But no, of a certainty, they are all little boys who must play with their toys.
I showed the green glass thing to Mom. She thought it was a paperweight. Maybe other people don’t see what we see.
I tell you there’s someone coming. I can’t see a thing. Who is it? Who is it? Who - ? No! Ugh-egh. No…!
Zardoz: Zardoz speaks to you, His chosen ones.
Exterminators: We are the chosen ones!
Zardoz: You have been raised up from Brutality, to kill the Brutals who multiply, and are legion. To this end, Zardoz your God gave you the gift of the Gun. The Gun is good!
Exterminators: The Gun is good!
Zardoz: The Penis is evil! The Penis shoots Seeds, and makes new Life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the Gun shoots Death and purifies the Earth of the filth of Brutals. Go forth, and kill! Zardoz has spoken.
Your grandmother carried the Gift with graciousness and honor. You are of her. You can do it.
I’m gonna die without a shred of honor. And for the first time in my life, that really bothers me.
She thought it could be peaceful. But how can it be peaceful when they try to take away your dignity?
Henke sensed her terrifying aptitude for destruction as never before. Henke had feared for her sanity; now she knew the truth was almost worse than that. Honor wasn’t insane — she simply didn’t care. She’d lost not only her sense of balance but any desire to regain it.
Yes, I know. I’d like a report of all these incidents that have happened in last six months. I’d like it really soon. Or I might just kick your nasty ass all over this room. That’s a marshal joke.
When are we going?
Real soon now.
I don’t have time. I don’t have time to worry about how it happened. It is what it is. We’re genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. The trouble is, we live only one more year, unless we can get more time. Time is now the currency. We earn it and spend it. The rich can live forever. And the rest of us? I just want to wake up with more time on my hand than hours in the day.
Admiral, if we go by the book, like Lieutenant Saavik, hours could seem like days. The situation is grave, Admiral. We won’t have main power for six days. Auxiliary power has temporarily failed. Restoration may be possible, in two days. By the book, Admiral.
“If you’re a researcher on this book thing and you were on Earth, you must have been gathering material on it.”
“Well, I was able to extend the original entry a bit, yes.”
“Let me see what it says in this edition, then. I’ve got to see it.”
… “What? Harmless! Is that all it’s got to say? Harmless! One word! … Well, for God’s sake I hope you managed to recitify that a bit.”
“Oh yes, well I managed to transmit a new entry off to the editor. He had to trim it a bit, but it’s still an improvement.”
“And what does it say now?” asked Arthur.
“Mostly harmless,” admitted Ford with a slightly embarrassed cough.
Look, look. You’re supposed to be winning the hearts and the minds of the natives. Isn’t that the whole point of your little puppet show? If you look like them, and you talk like them, and they’ll start trusting us. We build them a school, we teach them English. But after what - how many years? - relations with the indigenous are only getting worse.
I can understand how the limited perspective of an unartificial mind might perceive it that way. You’ll get used to it.
“Reverse primary thrust, Marvin.” That’s what they say to me. “Open airlock number 3, Marvin.” “Marvin, can you pick up that piece of paper?” Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to pick up a piece of paper.
You’re making my beer curdle.
Well, I may not be the swiftest guy in the world, even when I’m not hung over, but I do seem to remember a process where you people ask me questions and I give you answers and then I ask questions and you give me answers and that’s the way we find out things. I think I read that in a manual somewhere.
You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.
I do not think that word means what you think it means.