STAND OFF

"Mr. Charlie has found a way to rig the bore drill to detonate on his command. He's threatening to blast apart the whole of Phoboi Twelve. He says he'd rather die than be locked into a machine again."

"Incredible. But why are you risking our lives? What do you care?"

"I am C-P programmed to care. I have been built to be fascinated by human beings. Naturally, when I received a distress signal from an archaic human, I had to go to him."

"And if we rescue him," Mei asked, "then what? Where can we go with him?" "There's only one place. The renegade colony on Mars. where the archaic humans

are holding out. Solis."

"Attanasio is a poet, a seer and a born storyteller, who writes with heart, authentic life wisdom, and staggering, world-class imagination. There are no limits to what he may accomplish."

-David Payne, author of Early From the Dance

By A. A. Attanaslo

SOLIS*

THE MOON'S WIFE* KINGDOM OF THE GRAIL* HUNTING THE GHOST DANCER* WYVERN*

RADIX

*available from HarperPaperbacks

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Contents

Prelude

1. The Laughing Life

2. Remains of Adam

3. Terra Tharsis

4. The Avenue of Limits

5. Nycthemeral Journeys

6. Solis

7. Zero in the Bone

Epilogue

Prelude

SWOLLEN WITH DREAMS, I AWOKE FROM THE DEAD. When I tried to speak, all I could utter were small animal sounds. So I just lay there in the dark, silent in the secret sea of images and memories that make our dreams. I saw a beautiful woman making love to me. Her face was porcelain, glossy with the sweat of her