The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 13 by Jonathan Strahan

Author:Jonathan Strahan [Strahan, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781786182159
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 2019-04-15T21:00:00+00:00

WATCHING THE ELEPHANT’S deft trunk double and snake and contort is downright hypnotic, even if what she’s signing may possibly be a really long, really detailed way of saying “screw you.” Proboscidian had been an elective at Kat’s university; she hadn’t really thought she would ever need it, so she hadn’t bothered signing up. It was one of those courses, like Basketweaving or Food In Religious Texts, that seemed to be more of a charmingly eccentric way to bobsled through school grabbing credits than anything else. Nobody but the zoology students, historians, folklorists, and some of the more obsessively dedicated sociologists ever took it. For a language that had only really been around since the 1880s, though, it had its devotees; subjects with animals always did.

“She wants to ask you a question,” the translator says.

“Go ahead.”

“You want to make us glow when we’re near this poison buried in the ground. You want to do this because of some screwy cultural sapiens association between elephants and radiation, when humans doing terrible fucked-up stuff to elephants ninety years ago is the reason for the dumb-ass cognitive association in the first place.”

“Uh, wow.” Kat gropes for a response. “Jesus. There’s... sorry, there’s a way of saying ‘fucked up’ in Proboscidian?”

“Not really. That was mostly me.” The translator raises an eyebrow. “Anyway, what she wants to know first is this: What exactly are you offering the Mothers in return if they say yes?”

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