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no anger behind the words. He looked pale and deflated. The crowd at my back murmured.
    "Xiaohao broke ties with the Ecclesia to bring us his soil. Don't you see--" I looked for the words, smiled when I found them. "Don't you see that he followed your example? You traveled into space to protect us, and we honor you for that. Everyone honors you. But Xiao went further. He left the country . And just like you, he came back triumphant."
    More murmurs rose behind me, and a few cheers.
    Papa was silent.
    "Listen," I said. "We outnumber you. These people are from all over the city; you don't even have jurisdiction over most of them. If you ask those officers to fire on us, you break the law of the city and call chaos down on everyone's heads. All for nothing. You don't want that."
    He opened his mouth. Closed it. Tears filled his eyes, and his entire body slumped. The hardsuits beside him began to lower their weapons.
    "Mere anarchy," Papa said, barely audible. "Mere anarchy is loosed..."
    And then he raised the pistol to his head.
    "No!" shouted Xiaohao. The officer at Papa's side whipped around with incredible, suit-augmented speed, slapped the gun from Papa's hand. No shot sounded, but Papa collapsed as if he'd pulled the trigger, and the officers around him struggled to hold him up. Xiao and I ran forward.
    "He's alive," said the officer who bore most of his weight. "He fainted." Xiao, stricken, reached out to touch his father's face. I doubted he would have reacted differently if Papa were dead--tears ran down his flushed cheeks, and he squinted with the effort of holding tears back. Papa, for his part, looked peaceful. You might have mistaken the curl of his lips for a smile.
    "Xiao," I said. "Come on."
    " We almost killed him ," said Xiaohao. "We almost. I never meant..."
    He trailed off. I touched his shoulder.
    "I know," I said softly. "But we stopped him from having to kill us ."
    The sun bore down. The city watched us. Finally, I turned and began to march up the gravel road. After a moment, Xiao jogged to catch up. As we approached the hut, my wi-mo asked if I wished to link to device "XiXi." I declined. The door was locked, but Quonset hut doors were only so strong.
    "I think he wanted you to succeed," I said, activating the arc knife.
    Xiao wiped his eyes with his wrist. "Are you kidding?"
    "No. I think he followed every protocol, but secretly hoped that you would succeed."
    "What could possibly make you think that?"
    "He kept your wi-mo."
    Xiao's eyes moistened again. I slashed off the lock and kicked open the door. Cool air spilled out, and half a dozen smartfans twisted around to regard us. Behind us, hundreds of feet scratched the gravel path. Eager to join us, eager to walk on the earth of Yunhe.
    The new town wouldn't look like Xiao's sim--I knew that already. Parts of his fantasy would persist into the real world, maybe, but every single person who had saved us would have an idea about what the new Yunhe should look like, how it should work. I couldn't wait to hear what they had to say. I couldn't wait for the arguments, the compromises, the beautiful reality.
    We fell into our father's house and found the key.

    Ecclesia is social, networked. Borderless, we've currency. Weaponless, we've teeth. Metanation creed: union in the interstices. All welcome.

    --Eric Gregory--

The Greenman Watches the Black Bar Go Up, Up, Up
    Jacques Barcia
    T he moment Shine was announced, I received enthusiastic messages from around the world. Not just from the western world--although, make no mistake, these were very welcome, as well--but quite a lot from the world at large. For some unfathomable reason there were a lot of encouragements from the Philippines and Brazil.
    Unfortunately, while I did get quite a few good submissions from the Philippines, none of them made the final cut for Shine--although some came close. Blame your editor. Similarly, I did get quite a few from Brazil, as well, and while I had to turn several down, I'm