The Last Emperox (The Interdependency, #3)

by John Scalzi

“The fact you are trying to reduce a civil war to ‘she started it’ does not fill me with confidence,”

“It’s the end of civilization as we know it. And it’s going to be great for business.

Admittedly Kiva’s philosophy of pragmatic, committed selfishness wouldn’t work as well for just about anyone else as it had for her, but fuck them, they weren’t Kiva.

Either she was going to have to become less fundamentally selfish, or she was going to have to find a way to make others less so.

She was doing it for herself. Doing things (and Senia) for herself was working out great for everyone.

the ruling class of the Interdependency, favoring financial and social stability over having the lumpenproletariat trying to rip their heads from their necks at every opportunity, opted to have the Interdependency’s baseline standard of living one where no one starved, or was without shelter, or died of easily preventable diseases or went bankrupt if they had a heart attack or lost a job, or both.

Everyone knew what was coming. Some even prepared and planned. But at the end of it, everyone assumed that something or someone would come along to save the civilization that they lived in and could not conceive of actually disappearing. Something or someone would come along to save them. They would be saved, along with everyone else. It was a nice thought. It wasn’t true.

They both came away from the meeting feeling like they had manipulated the other precisely, which meant it was a good meeting.

Lies do not in themselves lead to poor outcomes, nor does truth in every circumstance lead to good ones. As with so many things, context matters.”

“It’s funny to me that when people fuck up, they think ‘it was just business’ is in any way a defense,”

“Well, Captain Robinette. This ship has three airlocks. You get to pick.”

The voyage back to Xi’an took eight days, and a thousand years.

Robinette unexpectedly experiencing a natural death (which was not technically incorrect, as the vacuum of space is a natural phenomenon),

“She said that we could all fuck ourselves with a rented dick. The same rented dick.” “That’s my mom,” Kiva said. “I really thought it was just you who had that whole profanity tic.” “Nope. It’s a family thing.” “It’s not an attractive family trait.” “It’s a better one than murdering family members and anyone else that gets in your way.” “I suppose I walked into that, didn’t I.” “You sure fucking did.”

“My mother did this?” “Would you put it past her?” “No, I would not,” Kiva said. “My mother’s fucking awesome.”

The last emperox stepped up to the chancel of the cathedral, where Nadashe Nohamapetan now stood, and stopped directly in front of her. “Bitch, you’re in my spot,” said Kiva Lagos.

Fuck. Yes. I love you, Scalzi.

“Thank you for staying alive, by the way. If you were dead I would have had to make Marce the emperox.” “You’re welcome. Because he would have been shit at the job.” “I know.” “And also, fuck you for dying, Grayland. Now I have to do this shitty job.”

I’m glad you have Senia, Kiva.” “I’m glad too,” Kiva said. “Although that was fucking unexpected.” “Love often is,” Grayland said.