Translation State

by Ann Leckie

“You know, your genes aren’t your destiny. You in particular. You have what you have, whatever you were born with, but you get to decide what to do with that. There’s nobody telling you what those genes mean, what they’re supposed to make you.”

“You have only small and seemingly pointless choices available to you. But if there is anything I have been trying to teach you, it is that small actions can have larger consequences. If one has only small choices available, one must be patient, and canny.”

“You can feel sorry for yourself later. I’ll help you. We’ll have tea and dumplings and cry. I promise. Sometimes it’s good to cry. And I don’t want to tell you not to feel what you’re feeling, you have every reason to feel it. But right now we have to get out of here. We have to at least try.”