Quotes from Martha Wells

talking to Frost had become less like negotiating with a small angry hostage

And swimming back, since that was an ocean-sized body of water between the two points on the map. Or drown; I guess they could just drown.

Moon didn't find any of this very encouraging

We needed to find out where the refugees were now, if they were either a) murderees or b) murderers.

I can fly low atmosphere craft but nobody ever thought it was remotely rational to give murderbots the modules on piloting transports.

Pearl tilted her head, but her voice was amused. "When five fledglings all move down together, believe me, she will know.

Her face looked younger. She looked like she had been pretending to have hope and now she didn't have to pretend anymore. (Confession time: that moment, when the humans or augmented humans realize you're really here to help them. I don't hate that moment.)

She knows SecUnit is not so much taunting her with its abilities as refusing to pretend to be anything other than it is. And that's for the best, because being honest about that is the only way forward.

Because they are all refugees in the Preservation Alliance, descended from people who were left to die because rescue was deemed not cost-effective. Because they stand on this station built from the ship that saved their grandparents' lives, that helped them for no other reason than because it was there and it could. Instead Ephraim asks her, "Can you separate that person from the purpose they were created for?

They're coming this way, quickly!' 'I didn't really want to know that.

I just had a bad feeling about the little shit.

No," he said, and added with devastating candor, "you were counting on me not being able to speak your language." Florian gestured helplessly. "Tremaine!" "What, so I'll get in trouble?" Annoyed, she shrugged and moved on up the corridor. "Maybe they'll force me to go to another world and fight heavily armed sorcerers who—Oh, wait, we're doing that already.

At the door to the hub, I found their first SecUnit. It was sprawled on its back on the floor, the armor over its chest pierced by something that made a hole approximately ten centimeters wide and a little deeper. We're hard to kill, but that'll do it. I did a brief scan to make sure it was inert, then stepped over it and went through into the crew area.

While being eaten would end all his problems, he wasn't quite ready for so final a solution.

I'm out of practice at controlling my expression. Right now I'm pretty sure it was somewhere in the region of stunned horror, or maybe appalled horror.

The next time I'm trapped in a glass box at the bottom of the sea, I'll consider it." Vai, crouched by the throne, did sigh. Mother bared her fangs. "Stop being overdramatic." Kai would have loved to, if dramatic things would stop happening to him.

Expositors take away the speech of their familiars, among other things, so they can't reveal any secrets. It goes back to the Hierarchs." Cohort Leader Ashen frowned. "But there's no point to that. She talks in sign." Ashem was too naive for this world if she thought people were only cruel when there was a point to it.

I don't need rest, I'm fueled by spite.

Ou alors Miki le bot de compagnie n'avait jamais été brimé, dupé ou maltraité ; peut-être ne lui avait-on jamais témoigné que de la bonté et de l'indulgence. Il considérait vraiment ses humains comme des amis, car c'est ainsi qu'ils le traitaient en retour. J'ai signalé à Miki que je me déconnectais une minute. J'avais besoin d'avoir une émotion en privé.

va savoir ce qu'il se passe dans la tête d'un bot", a répondu Wilken avec un regard en coin dans ma direction. J'ai gardé les yeux rivés devant moi.

Target Two accidentally (I'm guessing here; maybe they just didn't care for each other) stabbed Target One.

It's hard to make a proper argument when you're both on the same side.

I told myself I still looked like a SecUnit without armor, hopelessly exposed, but the truth was I did look more human. And now I knew why I hadn't wanted to do this. It would make it harder for me to pretend not to be a person.

But I want a lot of things—freedom, unlimited downloads, new episodes of Drama Sun Islands—most of which I wasn't going to get.