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You think you want him. You don’t even know him! Why don’t you hire yourself, for God’s sake? Find a man who actually wants a woman like you? Make yourself happy for a change, have a real relationship, stop fooling around with other people’s lives. “God! “ Rosaleen cried. “She really did a number on your program, Preep! Admit it! Ellis would have had me regrown if she’d known how to do it! You hate me, not my methods—you probably hate yourself, too. You’re not so bloody pure of heart! Now if you don’t leave me alone I’ll— “ she hesitated. The preep smirked. “— I’ll kill myself! “ The smirk widened into a smile and EllisPreep burst out laughing. “Look! “ Rosaleen continued, “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe it’s my genes that are up to something? “ EllisPreep raised an eyebrow. “Or that maybe putting up with you and my self-obsessed customers has gotten to me on some physical level? Maybe I’m the one who needs out of this over-regulated hell. Can you even imagine that? “ She clenched her fists in frustration. “Maybe Naseef looks good because he is good. Maybe I need to make a baby that’s completely different from me and everything I ever knew in order to bring something precious back into my life. Maybe I have no choice in this! “ The preep stared, a pitiless look on its face. And who is responsible for this over-regulated hell? Rosaleen slumped in her chair. “Oh, you can’t blame me for that. Lots, but not that. Am I responsible for xenophobia now? “ What did I want to do with the phenotypic profiling, Rosaleen? “Go away. Please, “ she whispered, “just go away. “ What else could you have done with the power to read people so utterly, the power to change them on the minutest levels—what good could you have done with such a thing? “Right. What could I have done? The mind simply boggles. “ Rosaleen rested her forearm across her eyes. “Maybe, Mother, I don’t want that kind of power over other people’s lives. Maybe I don’t want that much power over my own. Maybe I just want to set my boat adrift, without a compass, without an oar, and see where I land. “ And you think that’s what you’re doing? You bloody fool. Rosaleen felt weak. “Go, “ she said, in a barely audible voice. “Please, for God’s sake, leave me in peace. “ And, for the moment, it did. # Rosaleen tended the balcony plants. Tropical in origin, generous in growth, they swayed gently in the breeze coming off the frozen 153
lake, a breeze that was continually warmed and moistened at the perimeter of the balustrade. She trimmed unwanted growth, plucked bruised leaves, tested soil chemistry. On her knees in front of a particularly handsome bromeliad, she asked herself—or rather, she asked the bromeliad—The Question. Why didn’t she? Why didn’t she just do the test, find the match, take the plunge? Someone must be out there with the same hopes, tolerances, aspirations as she. Why did she crave the unknown, lust for something so unlike herself? Was it as simple as Ellis made it sound? Was she just jealous, just looking for revenge? Somehow she suspected that Ellis herself had injected her with this desire; set her up to long for someone like him. Was she nuts, or was it just good genetics? While she was out finding the well-heeled lovelorn their perfect matches, depleting the pool of vigour and growth, perhaps her own genes were forcing her toward a desperate mixing of the blood. Was that idea crazier than any other? Then again, maybe it was just perversity. Knowing that she was too great a traitor, too awful a person to deserve anything good, and knowing that she ran no risk that he would ever have her, he was safe to want. “Is that it? “ she asked aloud. The bromeliad said nothing, naturally. The breeze played kindly with her hair, petting and twisting the strands gently in its grasp. There must be something she could do. # Dear Miss Lonelygenes, The letter glowed in front of her. A motionless, image-only holo of a young Semitic woman was suspended next to it in the air. I know there is little point in my writing to you. Neither I nor my family are wealthy and my needs are great. Still, I hope you will understand, and take pity on me. My family is from Egypt. Very old and very traditional. But I grew up here, and I don’t think like them. I’m like my friends in school. I have the same dreams, the same habits. I’ve never taken an interest in Islam, and have had many arguments with my parents and my brothers and sister over this and other things. They want me to be more traditional, maybe even to wear the higab, but definitely to embrace Islam and marry a good Muslim man. For my cousin Ruqaiya, this is fine. 154
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A MOSQUE AMONG THE STARS Edited by:
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Muha
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Outside the world of fiction, the M
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A A WALK WALK THROUG THROUGH THROUG
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Sunsets from the perspective of the
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"Yeah. People in heaven intercede f
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urned all over, except on their fac
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"Hey, Baxter!" "Yeah?" Wilson wants
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"I understand the corporal's logic.
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long-standing thing he's had for he
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· · · · · "A state of things i
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"Fuck," says Wilson again—there s
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of the forest's boundary. Through g
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"Devil's loose in the world, man. W
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eally tight, they were flimsily ali
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enough to see the wall itself, no e
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to convince her that a walk in the
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puts on his tunes, transmits them t
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while, too. Calling him Charlie mea
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against the crush of force and logi
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ack a few days after a year dirtsid
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was going to buy me trouble I didn'
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we all sat on our goddamned hands!"
