Translation State

by Ann Leckie

The Radch was an enormous, multisystem empire, far enough away that no one here in Saeniss Polity felt immediately threatened by them—

it will involve travel, and a per diem on top of your wages. On top of your existing allowance, which

Haha sweet.

“Honestly,

12 times - a tic? Better than ‘smirked’

Haven’t you ever wanted to leave here?” Sie had always wanted to leave here.

Haha. See p. 38: What Enae wanted to do was stay here, …. What Enae wanted to do was leave here….

Zeosen

Rurusk Station

Reet

Haha

Mr Hluid,”

Schan,

Keroxane System,

Lovehate Station

The Hikipi

Phen oppressors!”

suddenly struck with the disturbingly appealing vision of stepping forward, grabbing this man by the neck, and biting into his cheek, teeth sinking into flesh.

Reet imagined peeling off the man’s skin,

Haha simile ewww

What would he see?

the Schans,

Heroth Nadkal,

the disturbingly attractive images of skinless Nadkal

Haha

Reet’s family name—the parents who had adopted him—belonged to what most Zeoseni would consider the wrong ethnic group.

Come to our next meeting, Mr Schan, and discover what it is to be part of a community.

Haha

the sloth tax,

Odd. He was more than odd. There was something wrong with him.

Hikipi,

most Hikipi practiced Madeb Chenala rather than Del-tai Chenala, which was the majority Chenala sect on Rurusk;

the Schans?

There were seven Zones, each with its Autarch, all of whom answered to the Sovereign Autarch, who was, for six hundred years, a Schan.

(That small, surely legendary bit of information made Reet shiver with recognition.)

If the Schans had changed themselves, genetically marked themselves somehow as different from everyone else on Lovehate Station, might their descendants seem… strange to the people around them?

their place of origin,

Where is that? Question

the persistent urge to vivisect other people.

Haha. Where did that come from? And why? Question

None of us is wasted.

they make a few extras. Just in case.

you’re an extra.

fascinated by what might be inside those around you.

Walls, where there might be rooms, opened when you might want a door.

The growths in the wide places—

You wouldn’t think private disdain would communicate itself so clearly to us,

the ground gaped and cilia pulled the screaming, sobbing Middle away.

Out of the Middles, then, and into the Edges.

I never thought to measure time as it flowed past, never looked ahead to any future that might have been different from the present,

Haha

Or else they’re a Failed and can’t even do the thing they were meant for.”

“Excrete into the special excretion receptacles!” I went on. “Sleep on the sleeping furniture! And never, ever open anyone up.”

Haha

Each role is necessary and noble, part of our great work, and we will all be happy and fulfilled.

It’s all a lie.