Some Desperate Glory

This chapter consists of excerpts from two fictional books: Communication: A Human History by S. Lopor and Reflections on the Human Question by Isia Mlo-Samar. The former discusses how most humans will slip out of T-standard and into their dialect. However, the soldiers at Gaea Station only speak T-standard as a way to “erase individual cultural identities” (162).

The latter discusses the human idea of honor. The example used is Admiral Russell saving enemies from Station IV before it fell into Gyssono’s twin stars. Humans who don’t approve of the extremism of Gaea Station live in the Gyssono stations with the native sinnet alien population.

Kyr feels alone now, as she never felt on Gaea. She goes to Hfa’s Research Outpost and finds it guarded by drones that look like bees. She tests them by throwing a rock; one investigates while the others close the gap. Kyr destroys a bee, and the others come to investigate. She abandons the dead bee and runs around its fellows to enter the outpost. There is a tunnel inside made of pearly material. Kyr climbs down.

She keeps climbing until she is exhausted, but she doesn’t reach the floor. She tries climbing sideways and finds a floor.