Mal's words were simple, but they made Re-l aware of something she'd been ignoring.
"We might have one strength they're not counting on," she said, as coldly as she could. "Each other. I'm not foolish enough to think there's much chance of all the Sleepers being friends, but we could at least pool our information."
Re-l sighed, and found it prudent not to mention that friends were something she'd never really understood. All it ever seemed to mean was complications.
She didn't want to dwell on that, and answering Mal's question was enough to provide a distraction.
"It's a long story," Rel said, "and even I don't understand all of it. My world died, you might say, a long time ago. Like here. There was a disaster, and more than a disaster. Eighty-five per cent of all life was wiped out. Humanity created some failsafes, though. One of which was a race of superhumans. Proxies. Designed to replenish the earth. And they in turn created their own peoples. Pseudo-humans like me."
Re-l bit the ball of her thumb savagely.
"I expected to find the crack in my story there. I'm completely infertile, after all. But they even accounted for that. Apparently I was sick as a child."
The infertility didn't bother her. She'd never wanted children. But the completeness of the illusory life she might have lived gnawed at her mind.
no subject
"We might have one strength they're not counting on," she said, as coldly as she could. "Each other. I'm not foolish enough to think there's much chance of all the Sleepers being friends, but we could at least pool our information."
Re-l sighed, and found it prudent not to mention that friends were something she'd never really understood. All it ever seemed to mean was complications.
She didn't want to dwell on that, and answering Mal's question was enough to provide a distraction.
"It's a long story," Rel said, "and even I don't understand all of it. My world died, you might say, a long time ago. Like here. There was a disaster, and more than a disaster. Eighty-five per cent of all life was wiped out. Humanity created some failsafes, though. One of which was a race of superhumans. Proxies. Designed to replenish the earth. And they in turn created their own peoples. Pseudo-humans like me."
Re-l bit the ball of her thumb savagely.
"I expected to find the crack in my story there. I'm completely infertile, after all. But they even accounted for that. Apparently I was sick as a child."
The infertility didn't bother her. She'd never wanted children. But the completeness of the illusory life she might have lived gnawed at her mind.