Downbelow Station Quotes
"The stars, like all man’s other ventures, were an obvious impracticality, as rash and improbable an ambition as the first venture of man onto Earth’s own great oceans."
"Earth took them for granted as quickly as it did all its other comforts."
"It was a scientific success, bringing back data enough to keep the analysts busy for years… but there was no glib, slick way to explain the full meaning of its observations in layman’s terms."
"It was no Eden, no second Earth, no better than what existed in the sun’s own system, and it was a far journey to have gone to find that out."
"The scientific establishment on Sol Station breathed a sigh of relief and with equal quiet caution invested a portion of its budget in a modest manned expedition."
"No need, no need at all, that first colony had proven, that a star have a world friendly to humans."
"Sol Corporation, swollen beyond its original purpose and holding more stations than Sol itself, became what the star-stationers called it: the Earth Company."
"Newly industrialized populations and the discontents of every nation set out on that long, long track in search of jobs, wealth, private dreams of freedom."
"Star after star after star… nine of them—until Pell, which proved to have a livable world, and life."
"The Earth Company took a new decision: a payback program, a tax of goods, which would make up recent losses."
"Don't you have kin, relatives, someone who would try to talk you out of this if they heard about it?"
"I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. I want you to understand this: it’s not final."
"If it gets out of hand, we won’t discriminate in firing."
"We need our papers cleared. We refuse to be transferred anywhere without papers."
"Come love you Konstantin-man, you and your friend."
"Well," Miliko exclaimed, looking up from the spread of charts on their bed.
"Love you," Satin said, and came with absolute confidence, embraced Miliko, hugged her cheek-to-cheek around the obstacle of the breather.
"Go to your home," she said. "See Bennett home."
"Love Bennett-man. See he home. Fill up eyes he home. Make warm, warm we eyes."
"Downers have the right idea," he said. "Give up during the winter rains, wander off when the trees bloom, make love, nest high and wait for the grain to ripen."
"We’re going to catch it again in a day or so after the next one hits us. There’s a big storm brewing out to sea."
"Oh, it’s going to get worse," Miliko said, showing him the topographical chart.
"I remember you asking that before," Talley said. "You’re one of the Konstantins. You own Pell, don’t you?"
"Pell. Norway moved as the Fleet moved, hurling their mass into realspace in synch."
"Damon studied the monitors and intermittently paced the floors of dock command blue."
"Signy had it visual now, the hubbed ring of Pell’s Station, the distant moon, the bright jewel of Downbelow, cloud-swirled."
"The ship moved, a crash echoing through the hull and the corridors and disturbing them from their calm."
"They had not had time to vent them, not even to clean up the area, had run, saved the ship, the Fleet, such as remained of Company power."
"Mazian's com was firing a steady catechism of questions and authorizations at Pell, as yet refusing to specify what he wanted or where he meant to dock, if he meant to dock at all."
"He reckoned their chances if Pell refused evacuation; reckoned what awaited any Konstantin in Union hands."
"You have your specific instructions in the folders."
"She realized the possibility of being separated, losing her and the baby."
"He seized the frame and resisted, casting a look back at Azov."
"There were no guarantees in Downbelow applications, Mr. Redding."
"Marsh hung, gently turning, by his belt looped from a hook which had held a movable light."
"Chaos indeed. She was afraid, when she analyzed the growing tautness at her gut."
"Anger had cooled and she was afraid with a helplessness she was not accustomed to feel."
"Every merchanter which had not been swept into Union hands had to be hereabouts, at station, in pattern, or farther out."
"The breakdowns infuriated him, drove him almost to tears."
"The smell of Q clung to him, no matter how he washed."
"There were times when he could not get out of Q, in the occasional disturbances."
"He knew that this cowardice was ultimately fatal."
"His stomach knotted now every time he opened the door of his apartment."
"The whole of council had been called to take whatever emergency posts they could reach."
"The pulse pounding in his veins. Let Mazian evacuate all who would go."
"He leaned against the wall, trembling, his stomach heaving."
"Josh carefully kept his head down, unfastened a plastic seal from a small, worn-out motor."
"He suspected every emotion he felt, and therefore tried to feel as few as possible."
