Back Blue Mars Save as PDF
Chapters (93)
  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. Contents
  4. Map
  5. The Martain Calendar
  6. Part 1: Peacock Mountain
  7. Prologue
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. Part 2: Areophany
  11. Prologue
  12. 1
  13. 2
  14. 3
  15. 4
  16. Part 3: A New Constitution
  17. Prologue
  18. 1
  19. 2
  20. 3
  21. 4
  22. 5
  23. 6
  24. 7
  25. Part 4: Green Earth
  26. Prologue
  27. 1
  28. 2
  29. 3
  30. Part 5: Home at Last
  31. Prologue
  32. 1
  33. 2
  34. 3
  35. Part 6: Ann in the Outback
  36. Prologue
  37. 1
  38. 2
  39. 3
  40. Part 7: Making Things Work
  41. Prologue
  42. 1
  43. 2
  44. 3
  45. 4
  46. 5
  47. 6
  48. Part 8: The Green and the White
  49. Prologue
  50. 1
  51. 2
  52. 3
  53. 4
  54. Part 9: Natural History
  55. Prologue
  56. 1
  57. 2
  58. Part 10: Werteswandel
  59. Prologue
  60. 1
  61. 2
  62. 3
  63. Part 11: Viriditas
  64. Prologue
  65. 1
  66. 2
  67. 3
  68. 4
  69. 5
  70. 6
  71. Part 12: It Goes So Fast
  72. Prologue
  73. 1
  74. 2
  75. 3
  76. 4
  77. 5
  78. Part 13: Experimental Procedures
  79. Prologue
  80. 1
  81. 2
  82. 3
  83. 4
  84. 5
  85. 6
  86. 7
  87. Part 14: Phoenix Lake
  88. Prologue
  89. 1
  90. Acknowledgments
  91. About the Author
  92. Bantam Books by Kim Stanley Robinson
  93. Copyright

Throughout the dinner Ann remained silent, until the general discussion ended and the Miranda group began to ask her questions. Then she came alive, as if switched on, and asked them in return about current local planetology: the classification of different regions of Miranda as parts of the two colliding planetessimals, the recent theory that identified the tiny moons Ophelia, Desdemona, Bianca, and Puck as ejected pieces of the Mirandan collision, and so on. Her questions were detailed and knowledgeable; the guardians were thrilled, in transports, their eyes as big as lemurs’ eyes. The rest of the Uranians were likewise pleased to see Ann’s interest. She was The Red; now Zo saw what that really meant; she was one of the most famous people in history. And it seemed possible that all the Uranians had a little Red in them; unlike the settlers of the Jovian and Saturnian systems, they had no plans for large-scale terraforming, they planned to live in tents and go out on the primal rock for the rest of their lives. And they felt— at least its guardian group felt— that Miranda was so unusual that it had to be left entirely alone. That was a red idea, of course. Nothing humans did there, one of the Uranian Reds said, would do anything but reduce what was most valuable about it. It had an intrinsic worth that transcended even its value as a planetological specimen. It had its dignity. Ann watched them carefully as they said this, and Zo saw in her eyes that she did not agree, or even quite understand. For her it was a matter of science— for these people, a matter of spirit. Zo actually sympathized more with the locals’ view than Ann’s, with its cramped insistence on the object. But the result was the same, they both had the Red ethic in its pure form: no terraforming on Miranda, of course, also no domes, no tents, no mirrors; only a single visitor’s station and a few rocket pads (though this too appeared to be controversial within the guardian group); a ban on anything except no-impact foot travel, and rocket hops high enough over the surface to avoid disturbing the dust. The guardian group conceived of Miranda as wilderness, to be walked through but never lived on, never changed. A climber’s world, or even better, a flier’s world. Looked at and nothing more. A natural work of art.