David Brin - Infinity's Shore

In fact, the ocean of night is too vast, too busy to be involved in his agony. An evolving universe can hardly be bothered with the problems of a single individual, a member of one of the lower orders of sapient life.

And why should it?

What a privilege it is, to exist at all! On the great balance sheet, he owes the cosmos everything, and it owes him nothing.

Emerson manages to share a final moment of communion with his captain and comrade — not caring whether the grinning dolphin is a ghost, a mirage, or some miraculous true image. Knowing only that Creideiki’s lesson is true.

There is no setback — no wound or blow of cruel fate — that cannot be turned into a song.

For an instant, Emerson can sense music in every ray of starlight.

When the winter’s

Typhoon pounds you,

Onto sand grains,

Sharp and gleaming,

And creation

All-conspiring,

Breaks you on a

Time of Changes,

At the moment

When breath falters,

And your lifeblood

Pours out streaming,

Cast around that

Bright reef, dear friend,

For a gift to

Grant another,

For some way to

Repay forward,

All the favors

You were given.

For in good time

Prospects glitter

Far along Infinity’s Shore.

THE END OF PART TWO

g’Keks — first sooner race to arrive on Jijo, some two thousand years ago. Uplifted by the Drooli, the g’Kek have biomagnetically driven wheels and eyestalks instead of heads. For most of their period of sapiency, they did not live on planets. g’Kek are extinct throughout the Five Galaxies, except on Jijo.

Glavers — third sooner race to reach Jijo. Uplifted by the Tunnuctyur, who were themselves uplifted by the Buyur, glavers are partly bipedal with opalescent skin and large, bulging eyes. Roughly a meter tall, they have a prehensile forked tail to assist their inefficient hands. Since illegally settling Jijo, they devolved to a state of presapience. To some, glavers are shining examples, having shown the way down the Path of Redemption.

Hoons — fifth wave of settlers to arrive on Jijo, bipedal omnivores with pale scaly skin and woolly white leg fur. Their spines are massive, hollow structures that form part of their circulatory system. Hoons’ inflatable throat sacs, originally used for mating displays, are now used for “umbling.” Since their uplift by the Guthatsa, this race found widespread service as dour, officious bureaucrats in Galactic culture.

Humans — the youngest sooner race, arrived on Jijo less than three hundred years ago. Human “wolflings” evolved on Earth; possibly achieving technological civilization and crude interstellar travel on their own. Their greatest accomplishment: the uplifting of neo-chimpanzees and neo-dolphins.

Jophur — organisms resembling a cone of stacked doughnuts; like their traeki cousins, Jophur consist of interchangeable spongy “sap rings,” each with limited intelligence, but combining to form a sapient communal being. Specialized rings give the stack its senses, manipulative organs, and sometimes exotic chemosynthetic abilities. As traeki, this unique species was originally gentle and unaspiring when first uplifted by the Poa. The zealous Oailie later reinvented them by providing “master rings,” transforming the traeki into Jophur, willful and profoundly ambitious beings.

Qheuens — fourth sooner race on Jijo. Uplifted by the Zhosh, qheuens are radially symmetric exoskeletal beings with five legs and claws. Their brain is partly contained in a retractable central dome or “cupola.” A rebel band of qheuens settled Jijo attempting to hold on to their ancient caste system, with the gray variety providing royal matriarchs while red and blue types were servants and artisans. Conditions on Jijo — including later human intervention — provoked the breakdown of this system.

Rothen — a mysterious Galactic race. One human group (the Dakkins or Daniks) believe the Rothen to be Earth’s lost patrons. Rothen are bipeds, somewhat larger than humans but with similar proportions. Believed to be carnivores.

Traeki — second illicit settler race to arrive on Jijo. Traeki are a throwback variant of Jophur, who fled the imposition of master rings.

Tymbrimi — a humanoid species allied with the Earthclan. Known for their cleverness and devilish sense of humor.

Tytlal — a species considered impossible to uplift. Uplifted by the Tymbrimi.

Urs — sixth sooner race on Jijo. Carnivorous, centauroid plains dwellers; they have long, flexible necks, narrow heads, and shoulderless arms ending in dexterous hands. Urs start life as tiny, six-limbed grubs, turned out of their mothers’ pouches to fend for themselves. Any that survive to “childhood” may be accepted into an urrish band. Urrish females reach the size of a large deer, and possess twin brood pouches where they keep diminutive mates, smaller than a house cat. A female with prelarval young ejects one or both husbands to make room for the brood. Urs have an aversion to water in its pure form.

Anglic — a human language created in the twenty-first century, using many English words, but influenced by other pre-contact tongues and modified according to new understandings of linguistic theory.

Biblos — a fortress containing the archive, or hall of books; a combined university/central lending library with profound influence on Jijoan culture.

Bibur — a river running past Biblos, joining the Roney at Tarek Town.

Buyur — former legal tenants of Jijo, froglike in appearance, and known for wit, foresight, and for gene crafting specialized animal tools. Departed when Jijo was declared fallow, almost half a million years ago.

Chimpanzee or “chim”—a partly uplifted variety that accompanied humans to Jijo, mute but able to communicate readily with sign language.

Client — a race still working out a period of servitude to the patrons that uplifted it from presapient animal status.

Danik — a vulgarized term for Danikenite, a cultural movement dating from soon after humanity’s first contact with Galactic civilization. Daniks believe Earthlings were uplifted by a Galactic patron race that chose to remain hidden for unknown reasons. An offshoot cult believes that the Rothen are this race of wise, enigmatic guides. (Also sometimes “Dakkin”)

Day of Judgment — in prophesy, when the Six Races of Jijo will be judged for their crimes. By that time, many hope that their descendants will be like glavers — innocents, far along the Path of Redemption.

Deconstructor — a mechanical device licensed by the Institute of Migration to demolish remnants of technological civilization on a planet declared fallow.

Dolo — a village on the Roney River, famed for papermaking.

Dooden Mesa — oldest and largest g’Kek enclave.

Dross — Any nonbiodegradable waste material, fated to be cast into the Midden, for recycling by Jijo’s tectonic fires.

Dura — Approximately one third of a minute.

Earthclan — a small, eccentric Galactic “family” of sapient races consisting of neo-chimpanzee and neo-dolphin clients and their human patrons.

Egg — see Holy Egg.

Er — a genderless pronoun, sometimes used when referring to a traeki.

Exploser — demolitions expert who mines settlements of the Six Races for quick destruction, should The Day arrive. Guild headquarters in Tarek Town.

Fen — plural of “fin”; Anglic shorthand for a neo-dolphin.

Fist of Stone — a huge shelf of stone above Biblos that has been mined by the explosers, and would serve to destroy the fortress on Judgment Day.

Fractal World or Fractal System — a place of retirement for races that have nearly transcended the Civilization of the Five Galaxies. A huge, diffuse edifice made of hydrogen snow, constructed to surround and use all the energy of a small star.