The Terraformers Quotes

“Whistle had a social life that he didn’t tell her about, and she didn’t ask. It was one of many nonverbal agreements they had that made their working relationship deeply amicable and pleasing.”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“We do not make sacrifices, but we do make bargains. Pay attention to the difference. One path leads to a simple death, and the other to a complicated life.”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“When in doubt, don’t kill anyone.”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“Water engineers talked about rivers the same way they talked about people—rivers had desires; they had bodies; they had histories. Maybe they were built of sediment borne by water, but they were alive.”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“Look for what’s there, but most of all, look for the relationships between things. Find the systems”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“One of the reasons Sulfur didn’t date very much was that they couldn’t help falling a little bit in love with anyone who gave them an orgasm. It was exhausting and practically never led anywhere good.”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“How are earthworms going to get on board?” Sulfur asked, half-joking. “Good question. We’ll make sure there’s a way.” Zest looked at the structure with a critical eye. Acorn was confused. “Why would earthworms need transit?” Sulfur arched an eyebrow. “They’re members of the public.” “OK, I’ll put worm accessibility on the list.” With nonchalant acceptance, Acorn saved the audio of their last few seconds of conversation to a local to-do list for the team. “Probably they can use the same ramp as the naked mole rats, but we should check to be sure whether they might need some moist dirt to sit in during the ride.” “Thanks.” Zest sounded surprised but happy. “I wasn’t sure you’d actually do that.” Acorn tilted their head to the side quizzically. “Why wouldn’t we?”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“Misha was clearly working himself up to say more, but Alcohol cut him off, their voice chiming out of the moose avatar. “Don’t you understand yet, H. sapiens? If we make the trains into people, then they can decide for themselves. They can manage themselves. Like the Boring Fleet does.” “Exactly.” Obsidian sat back, satisfied. “Sometimes the best way to handle resources is to perceive when they aren’t resources at all. They are people. Maybe it’s hard for you to understand because everyone in La Ronge is slaved, but that’s what it means to govern. A government’s job is to recognize people, to help them make their own agreements with each other—and if you do your job well, those people become your political allies.”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“Think about it. Why would a company like Emerald want a robust intercity transit system? They don’t want workers to commute elsewhere—and they definitely don’t want it to be easy for tourists to leave and spend cash in La Ronge or Moundville.” As Misha spoke, Sulfur had a vivid image of their not-so-distant future. They could almost hear the words that Verdance would use to make its announcement. We made a good faith effort, they would say. We got transit started and now it’s up to each city to carry on, they would add. And then, because most of the wealthy owners had private transit, there would be endless debates over where to plant those ugly tracks that Cylindra had already rejected. Nobody would want them next to their nice neighborhoods. There would be excuses about how trains messed up the Pleistocene purity of Sasky, but really it would be about not wanting to deal with the class of person who took public transit. Sulfur imagined the tracks slowly softening into mulch while millions of people tried to get around by cobbling together circuitous routes from dozens of local transit systems that each charged a separate fare. And then rich commuters would deal with the problem by building Mounts who couldn’t say whether they consented to be used that way or not.”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“He was right: she’d turned a shit situation into a slurry of blood-flecked diarrhea.”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers

“Private property is the smallest unit of warfare - The Environmental Rescue Team Handbook”
― Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers