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121 " Never do it, never make it, too far, too high, too much,” and she shouted down to them, “Of course I can, of course I will, watch me, watch me! "
― Ian McDonald , Out on Blue Six
122 " he could be anyone, anything, nuh? You want us all to get Social Counseling, eh? Everyone up in West One? "
123 " There is a value in unprogrammed elements in a programmed world, "
124 " We measure our own humanity by how we respond to the unprogrammed, the unpredictable. "
125 " (Deep down under the rain and the clouds, down in the sleep-pod in the heart of the great city of Yu, Courtney Hall felt two large salt tears trace down her face.) "
126 " On she flew, through the place of the spirit powers, which, in their wisdom or their folly, had stooped low to touch the earth and bring the Compassionate Society out of the chaos of the Break. "
127 " she knew it must be of stupendous size to be visible from the edge of heaven. A line of black that reached out seemingly to infinity, yet which closed behind her, a border of black circling the world. The edge. "
128 " Closer yet, and she saw that it was a wall of black bricks clean and smooth as obsidian, perfectly adamantine, perfectly untouchable. “Up we go, up we go,” she whistled to herself, and as she did, she noticed how the light caught the obsidian bricks at just such an angle that each brick seemed to have a face carved upon it. A wall of souls. "
129 " people of every caste and subcaste and sept and clan scrambled to grab some Stardust and paper, and what they found in their clutching hands sent them to their knees in joy and sadness. On each twinkling scrap of paper Courtney Hall had drawn what she had glimpsed in that instant of the things that lay beyond the wall, the things the Compassionate Society had pushed away and abandoned and forgotten, the old things, the things of wonder and terror and joy and pain. "
130 " Doubting ended. Faith restored. What to do, how it must be done, and why; clear and unambiguous as the whisper of an archangel. Rebirth from the womb of a synthetic sleep-pod. Courtney Hall grinned. "
131 " With her last breath and final erg of energy she topped the wall (sharp-edged as the razor of wisdom) and saw what lay beyond. "
132 " On each twinkling scrap of paper Courtney Hall had drawn what she had glimpsed in that instant of the things that lay beyond the wall, the things the Compassionate Society had pushed away and abandoned and forgotten, the old things, the things of wonder and terror and joy and pain. "
133 " And what was it pen and fingers had drawn? What else. Wee Wendy Waif. As she could be. As she should be. As she would be. Now. Courtney Hall’s smile was as bitter as her chocolate. "
134 " So, whazzit dis time, cizzen? "
135 " They say the whole city is alive, aware, at a level of consciousness totally alien to any we can know, Courtney Hall mused. Spooky. "
136 " Neh, what is it about this cartoon’s special, neh? Art?” Courtney Hall felt deeply disappointed. Most Scorpios were functional illiterates but that was no excuse. "
137 " He returned the scanned cartoon, already worming its way through the Armitage-Weir computer system toward the laser printers of tomorrow’s newsstands. “There you go, cizzen. Many thankings. "
138 " Back into the manswarm again. "
139 " have they started work yet, go on, one teeny tiny peek. Rain and rust and ruin. Carpetgrass dead slime. That made her very sad. "
140 " If she had had a new famulus, or even this poor old smashed famulus, or any famulus at all, she might have never done what she had just done. She could not decide whether that was a good or bad thing. "