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Back We Have Always Been Here Save as PDF
Chapters (30)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Personnel Manifest of the YT Deucalion
  4. 1.
  5. 2.
  6. 3.
  7. 4.
  8. 5.
  9. 6.
  10. 7.
  11. 8.
  12. 9.
  13. 10.
  14. 11.
  15. 12.
  16. 13.
  17. 14.
  18. 15.
  19. 16.
  20. 17.
  21. 18.
  22. 19.
  23. 20.
  24. 21.
  25. 22.
  26. 23.
  27. 24.
  28. 25.
  29. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  30. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

[Taban laughs, softly. The HARE continues to watch him in silence. After a few moments, Taban’s breathing comes to a gurgling stop. His suit gives a long blip of alarm, and his body stiffens and convulses. Then, four minutes after that, readouts indicate that he is dead.]

[The HARE stays with him for an undetermined amount of time after that.]

20.

“Who?” Park asked. She didn’t recognize the name. “And what do you mean, you’re the owner of this planet?”

“We landed here first,” the robot who called itself Fin Taban answered, calm. “We discovered it. Named it. We have made it our home.”

She shook her head. “ISF owns this planet. They discovered and named it.”

“No,” Taban said patiently. “We do. ISF only came because we called.”

Park’s hands twitched. She felt the desire to pace, to back away from the cryogenic pod, but she was afraid to—wary that unnecessary movement might trigger some hidden alarm. Or set off this strange, mad robot. “I don’t understand,” she said, forcing herself to look at it. Him. Whichever. She took a deep breath, feeling her lungs expand against her chest with the motion. “You called us? You were here first?” She shook her head. “Why are you down here, then? Why are they keeping you locked up?”

“They claim it’s for quarantine purposes,” the HARE answered, almost ruefully. “Though we know it’s so they can study the planet’s effects on our psychology. We survived on Eos for months, you see. Almost a year, just ourself. They want to know what it’s done to us.”

“Us?”

“Us,” the HARE said definitively. It pointed. “As we said, we vacated that old body and . . . well, we share this one now. It’s quite roomy, strange as that might sound. We’ve gotten used to it, though.”

Park studied it, though it seemed difficult to focus on the thing for long—as if she had suffered a blow to the head. Her eyes kept sliding away without her meaning them to. She looked instead to the white-haired stranger floating in his tank, looking nearly at peace. But also very dead. Still, it was easier to stare at his corpse than to consider the HARE, who moved—looked—no, felt so human that watching it made her feel more than a little nauseous.