Delta-V (Delta-v, #1)

by Daniel Suarez

“It’s a sad fact that some individuals don’t function well in everyday life but excel under extreme circumstances.

Joyce stood several inches taller than the others and had a casual swagger that immediately irritated the shit out of everyone.

“Corporations are not democratic, and yet they rule every aspect of American life. If democracy is so important, why is this the case?”

Space is a goddamned frontier. What’s the use of going to a frontier if it has rules?”

I find the respect of enemies to be sweeter than friendship. And certainly more honest—nobody ever lies about hating

Well, for once in my life, I not only know why I’m here, at this place, I finally know why I exist. I’ve always wondered why I was so odd. What possible evolutionary purpose could a person like me serve? No kids. Focused on my own experiences.” He pressed his hand on the table in emphasis. “This is my purpose. This has always been the purpose of people like us. We blaze trails. We chart oceans. We push back frontiers. Without us, humanity slowly dies.”

It’s sometimes easy to forget that the purpose of life isn’t just to stay alive.”

“All right, I give up, who’s James Caird?” “He was a prosperous textile manufacturer in 1870s Scotland.” “Okay . . . I’m as big a fan of nineteenth-century textile manufacturers as the next guy, but why are we naming our return spacecraft after one?” “Mr. Caird had another small vessel named after him—it was a lifeboat. Ernest Shackleton piloted that lifeboat across 800 miles of Antarctic sea, amid terrible storms, to find a tiny dot of land: South Georgia Island. The journey of the James Caird was considered one of the greatest feats of small-boat navigation in all human history.”