Alien Clay

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Whatever the minutiae of the desiccation process, I suspect in most cases defiance doesn’t survive rehydration.

A final irony, the career academic ending his life as a lesson.

“You don’t want this unpleasant circumstance we’re forcing on you? Then you’re obviously in favour of this absurdly exaggerated opposite we’ve just invented.”

“You don’t want these laws? Then you must want rampant anarchy!” was the one you saw trotted out most often. And with a good enough speaker that kind of argument, shouted from the enshrined pulpit of Mandate-approved media, can sound very persuasive, mostly because there’s never anyone there to argue back.

I have a dizzy moment thinking about these distances, these travel times. They don’t fit in human minds.