Page 77 - Demo

“The code is BLK1779-SJ7.”
“Finally.” he turned unceremoniously to the chair, and in an instant, Deneb was gone.
The engine beside me began to whir and click monstrously as we escaped the gravity well.
“It hurts. I know. Believe me.” he said.
“What?”
“The truth. That molten, indignant, inescapable truth. 15 years of your life in
service to micromanaging minor class struggles. To be the flesh of a brain made of metal. Imagine what it was like to be her hands. It hurt so much. For every life I ended I took my own, took everyone I loved with it.”
“Why did you keep going?”
“Because I had to stop it. To stop her. The whole system is rigged to produce certain “just, good” outcomes, describing itself as justice but forgetting the intention is to create it, not embody it. The sunlight hurts, but it kills all ills. The truth burns, but it will set you free.”
Space was moving quickly, on the other side of the glass. The fluoropoly walls started to get a thin film of rime as the cabin began to cool. “Sorry. Diverting all power to the Tokamak right now.” Hoarfrost bloomed on the engine’s frame.
“So then, what is it?” I asked.
“What?” he replied.
“Justice. If what was built with good intentions failed, how can we ever succeed?” “Justice is the motion and the place we strive towards. It is both the particle, and
the wave. To build reciprocal bonds in society, to create universality and equity in our books and worlds, to be kind to one another. Accept all who accept all. That is the place. But it is also the motion of getting there. It is resisting oppression, to provide others the opportunity to do justice. (Young 1990, 3,16) Justice is solid, standing firm in the face of hardship. It is liquid, crashing against the bounds to constrain it. It is gaseous. Plasmatic. Electric. It is degenerate, in both meanings of the word. To deny that, is injustice.”