Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 163 by Neil Clarke

Author:Neil Clarke [Clarke, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, science fiction, Science Fiction - Short Stories, Science Fiction & Fantasy, science fiction magazine, short story
ISBN: 1937-7843
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2020-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

7

. . . Wearying debt is sinful and never complete. But completeness can mean only death . . .

The sheepdog dragged Magpie’s crippled body until it disappeared into deep space.

. . . Sacrifice is for all the gods, not just death. Death is just the middleman . . .

Covered in the dust of the shattered cabin, Freckles’ helmet hung from her body by a thread, like dandelion fluff about to blow away.

. . . When we devote our lives to the God who created us, we commit to paying interest in the form of sacrifice. Only at the end, can our lives repay the principal . . .

Baldy slapped me on the shoulder. Baldy was blown away by my gun. In the low gravity, he was like a paper doll flung against the wall. A bloody mist bloomed from his chest as I thought on the young Baldy taking form in his amniotic chamber.

. . . Birth is the original debt, which all humans carry, the debt created by humanity’s emergence in the cosmos. This debt can never be repaid on Earth, where its sum is beyond all reach . . .

Freckles winked at me and made an indecent gesture. Magpie, emerging from her shower, bent to wipe her calves. She winked at me without any sexual significance.

. . . When the sacrificial rites are performed justly, God promises a path to shed our human condition and achieve eternity. This is possible because, in the face of eternity, all debt loses meaning . . .

In the dream, the sequestered girl fell to sleep, the picture book still in her hands. The picture frame upside down on the table displayed a line of small characters. The pink embryo rotated slowly in its chamber, eyelids twitching from time to time.

. . . A form of sacrifice, through supplementing the credit of living humans, makes life extension possible, and in some cases through joining in God, achieves eternity . . .

The girl’s face behind the seal. A desperate man who intended suicide but froze in midair. The bodies of miners. My own body. Freckles’ face. Magpie’s face. The woman in black’s face. The faces of all the living and the dead slowly overlapping, merging into one face.

. . . Human existence is a form of debt . . .

Names began floating to the surface, but I wasn’t sure they were real. They were like my memories, fragmented and confused. Then an enormous asteroid tore through the cabin right next to me. Hot fuel fleas tunneled through my body, tearing holes that reeked of singed flesh. I leaped desperately onto the surface of the asteroid as miniature ice volcanoes erupted on its surface in spears of steam. A crack engulfed me and I tumbled into a spinning tunnel as the fabric of all things stretched into infinite distance, transformed into infinitely thin light.

I finally remembered the name, the one name, the name that should never have been forgotten.

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