Moonbound

by Robin Sloan

“You suggest that the dragons, in their hearts, have a particular preference,” said Kate. “A bias toward … plot.”

If the robot had opened the way with kindness, then they had sealed the deal with the essential glue of friendship: long hours together, doing nothing much.

“No, no,” she said. “Red states Black’s opinion; Black will do the same for Red. And they must both agree that the summary is fair. This is the assurance of an argument in good faith.

The Wyrm’s hard-earned lesson impacting meteor-like in the forty-three-million-dimensional terrain of thought. The ballistic shock of education, which, at its best, provides the realization: life can be different. It does not all need to be cruel effort.

The squires began intensive instruction in dance (they were naturals) and singing (they were not), for Durga now planned the construction of one of the most terrible weapons of the Middle Anth: a boy band.

Real history could only begin now, with choices made not from fear or necessity, but from curiosity and solidarity. These were the engines of the Anth, the foundation stones of the cooperativos. I was ashamed I had ever forgotten. The fearful did not act; the fearful hoped nothing happened at all.