . . . from exploitation. But . . .” They made that windy, blowing sound again. “We got here, found you. And we found, not just life, but intelligent life. Not that the company cared about that—or even the government. But word got back to earth that not only was there intelligent life here, but it was squishy knee-high creatures in pretty colors that ate plants, and so it became a question of publicity.”

“The humans have a thing they call the long game. Most humans, just like people, are usually just thinking of today. What can they eat today? How can they stay safe today? But then sometimes they’re thinking way ahead, thinking of things too big for them to do here and now. It’s how they’ve done things like go into the sky or read the instructions of life.”