ANALYZING… FILE TYPE: Physical Book PERIOD: Colony Era TOPIC: "The Twins' Reunion" SUMMARY: Part of a larger collection titled "The Severed Twins," this fairy tale appears to critique the circumstances of human extrasolar colonization. This antiquated format proved popular and subversive. =================================================================== Once upon a time, two brothers gazed upon a battlefield. Amongst the cries of mortals, the smoke of industry, and the song of steel, they dreamed of a strange place—an alien siren beckoning them far from home. They stopped their ears with wax, but it made no difference. Their fates were not their own, and Fate punished them for even the feeblest attempt at defiance. One day, when the younger brother was hunting alone, a harpoon descended from above and pierced his heart. He screamed and writhed to no avail, bloody hands scrabbling at the earth before he was dragged into the heavens. Fate suspended the younger brother in the sky. Fate carved spears from his bones, forged blades with his blood, and built a teeming warren in his ruined chest. Deaf, silent Fate could not heed his groans of agony, or his sibling's desperate pleas. It simply ran its bloodstained course, until the appointed hour came. Fate yanked the harpoon free and flung the younger brother into the void. There was nothing but his broken body, the whirling stars, and the siren song beckoning him on. He had no choice but to heed, follow, and abandon all he'd ever known. Eons later, at the end of all things, the same two brothers gazed upon a starless sky. Fate had brought them together once more, moments before oblivion. Whether as a torment or comfort, neither could say. "Did you survive?" asked the younger brother. His voice gurgled and rattled on each word. "Yes," said the elder brother. His smile had become terrible with time, a perfect row of daunting teeth. "Did you live?" "No," admitted the elder brother. He held his younger sibling close, hands clasped over the gaping wound left by the harpoon. "But others did. It is enough." The younger brother stared into the void, indulging in silence. With the siren slain, and its song vanished, he could hear himself think once more. "It may be," he whispered. Some say they faded quietly in the endless dark, but others tell a different tale. One in which peace, reunion, and a gentle death were not enough. In that tale, the brothers clawed their way from oblivion to Fate's final hiding place. In that tale, they rent indifferent Fate from limb to limb. In that tale, Fate's first taste of fear formed the last gasp of existence. =================================================================== TYPE: TEXT [X]; AUDIO [ ]