Steve Perry (author)

"Wall knew what made the man work; he had studied every scrap of information available on him, including his own brief meeting before it all fell apart. Khadaji was a hero; he wore the psychologically flawed psyche like a cape, he was a slave to fair play and he believed that the universe was an innately good place. Khadaji made it a point not to kill during his revolution, not with his own hands. He could have snuffed Wall like a flickstick when first they’d met. But he had not; he had given Wall a chance to consider the error of his ways. What a fool."

"Well, said his little interior voice, a second is as good as an eon, if you succeed. Yeah, and as good as forever if you fail."

"Rich people seldom run amok; They hire somebody to do that for them."

"Young soldiers had a lot of expectations and fantasies about how it would be and what they would do and feel. Invariably wrong, those expectations."

"It wasn’t a death wish. It was a see-how-close-you-can-get-and-live wish."

"Truth is the first casualty in war, but communications is the second."

"If it ain’t broke, don’t break it."

"There are a lot of promises in the recycle bins of history."

"Nobody is a born killer. And nobody ever forgets the first time they get laid, nor the first time they spike somebody."

"“Everybody knows that.” “Assume for a moment that everybody is wrong.”"

"In the land of the unarmed, the man with a rock was king."

"Civilization didn’t like surprises..."

"“One who searches for the definition ‘devious’ can find it listed under ‘human.’”"

"“You cheated!” “Hell yes, I did. I learned a long time ago, better you learn to fight smarter, not harder.” “If you had not had the pistol—” “Then I’d have used some other tool. Knife, stick, a chair, whatever. Fighting fair gets you killed unless the other guy also fights fair and you are better than him and lucky. First rule: Don’t do it."

"Shoot at us, we will nuke you all and let God sort out your radioactive dust."

"“You ready to fly, Nancy?” Jo asked. “Honey, I’m always ready to fly.” “Might get shot at.” “I been shot at. Not a problem if they don’t hit me. I am allowed to dodge, right?”"

"Never felt so alive as you did after you came out of a battle in one piece. And if you were dead? You wouldn’t feel that..."

"“Why would he do that?” “Because he is insane, a fool, a man so devious they will have to guard his corpse after he dies, or he’ll steal it himself!”"

"Droc was not particularly religious himself. If the gods responded to entreaties, they had never demonstrated it to him. Better his time was spent doing something that might work."

"Death came for all, and it was never a matter of “if,” only “when.”"

"When he saw me look her over, he hinted that she might be willing to, ah, stay behind and work out details of the contract with me personally, no matter how long it might take.” Jo nodded. No surprise there. Sex had sold stuff ever since stuff had been around."

"But was it not you who used to tell me that the more you knew, the better? That knowledge was the sharpest fang?"

"The good old days always seemed better in distant memory than they had actually been at the time."

"Desire, she realized, was a thick fog that could completely obscure reality."

"You’re not an ape, use a tool!"

"Well. You were allowed to be young and stupid, when you were young and stupid, and if it didn’t do you in, you might get older and wiser."

"“The rules are different for rich men,” he said. “Always have been.”"

"He understood the phenomenon, of how almost dying made you appreciate what life had to offer. And it was a potent drug, that feeling. Battle was not glorious. But surviving it? That was."

"A large bomb obscures a lot of evidence."

"“We aren’t looking for trouble.” “Doesn’t mean you won’t find it.”"

"“So here we have the basic ingredients in the art of distraction,” Gunny said to Singh, as they walked toward the rendezvous point. “When in doubt, wait until dark, turn off the lights, and blow shit up.”"

"What they don’t know won’t hurt us..."

"The loudest sound on a battle field was click! when you were expecting bang! It was a never-ending wonder: What was going to go wrong next?"

"“How interesting,” Kay said. “The human capacity for denial sometimes seems to be quite large.” “Ain’t that the truth.”"

"Old enough to look as if he knew what to do, young enough to look as if he could do it."

"He had thought about it. Mostly, after the fantasies, he had let it go. It was done, history. No point in bumping into the furniture while looking back over your shoulder."

"Jo nodded. The Vastalimi were stoic about many things, death notwithstanding. People came and went, that was the way of it, and there was no need to be overly disturbed; nothing could be done to change the general pattern, only the individual ones. Everybody got onto the hoverbus, and eventually, everybody got off; the questions were, how long was the ride, and how did you leave?"

"When you worked in a profession whose tools included guns and bombs, death was always on the menu; only a matter of time until the order you placed arrived..."

"“Man proposes, God disposes,” Singh said. Both fems looked at him. He shrugged. “Whenever you run into a situation that you cannot control, we on Ananda often find it convenient to blame it on God.”"

"War had a way of making carpe diem seem valid no matter what you wanted to seize..."

