His conviction is a compulsion not subject to self-preservation. - Jaroslav Kalfař

In this future, we were free of systems. Other humans went on to become symbols, sacrificed their lives to serve. Other humans handled the torture, the coups, the healing. We simply sowed, harvested, and drank a bit before dinner. No one tried to take what was ours. We had too little. We were invisible, and in this slower life we were our own gods.

I have visited a few astronauts, but all three either ignored me or prayed. The senseless chanting, I confess, repulsed me.

Miracles were nonsense, mere coping mechanisms.