Barry Longyear - Enemy Papers

There is something so deceptively clean about a knife. Suicide is the powerless one’s illusion of killing the Universe. It is a powerful illusion, though. Its temptation draws me to the edge, but it is at the edge where I remember the words of my old teacher, Bakkni Liu, now dead these thirty years. "It would be a shame to end your life the moment before the talma you need to achieve your goals appears."

That is my fear: to open my veins and have revealed to me the answer I seek just as the last drop of my blood hits the ground. I put the knife away, then, and remind myself that the only entity who knows all the paths of talma is the Universe. As a part of the Universe, I will exercise patience and wait for the rest of the Universe to inform this part what the proper path is.

Cohneret who, under the rule of the wise Ponu Li, studied the role of accidents and their uses, and the rules governing love and the other passions.

Fragment: Cohneret

"In the past are the mistakes we made. In the future are the mistakes we will make. In the present are the mistakes we are making. Curse the mistakes, rail at them, regret them, learn from them. But do not wish for the perfection of time when mistakes will no longer be made, for that is what we call death."

Fragment: Cohneret

Passion is a creature of rules. This does not mean do not love, do not hate. It means that where your passion limits talma, you must step outside of the rules of your love and hate to allow talma to serve you.

Maltak Di and the codification of The Talman , the teachings, and the rituals: systematized problem-solving strategies, investigated truth, observation, and the method of the witness.

Fragment: Maltak Di

"The Talman does not contain all truth, and never will it. For this generation, and for all the generations of all the futures, newer and better truths exist. We must keep The Talman open to these truths, or see talma become another curious myth of the past. To all of those generations and futures, then: if you have such a truth, stand before the Talman Kovah, as did Uhe before the Mavedah, and speak it."

Fragment: Maltak Di

"Choice' is not an empty word that I use, Arlan; it is the nature of our race. To be alive is to have the ability to have goals; to be of this special life, is to have the ability to choose; and to choose anything is to choose goals.

"Without a goal, Arlan, you are simply taking up space not only in this room, and this kovah, but in this Universe. Either find a goal, or turn the space over to one who does have a goal."

Fragment: Maltak Di

And Maltak Di said to the student: "I have sixteen beads in my hand. I’ll give you six beads, how many beads will I have in my hand?"

"You will have ten, Jetah."

"Hold out your hand." And the student did so. Maltak Di then dropped six beads into the student’s hand and opened its own hand to show that it was empty.

"You lied, Jetah!"

"Yes. Your response to my question should have been Jetah, open your hand and let me, first, see the sixteen beads. Instead you answered from ignorance."

"Jetah, that is not fair!"

"Now you answer from stupidity."

Fragment: Maltak Di

Maltak Di drew upon the slate a circle and a square, and then it connected the two figures with two lines. Of the first student, Maltak Di asked: "Nyath, how many different paths are there from the circle to the square?"

"There are two paths, Jetah."

"Nyath, you may not stay; you cannot learn." Maltak Di faced the second student. "Oura, how many different paths are there from the circle to the square?"

"Jetah, if the two paths are repeated turn-in-turn, there can be many."

"Oura, you may stay; perhaps you can learn." Maltak Di faced the third student. "Irrisa, how many different paths are there from the circle to the square?"

"A number without finite limit, Jetah."

"Irrisa, you must stay. Perhaps one day you can teach."

Lita’s further investigations of truth and the realities of illusions

Fragment: Lita

The unintentional chain of events we call an accident describes paths as real as any path planned, diagrammed, and executed in principle with talma. And if the accident alters the present to the more desirable future, this special kind of path has the advantage of having already been proven valid.

Fragment: Lita

"Without a key, a door is a wall. Without a door, a key is but matter. A door with a key in the presence of mind is an opening. Without mind, neither the key, the door, nor the opening can exist.

Fragment: Lita

"Are we to ignore a truth revealed through crime because the method of obtaining the truth is somehow tainted? Nonsense. Truth is truth. The crime would be to ignore it."

Faldaam, first Ovjetah of the Talman Kovah, supervised the movement of the Talman Kovah from Butaan to the new city of Namndas’s Mark. Faldaam investigated the problems of meaning and language.

Fragment: Faldaam

"Words are maps to existence. Once you travel a portion of reality, it is possible to know the meaning of its words. If all you have before you, though, are words, all you can consider are meaningless croaks and marks."

Fragment: Faldaam

The student asked, "Ovjetah, what is knowledge?"

Faldaam studied the question, and the student. "Knowing that you do not know, bright light, is knowledge."

Zineru taught talma through individual and team sports. Its principal work investigates communication and the casting of lessons.

Fragment: Zineru

The learned student has much to contribute to the game. However, the hard truths, the ones that cannot be manipulated, will be told to us by the players.

The players have seen and felt the metal; the students have only theorized about it.

Ro extended the application of the principles of talma to crime and the law. A militant movement among a sect of the Talmani to remove the Myth of Aakva from The Talman was opposed and defeated by Ro. Students of Ro’s were the discoverers of the projected death of the Planet Sindie.

Fragment: Ro

We place these words on paper and carve them into stone which gives them more authority than any words deserve. As future generations learn, these words may become less guides to truth and more objects of mindless reverence unless those future students retain the courage to amend the incorrect and discard the false. Truth above self; truth above family; truth above clan, tribe, and nation; truth above gods; truth above all.

Fragment: Ro

The tool of the one who acts becomes the one who acts. The one who murders is no more responsible than the one who orders the murder and provides the weapon and compensation—and no less.

Atavu was Ovjetah of the Talman Kovah at the time of the civil war between the supporters of the Talmani and the Tieyki, those who would remain. Upon the end of the war and the victory of the Talmani, Atavu and the Jetai Diea of the Talman Kovah left with the generation ships.

Fragment: Atavu

Sometimes I contemplate this awful vastness of the space we travel through. Giant stars are but particles of dust in the scheme of this Universe. And we search for an even smaller particle upon which to refound our race. It is an awesome task. But is it as frightening a task as Uhe’s vision set before it? In out hearts we only challenge the Universe as we know it, and we know it very well.