"“You’ve never struck me as a...reflective person. More of a doer than a be-er.” “True enough. Still, when one is in a profession that deals in the possibility of sudden and maybe unexpected violent death, the questions arise now and then for examination.” “The questions being...?” “What does it all mean? Why are we here? Where are we going?” Zhe laughed. “A warrior philosopher!” “Not your bent, to muse on such things?” “Oh, I used to ask myself those questions. Then one day, I realized that, as brilliant as I am, I couldn’t divine the answers. That, unbelievable as it was, there had been many people smarter than I who had broken themselves of the rock of why-are-we-here? And, even if I happened upon The Answer, how would I know? Who would be able to verify it for me? “Given my upbringing and experience, religion wasn’t an option, the notion of Somebody-in-Charge-Who-Pays-Attention didn’t work for me: Either zhe was unspeakably cruel, or unbelievably inept, no other possibility. So I let it go. Can’t know the answer, no point in asking the question, is there? That way lies complete frustration. Better to concentrate one’s energy on something useful.” “I suppose. I think even the remote possibility of a come-to-understand moment, wherein the scales fall from my eyes, and I can see the whole flow of the universe, the why and wheretofor, is still there. It seems to have happened to others.” Zhe shrugged. “I can do that. I can crank up the god-gene, ramp it into reality for a patient so they feel that cosmic consciousness, the oneness with it all with an absolute certainty beyond question. Since I can do it? Makes it harder to believe it’s anything other than an accident of neurochem; a stray cosmic ray flipping an on switch. Would that be something you’d want? A fake epiphany?” “No.” “I didn’t think so. If you got there on your own, you might buy it, but knowing it was artificially induced? Not your way. A lot of people would take the offer, but you aren’t one of them, are you?” “So we believe because we want to believe?” “Need, more than want, I think. It’s built into the operating soft- and hardware,” zhe said. “Some kind of survival characteristic, maybe, a sustaining comfort when great stress arises. Our bodies are full of chemical tides that ebb and flow to balance us physically and mentally. Why not one that does it spiritually? Such yearning seems to be common among most intelligent species, certainly humans. We need something beyond what we can see and touch and smell.” He looked at hir, impressed that zhe had considered such things. He nodded again. “Well. I will leave you to your snack and philosophy. I have augs to balance and programs to write. Good luck finding the answer.” Zhe smiled, stood, then headed for the door."

"Jo’s desire was to take a long, hot shower when she got back to the base. The crawlers had outdoor showerheads, but the noodle-pinching hardware designers had been given keep-it-cheap design orders, and had apparently achieved them. Crawler showers came with absolutely unalterable timers that gave you a maximum two minutes of piss-poor pressure before they shut off; then they made you wait two more minutes before they would restart. Standing there wet and soapy waiting for more slow-flow rinse water was not the most soothing experience when you were scrubbing mud and blood off yourself. More than a few soldiers over the years must have entertained the fantasy of hunting down the people who came up with shower timers and murdering them. Or at least dipping them in a latrine trench, then restricting them to a crawler shower to wash it off..."

"Gunny squatted to look at the dead creature. “Looks like a rat snake,” she said. “It’s harmless, not poisonous.” Gramps said, “I don’t care. I don’t like snakes. I don’t like poisonous snakes; I don’t like nonpoisonous snakes; I don’t like sticks on the ground that look like snakes.” “Ah think maybe somebody had a traumatic event with snakes along the way. What, you had a run-in with the serpent that bedeviled Eve back in the Garden?” Singh raised an eyebrow. “A Jewish/Christian story,” Jo said. “The reason mankind lost direct contact with God and was banished from Paradise. A snake talked the first woman into trying fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, after God had warned them not to eat it.” “Sah, I understand this god is supposedly much more powerful than our gods. I wonder, if he created all things and was all-knowing and omnipotent, why would he put such a tree there? Would he not know in advance that Eve would succumb to the temptation?” “The tale doesn’t bear too close an inspection,” Gramps said. “Believers view these stories as allegories, metaphors, rather than as literal happenings.” Gunny jumped in quickly to amend Gramps’s response: “Some of ’em,” she said. “Some of ’em are literalists, and crazy as space-station roaches when the hatch opens to blow them into vac. They think the Earth is six thousand years old and that every word of the Bible is absolutely true. You can have a field day pointing out inconsistencies in those stories, doesn’t bother them, just bounces right off their self-righteous armor.”"

"Why is it people like us have to be the galaxy’s conscience?” “If you can see a problem, and you have the ability to fix it, it becomes your responsibility. It’s always been that way.”"

"“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know it sucks.” “You didn’t create it, you just pointed it out. If I thought shooting the messenger would fix it, you’d already be bleeding out.”"

"Okay, I need to go places and shoot people."