Points of Light
The orbital artillery barrage was in its third hour. They huddled in the storm drains and hoped the generators would hold out.
"Mommy, why do the Eightworlders hate us so much?"
"Well, Lisa, they worship the True Spheres differently than we do."
"Differently?"
"Long ago, they decided that they would no longer worship any but the largest of the True Spheres. They denied Pluto first, then Ceres, and so on."
"But... if they no longer worship Pluto, how can they not live in fear of cold and death? Without Ceres, what makes their plants grow?"
"These are hard questions, little one, and I don't have the answers."
"I hate the Eightworlders. I hope they all die."
"Hush, child. The Spheres don't want us to hate. They only want us to respect them, to worship each and every one in its own way, and that is what we must do. Someday, the war will end."
But above them, the angry thunder of impact after impact continued, as if to say: the war will never end, the war will never end, the war will never end.
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For consideration: mortal definitions for immortal things
"Mommy, why do the Eightworlders hate us so much?"
"Well, Lisa, they worship the True Spheres differently than we do."
"Differently?"
"Long ago, they decided that they would no longer worship any but the largest of the True Spheres. They denied Pluto first, then Ceres, and so on."
"But... if they no longer worship Pluto, how can they not live in fear of cold and death? Without Ceres, what makes their plants grow?"
"These are hard questions, little one, and I don't have the answers."
"I hate the Eightworlders. I hope they all die."
"Hush, child. The Spheres don't want us to hate. They only want us to respect them, to worship each and every one in its own way, and that is what we must do. Someday, the war will end."
But above them, the angry thunder of impact after impact continued, as if to say: the war will never end, the war will never end, the war will never end.
------
For consideration: mortal definitions for immortal things