Shadow's End by Sheri S. Tepper Read Free Book Online Page B

as well.
    â€œWhere are you from, little girl?”
    â€œFrom the frontier.”
    â€œDon’t tell lies, little girl. Children don’t come from the frontier.”
    â€œIt’s not a lie! I did so!”
    â€œDon’t contradict me, little girl. Don’t be a nasty, contradictory little liar.”
    Her name hadn’t been Snark then. It had been something else. And she hadn’t wanted to kill people then.That came later, after they’d named her Snark the liar, Snark the thief. Not Snark the murderer, though. She’d never actually killed anybody, though she’d wanted to. Just her luck they’d caught her before she’d done it.
    The judgment machines were clear about that: “You are sentenced to lifetime shadowhood because of your emotional need to breach the first and second rights of man.”
    â€œThey got no right,” Snark had snarled to Susso. “They got no right.”
    â€œWhy don’ they?” he’d asked. “As much as you.”
    â€œThey’re machines,” she’d told him. “On’y machines. I’m a person, a human. The universe was made for me!”
    Susso had shaken his head. “You been listenin’ to some Firster godmonger on the newslink, girl. Some belly-sweller. Some prick-waver. Forget Firsters. They don’t talk for this world. Not for Alliance Central, they don’t. Too many Fastigats on Alliance Central. Fastigats don’t listen to Firsters. This world is different. This world has shadows, and most of the time shadows aren’t human. One third the time, shadows got the right to live like they want except they try an’ hurt somebody. The rest o’ the time, shadows got no rights. That’s the way this world is!”
    Snark knew that. When the invigilators had dragged her before the huge, unbearably shiny robo-judge, they’d read her the words printed across its front: EQUAL JUSTICE; THE SAME REMEDY FOR THE SAME CRIME, EVERY TIME.
    â€œOn Alliance Central, human rights are those rights our people grant one another and enforce for one another,” the machine said in its solemn, mechanical voice. “There are four human rights universally recognized. The first of these is the right of all individuals to do what they choose with an absolute minimum of interference. Man is not required to meet any standard of behavior so long as he is not adversely sensed by any other human. The second right is that of choosing one’s dependents. Persons may not be taxed or otherwise forced to support dependentsthey have not chosen, though they are absolutely required to care for those they have signed for. The third right is to be protected from those who would infringe upon the first two rights through interference or unlawful dependency. Thievery, of which you have been convicted, is a crime of interference and dependency. You have put others to inconvenience and you have supported yourself at others’ expense. You may be brought into alignment with social norms if you so choose. Do you so choose?”
    Of course she hadn’t so chosen. And she never would! Which she’d said, not quite that politely.
    Imperturbably, the machine had gone on: “If one chooses not to be aligned, the fourth human right is to die. Do you choose to die?”
    She hadn’t chosen that either.
    â€œOn Alliance Central, persons choosing neither to be aligned nor to die have only one alternative remaining—to become shadows.”
    Or, as Kane the Brain said later, “Spend two thirds of your time asleep or serving the bureaucracy so they’ll let you think you’re doing what you want one third of your time!”
    Which is what Snark had ended up doing. No fix for her. No having her mind changed so she wouldn’t want to steal anymore. No having her chemistry changed so she wouldn’t want to maim or kill. No, better be herself one third of the time than never be