‘I’m too old to give you children,’ Annie said quietly.
‘I’m too old to want them.’
She took his hand and kept her eyes on the gate to the Up.
‘But I could grow older yet,’ he said. ‘And I would like to do it with you. If you want to, I mean. I don’t know, we could walk to one of the cities, take us an abandoned house. There must be thousands of them now.’
‘A big one? With a fireplace and a library?’
‘With a fireplace and a library,’ he said.
‘And a wine cellar.’
‘And a wine cellar,’ he agreed.
She put her head on his lap. He admired her pale face, her freckles; took in her perfume. Could we do this? Live together at the end of history?
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘But I’m still sorry.’
‘Your head’s too big for your heart. Really, none of it matters now.’
He didn’t want to say it but couldn’t help himself. ‘Your husband, Annie -’
‘Is sat just here,’ she said.
He ran a hand through her hair and thought of nothing in particular then. The scallixes were coming out, dancing up from the w’liaks in lazy spirals. The abandoned cities lay in the distance, the chimneys inert now, the skylights all dark. It was no matter. The moons would be up soon.
Contents
Introduction
A Cursory Syndicate Galactica Timeline of Migration to Stellar Phase Living
Prologue
Part I - Miss Butterworth
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Part II - The Tersh
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
Part III – The Up
39
40
41
Table of Contents
Introduction
A Cursory Syndicate Galactica Timeline of Migration to Stellar Phase Living
Prologue
Part I - Miss Butterworth
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Part II - The Tersh
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
Part III – The Up
39
40
41
Table of Contents
Introduction
A Cursory Syndicate Galactica Timeline of Migration to Stellar Phase Living
Prologue
Part I - Miss Butterworth
1
2
3
4
5
6
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Part II - The Tersh
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
Part III – The Up
39
40
41