Embassytown - China Mieville [149]
Immersion’s never safe. This far out, at this edge, we’re back to the dangerous glory days of homo diaspora. I don’t have any hesitation. I’ve gone out, I’ve come back, and it’s time to go again, in directions and for distances no immerser has gone. In kilohours, I might be meeting an exot I’m the first Terre ever to see, working tongueware, trying to make a greeting. I might find anything.
I’ve been studying navigation and immerology, techniques that I, the floaker, had always avoided. “You’ve never floaked in your life,” Bren told me, brusquely, when I said that to him. I’ve started to dream of how Embassytown will look, from the ship. That’s why I’m at Lilypad Hill every day. Because I can’t wait.
“Good morning, Captain. You’ll come with us.” And I and my crew will take the skiff to orbit, to the ship.
“Ready,” I’ll say, and set the helm beyond void cognita. I’ll push the levers that set us out. Or perhaps the gracious thing will be to allow my first lieutenant to do it. We don’t know how the passage will affect such crew: I’ve warned them that. They’re still insistent.
So perhaps it’ll be Lieutenant Spanish Dancer who’ll instigate that indescribable motion from everyday space through the always. We’ll immerse, into the immer, and into the out.
It would be foolish to pretend we know what’ll happen. We’ll have to see how Embassytown gets shaped.
By Embassytown I mean the city. Even the New Ariekei have started to call the city by that name. they say, or , or .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHINA MIÉVILLE is the author of several books, including Perdido Street Station, The City & The City, and Kraken. His works have won the Hugo, the British Science Fiction Award (twice), the Arthur C. Clarke Award (three times), and the World Fantasy Award. He lives and works in London.