"More, more, more we, dead hungry, dead 'fraid. Please help we."
"I Satin, I call. Make he all right, Konstantin-man."
"I'm Konstantin," he said at once, for the name carried importance with the Downers.
"Stay with me," Damon ordered his companions sternly.
"Love you," Bluetooth said. "Love you," said Satin, in her turn.
"Merchanters have owned this place since Pell began."
"No one wants to be noticed; no one can turn us in without being noticed himself. That’s the best hope we’ve got; no one wants to be conspicuous."
"We sit it out, go on alterday shift a day or so."
"I don’t think we can get out of here until they come to get us."
"If you want to stand around main base and wait for Union to land, fine. I won’t object."
"We don’t even know who’s in control up there."
"We’re not going to work for Union, if that’s what it comes to up there."
"We’ve got a chance out there, that they’ll think we’re too much bother to come after."
"We can absorb a lot of shots. We may lose sections, but while we have motive power and the hub intact, we can handle damage."
"You understand, Mr. Lukas, if we excuse you and Mr. Jacoby at this point."
"The merchanter ships are going back within hail of Pell."
"We want those ships out of the way, Mr. Lukas; and it wouldn’t at all be politic to have merchanters know we’ve tampered with Hammer and Swan’s Eye."
"I’ll give Union the best I’ve got; it’s the best thing I ever had going for me."
"You’ve done your civic duty. Now go back to your quarters."
"I thought a brief absence might straighten things out."
"I prefer to make my own understandings with Union."
"Mazian has a death grip on Pell; he’ll leave ruin if he loses."
"Siege, Mr. Ayres. We cut them off from supplies and disrupt their operations until they grow uncomfortable."
"Mr. Lukas, what happened to Angelo Konstantin?"
"Merchanters were coming into the null point by drift, the way they had left Pell, frantically gathering all the realspace speed they could on entry to keep ahead of the incomers who were rolling in like a tide on a beach."
"That we stand up and safeguard our own interests. That we start asking ourselves hard questions before we scatter out of here."
"They might have lost a few passing through the battle zone; she could not tell."
"We’ve lost the stations we served. So do we let Union swallow us up, dictate to us… because we become outmoded next to their clean new state-run ships?"
"No word on any other casualties. Military’s sending. Mazian’s Fleet. Wants contact with us. Do I answer?"
"So they’re going to be here," he said, trying to keep his voice steady, "they’re going to be back here wanting us to grow crops for them and work the mills and the wells."
"Where, sir?" That was the boy—he had forgotten the name—the one Hale had bullied the day of the mutiny. His mother was by him, in the circle of his arm. It was not defiance, but a plain question.
"I don’t know," he admitted. "Wherever the hisa can show us that’s safe, if there is any such place. To live there. To dig in and live."
"Hisa answer. Being here, sitting here beneath the heavens, saying to the sky and their gods… see us… We have hope."
"For the first time since Mariner I’m not afraid. We’re safe here. Not from the guns, maybe, but from being afraid."
"I saw you, in the corridor. I didn’t believe it."
"I had a mother, a father. I lived on Cyteen with my aunt."
"Anything else… any other memory… they put it into us on tape."
"With any sense at all the riders would have scattered to the far side of everywhere when they realized Norway was running."
"She put her mind from it and punched the med station. 'How’s Di?'"
"Damage control reported in, a compartment voided, a little portion of Norway’s gut spilled out into the cold."
"What’s happened to Pell? Your speakers were live. You heard me."
"The looks they gave her were full of misgivings."
"We’ve quit the Fleet. We’re bound for the Deep, for good."
"For the love of God, wait. Wait and help them."
"Think, where does it go now? How far and how long?"
"This Unioner is making sense to me. Am I drunk, or does it make sense?"
"It’s not a fleet anymore. They’re looking for loot, things to keep themselves going."
"Find yourselves a secure spot. We’re bending an arc in a moment."
"I will tell you the way… each turn, each step; and you have to remember."
""Norway, Norway speaking, Unioners. Hold fire. Hold fire."
"We’re going to borrow ourselves a Union fleet."
"To Sol. To a place where Mazian can find new pickings, gather strength."