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"The med staff recommended you for
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headed for the door. Geir's voice c
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and sullen scowl, his brown face do
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Pajit off the station. Then the fla
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inform you, I am a callous son of a
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Themba on his break. He was alone l
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elic from the years before standard
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"Let me get this straight. Are you
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ORGANIC GEOMETRY Andrew Ferguson An
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Then, to their amazement, the US-ma
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singing birds. Yet it was a good en
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the door and walked in, right at th
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“Mom. Dad.” He spoke softly, im
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Martyrdom The day was bright. Overh
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“We?” “Tony and I.” “Oh T
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worship that is done in fear of pun
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Dusk fell. Inevitably, Anil’s tho
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Cultural Clashes in Cádiz Jetse de
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grand reception room, the Hall of t
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"Ferdinand's Reconquista almost got
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"According to theory. But I very mu
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to the wrong receiver. But such a t
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*III: Second Variety?* Cádiz! One
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please his majesty. He looks like t
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Not that he ever married for love.
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harbor to the extra ornaments of th
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oots on the plateau's marble floor.
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With Ibn al'Arabi preaching love, p
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The cries, shouted almost simultane
Page 107 and 108: "Master, there is uncertainty linge
Page 109 and 110: In the middle of the main street fi
Page 111 and 112: The crowd can't believe it: the mad
Page 113 and 114: wanted to test each other's strengt
Page 115 and 116: ibbon in the exact middle between t
Page 117 and 118: too fatigued to even discuss settin
Page 119 and 120: "Most of which also didn't take the
Page 121 and 122: Servant Servant of of Iblis Iblis H
Page 123 and 124: “No, I did not.” The merchant f
Page 125 and 126: She nodded swiftly as we turned up
Page 127 and 128: I did as he bade, but soon regrette
Page 129 and 130: “We are beneath the river,” Dab
Page 131 and 132: not a subtle being, but can obey si
Page 133 and 134: I did not guess his meaning then, a
Page 135 and 136: mentally, while others I hadn't rea
Page 137 and 138: with his hands as he described a ne
Page 139 and 140: into his mouth and sucking the bott
Page 141 and 142: hair as one would a child, or the w
Page 143 and 144: way, so far from everything I knew,
Page 145 and 146: other room to join in my exuberance
Page 147 and 148: By that last day on Mars we had our
Page 149 and 150: in low gravity I was too weak to st
Page 151 and 152: Some rebels still went for the Dist
Page 153 and 154: forward. It was seated in a clothes
Page 155 and 156: oth, and simultaneously in the offi
Page 157: Someone was staring at her. Naseef.
Page 161 and 162: Rania settled down to learn whateve
Page 163 and 164: Recompense Recompense Pamela Kenza
Page 165 and 166: Gossett uttered a rough grunt, and
Page 167 and 168: the cannons. Lash oil cloth over th
Page 169 and 170: great iron cook pot, which was to b
Page 171 and 172: ipped through the Adeline’s timbe
Page 173 and 174: trussed behind their backs, each gu
Page 175 and 176: in their places within the hold, mo
Page 177 and 178: interwoven diamonds blazed on his s
Page 179 and 180: “Don’t move an inch,” Abubaka
Page 181 and 182: his memory. Perhaps he could sell h
Page 183 and 184: “Yes. Before the white man stole
Page 185 and 186: A Straight Path Through the Stars K
Page 187 and 188: and whole texture bore the sonic ma
Page 189 and 190: Maqood turned around. “Sam, I jus
Page 191 and 192: His thoughts floating in foul, life
Page 193 and 194: “C’mon, people,” Golmohammadi
Page 195 and 196: “That was the hard part, but with
Page 197 and 198: For a Little Price Tom Ligon An ant
Page 199 and 200: She frowned. "You get married or so
Page 201 and 202: drops sub-light, then kill the engi
Page 203 and 204: Titters of laughter came from the o
Page 205 and 206: holy verse. He could not believe th
Page 207 and 208: disarray despite the hurried effort
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"Let's examine that," Raj said thou
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He motioned for me to open the fold
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someone the crew likes and respects
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On the initial part of my journey I
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New, Improved Grapes Hussein Daryad
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"I am afraid for our souls, Shahid,
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"Well, Jeremy and Iheany got into i
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would come around, and did not want
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Gate, that most of 'em decide to go
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From the Confessions: Of the origin
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and struck me with all of his stren
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spreading crumbs through the ship.
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From the Confessions: There were le
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embrace, and simply admit to being
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Hussein laughed. “Closer than you
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“I don’t think I’ll be able t
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put an EVA-suited team on standby i
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switched the intercom monitor to AL
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second, choose a victim who will ev
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yes. we’re blind. indicate positi
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At that, Annette looked at her moni
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I have welcomed the trial and the d
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To those I have wronged the most, t
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the story came to my mind very vivi
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