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I realized what I really missed was the physical Earth, the natural beauty of it. What I didn’t miss was humanity’s desire to destroy it.”
if they know we’re here then they will find out. And then they will come and they will simply take it. Do not underestimate the greed of humanity.
But to endure like this, knowing what was happening to her, was a slow descent into a tortured insanity. In the end, there is no more terrifying a place than your own mind.
they were indeed, truly human. They might be clones, they might have been subservient, but scratch the surface and, underneath it all, they still possessed the same violent instincts. All it needed was the spark, and the ugly side of humanity would ignite.
“What do they know?” “That’s not really the problem, it’s what people are speculating that’s the problem.”
this could get very messy. The people that come will be non-state, well funded and probably well armed. Any so-called Outer Space Treaty laws that exist will be torn up and burned. They will fight each other for this knowledge, they will fight us for it and if we don’t, or can’t, give it to them they will simply experiment on us until they find it—or we’re all dead. Make no mistake, Nills, a battle is coming. A battle for control of Mars.”
Jann had often said to him. You’re too nice. Nills. You believe that humans are genuinely good. But in my experience, everybody wants something, and it's generally not your well being. He found it hard to be that cynical, even if there was a grain of truth in it.
She thought of home, of her father’s farm. How she longed to walk the hills again, in the fresh clean air, with no need for EVA suits and life support. All the things the Earthlings took for granted. They didn’t know how good they had it, always wanting to go one step beyond. How she would love to swim in a lake again, like when she was a kid. Those were happier times. How she missed them, the simple things: air, water, grass—and family. All gone now, no one left but her.
once the media get you in their sights you’re no longer a human being, you’re just a story, and they’ll milk it for all they can get—then spit you out, a spent husk, nothing left of you to matter to anyone.”
“Life is politics, Mia. Anywhere you get more than two people together, there’s politics. It’s the consequence of being a species that can communicate.”
that’s the thing about politics. Either you’re playing the game, or it’s playing you.”
And that’s what it was, the extermination of an entire population of people. When she thought about it in those terms, she realized it was not so unique. How many times in human history was the fate of one group determined by the hate of another? Why? For what reason?
She had seen the headline in the paper a few days earlier and she reached out to help me. Can you imagine what it must take for someone to do that, Jann?” Jann shook her head gently. “I had taken away her little girl and yet she had it within her to try and help me. I could totally understand if she despised me. In my mind she had a right. Not like the others who simply hate for ratings, or worse, for entertainment. No, she had the right, and she chose not to.” Mia stopped and brushed a tear from her eye. Then she held up the pendant again.
the devil makes work for idle minds, and soon the main population centers were awash with rumor and counter-rumor,
all the people wanted to do was protest, occupy, riot, and cause as much mayhem as possible—as if this would somehow save them. It was madness,
Now was the time for society to pull together and work for the greater good, for their very survival. Instead, fear and paranoia had taken over,
"It’s hard to believe when all I see is the slow, steady breakdown of society. How all sense of human decency gets jettisoned as soon as the shit hits the fan. I'll be honest, Poe...sometimes I truly despair for humanity."
Those guys that attacked you are morons. They soak up all the bullshit that they hear without thinking. Not much up here."
"The side of the people who live and work here on this planet. The ordinary people who're simply trying to survive. Not the corporations who just see us as pawns in some power game, as bargaining chips—or worse, as simply disposable." He jabbed an index finger at her. "That side. That's the one we're on."
siphoning off essential supplies, undermining our very survival. How many people have died in systems failures that could have been prevented if the new components were available?"
For the people of this sector, their greatest fear was that they just didn't matter. They didn’t trust Montecristo's slow takeover of power, seeing them as duplicitous and motivated solely by the advancement of the corporation they represented. They feared that as soon Montecristo gained control, the people of this sector would be expendable, nothing more than an inconvenient roadblock to the mercantile ambitions of the corporation. As for Jezero, the MLOD, and the institutions of law and order, they saw them as the willing levers of power that the corporation sought to assimilate and
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What should have been a battle to get the truth out, to reveal the perfidy of Montecristo, had now become simply a battle for survival. And what of Jezero? she thought. What was their role in all of this? Mia pondered these questions as the moment of confrontation drew ever closer. She had known from day one that the MLOD here in Syrtis were not on her side. But Jezero? These were her people, her tribe. She could not believe that they would desert her now, in her hour of need.
When there is seemingly no hope, only a steady slide into extinction, the citizens will eventually start to get angry. Very, very angry.
