Anathem

by Neal Stephenson

He turned around and raised his chin to gaze up at the crag. It was glowing ruby red. This was not a normal thing for it to be doing.

after a while, she said: “Do you need transportation? Tools? Stuff?” “Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs,” I said. “We have a protractor.” “Okay, I’ll go home and see if I can scrounge up a ruler and a piece of string.” “That’d be great.”

A white streak sliced heaven in half, moving west to east, and ending, with no loss of speed, in the caldera of the volcano a few thousand feet above us. In the moment before the sound reached us, Orolo remarked, “Clever. They don’t trust their aim enough to score a perfect hit on the probe. But they know enough geology to—” After that I could not hear anything for half an hour. Hearing was worse than useless; I was sorry I’d been born with ears.