The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency, #2)

by John Scalzi

Hey, you know what, basing an entire system of social, political and economic control on the vague, all-too-easily misinterpreted words of a single person claiming divine inspiration is probably not actually all that smart, now, is it.

The cynical would say that the church, so well integrated as it was into the imperial system, was just another lever of control, but Lenson was also aware that the cynical could afford the luxury of their cynicism because of the stability of the system they mocked.

These visions prophesied both the creation and the necessity of that far-reaching empire of human settlements, strung out across light-years of space, connected only by the Flow, the metacosmological structure that humans compared to a river. They thought of it as a river mostly because human brains, originally designed for hauling their asses across the African savannah and not much upgraded since then, literally could not comprehend what it actually was, so, fine, “river” it was.

Nadashe may have been a traitor, but she had decent manners.

“Lord Teran has a point,” Ranatunga said, and Korbijn, for one, respected Ranatunga for being able to say that without stroking out.

It would be another 277 days before the final surviving crew member, a cargo handler named Jayn Brisfelt, would record a lengthy testimonial of the last, extraordinarily depressing days of the Child and her crew, before he would then go to the security office, obtain a sidearm, retire to one of the crew lounges, put on one of his favorite comedies, and then shoot himself mid-laugh during his favorite part of the story. The testimonial, recorded on a tablet, would be unseen and unheard by any other living thing. The tablet itself, whose internal battery would drain within two years, would lose the ability to function fifty years later even if it had been charged. The Child itself would be a cold, powerless husk within ten years. It would never be found by humans or any other intelligent creatures, if there were any. It would drift between the stars for twenty million years before being gravitationally snagged by a passing red dwarf star, which it would orbit for another six million years in a comet-like path before falling into the star and vaporizing into its constituent atoms.

Well that’s dark as hell

The Church of the Interdependency and other religions found their places of worship jammed, as the faithful, the newly faithful and the not-actually-at-all-faithful-but-this-is-some-weird-shit-and-I’m-hedging-my-bets came in and, depending on experience, prayed, meditated or wondered what it was exactly they were supposed to do now that they were there.

I might as well ask you what you would do if Grayland announced she was abolishing breakfast.” “I’m pro-breakfast.”

Maybe you should actually pay attention to what they’re saying to you, that one annoying voice in her head said. You can moon after the boy later. Cardenia made a note to try to find that voice later and strangle it, possibly with alcohol.

“That’s the point of rumors. They’re not based on anything, so nothing is very effective against them. Truth is no defense, and the people fielding these rumors know it.”

“Wait, you want to use this ship to get back to the Interdependency?” Chenevert said. “I can’t do that. I don’t have a field generator.” They all stared at him. “I’m joking,” he said. “Of course I do.” “We need to talk about your sense of humor,” Marce said, after he and every other human in the room recovered from their mini heart attacks. “Being semi-dead seems to have affected it.” “It was like this before,” Chenevert said. “How do you think I died?”

Confidence isn’t about knowing you’re right. Confidence is about knowing you can make it right.

Not everyone could be an adventurous bang. Not everyone needed to be an adventurous bang.

Each of you who were invited today were told that your service to the Interdependency would be recognized. And now it will be. My dear friends, I will make this simple. In this room, right now, if you are standing in front of me, you are now under arrest for treason.” There was a bang as all the ballroom doors were kicked open and armed imperial guards flooded the perimeter of the room, and also formed a line directly in front of the lectern, just in case anyone was stupid enough to try to charge the emperox.

Bad ass

“You have doubted me. Doubt me no longer. You have come to destroy me. I am not destroyed. You have come to burn me. I am the consuming fire. You will feel what it is to burn.