Hot Shot.

You do understand: It has to be your choice.

They never stopped telling me I was free to leave. They told me while they were still wrangling asteroids out past Mars; they told me as they chewed through those rocks like steel termites, bored out caverns and tunnels, layered in forests and holds and life-support systems rated for a longer operational lifespan than the sun itself. They really laid it on after that L2 fiasco, when the singularity imploded during final testing. Not a whisper of cancelling the project — even though the magic upon which the hole thing rested had just eaten half the factory floor and a quarter of the propulsion team — but in the wake of that tragedy they seemed to think it especially important to remind me of the exits.

It’s your decision. No one can make it for you.

They drove it home even when I laughed in their faces. I didn’t have to point out the obvious: that I’d been trained and tweaked since before I’d even been born, that they’d groomed my parents as carefully as they were grooming me. Thirty years before I was even conceived, I was already bound for the stars.

Knowing all that doesn’t change anything, of course. I can’t take my eyes off infinity. I want the stars, I want to revel and thrill to the glorious endless isolation of deep space. No other aspiration has ever been worth a moment’s thought. So what if I was built that way? It’s what I feel; I don’t know any other way to be.

Still. We’re a civilized society, yes? You don’t draft people against their will, even if the very concept has been a laughingstock for the better part of a century now. They give me no end of opportunity to back out now because there will be no opportunity to back out later, and later covers so very much more time for regrets. Once Eriophora sails, there will be no coming back.

It has to be my decision. It’s the only way they won’t have blood on their hands.

Still, when they held open that mutual escape hatch one last time, I don’t think they were expecting the answer they got.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “Give me a month. I’ll get back to you.”



This entry was posted on Thursday, December 12th, 2013 at 4:33 pm and is filed under fiblet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
17 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jeremy C
Guest
Jeremy C
10 years ago

Stop teasing us!

No wait, keep teasing us!

paul
Guest
paul
10 years ago

Please tell me you’re writing a book about the wormhole-layers.

PS:
>the magic upon which the hole thing rested had just eaten half the factory floor

Should that be whole?

fvngvs
Guest
fvngvs
10 years ago

New fiblets! More tastiness.

@paul: Dunno mate. Maybe that was deliberate. It’s certainly descriptive…

whoever
Guest
whoever
10 years ago

Lol! So much for programming.

Mr Non-Entity
Guest
Mr Non-Entity
10 years ago

Yummy. Yummy food for thought.

demoval
Guest
demoval
10 years ago

Presumably
“I can’t take my eyes off infinity. I want the stars, I want to revel and thrill to the glorious endless isolation of deep space”
is a response protagonist was bred for.
“Hello infinity cat, I am a brain-subverted mouse!”

( ;

Doc
Guest
Doc
10 years ago

Are you expanding on the universe you presented in “The Island”? If you are I gotta say I am liking what I see!

Man, I really need to get around to donating to you… Keep up the good work and expect a donation soon!

semiretarded
Guest
semiretarded
10 years ago

Are you expanding on “The Island” universe? If so I can’t wait to see more like this!

whoever
Guest
whoever
10 years ago

First person, as shorts (such as “The Island”) sometimes are, but normally not Wattsian novels. Hm.

Y.
Guest
Y.
10 years ago


You do understand: It has to be your choice.

I can’t decide whether it’s meant to be a formula piously mouthed to ward off charges of social engineering or something to do with hypocrisy.

Also:

There’s this comics called Oglaf, which is so wonderfully bizarre I have to post a link here..

http://oglaf.com/vorpalblade/ (goes on for eight more pages)

Seruko
Guest
Seruko
10 years ago

We are ready

Y.
Guest
Y.
10 years ago

paul,

A malapropism.

How appropriate in this context.

whoever
Guest
whoever
10 years ago

Eriophora. Implies spinning “webs” or orbs. Sounding more and more like “The Island” building the “subway tunnels” type work.

Ponysize
Guest
Ponysize
10 years ago

The wait for the new material is unbearably delicious Peter. Love these little teases.

Lover of This Pain
Guest
Lover of This Pain
10 years ago

Do it again!!!!! I only feel alive when you do that. MOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR PLEEZ, oh god I want more Wattage!!!

P.S. gonna by your new book as soon as I can find it.

Jena
Guest
Jena
10 years ago

Beauty. 🙂

whoever
Guest
whoever
10 years ago

Locus/Wolfe BtR review reprinted in Chicago Tribune.