Bandwidth (Analog #1)

by Eliot Peper

You had her, he said. You just needed to let her decide it was her idea. Never sell past the close.

I work because it’s the best game on the planet, and I’m fucking good at it. This stuff is just a side effect.

Sean was supportive, not transactional,

nobody really knew what they were doing.

Everyone imagined their political opponents to be infallible leviathans who ruled with ruthless efficiency and relentless execution.

But few plots survived contact w...

forcing him to acknowledge the cost of his studied detachment.

Choosing not to care might mitigate the risk of pain, but in doing so it destroyed the capacity for joy, for finding meaning.

But if you chose to love instead of fear, the spoils lost all meaning.

We are the stories we tell ourselves.

The way you looked at the world manifested what you saw in it.

was time to get beyond that and figure out what true generosity meant.

Diana was a nut. But she came through. Every time.

Fermenting inside Dag was something that had more in common with nostalgia,

fleeting glimpse of wondrous beauty momentarily restored.

If he was going to die today, at least he’d gotten laid last night.

Stop that.

Stay focused.

Make it to the next moment, and then the ...

Retrieving the syrup and buttermilk, he set off to make the best damn pancakes a certain girl with tousled hair and sleepy eyes had ever tasted.