I Am a Skroderider

[bnewman]

Skroderiders are one of several iconic alien races in Vernor Vinge's classic A Fire Upon the Deep— cyborgs consisting of a sessile, frond-like intertidal animal and a wheeled cart with computing faculties. Behind this marriage of organic and machine components lies a long-forgotten legend and ultimately a deep tragedy (but spoilers!). "41 Thunderer" by Dave Carter also tells a tragic story of a person whose soul becomes entangled with a machine.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "41 Thunderer" by Dave Carter

listen to this song
 

/: E - Bm E - / A C#m D E - :/

 

On a tidewater planet at the back of Beyond

We grew up to sentience as bundles of fronds

Rocked by the swell and the breakers that beat

Our thoughts ever dwelling on events that repeat

 

But our race was uplifted, nobody knows when

By a Power that never was heard from again

Equipped with this tool for a world that confronts

The mind with events that occur only once

 

/ A - - - / E - A E / 1st / E C#m A E / - C#m D E ... /

 

I am a Skroderider, and a shrewd fair-dealer

A sea pen plugged in to a square six-wheeler

This trusty contraption bears my mental load

But it's nobody's ever read all of its code

I am a Skroderider, and this is my Skrode

 

It keeps track of my plans and my hopes and my fears

As with all of my folk for a billion years

And its memory traces, they feel like my own

But its parts form a pattern both wise and unknown

 

I am a Skroderider... I live by my Skrode

 

/ G - F# F / E - - - / G - F#m F / A - - - /

/ C - Bm Bb / D - - - / Am - G F#m / - - B - - - /

 

We shipped out from Relay in a dazzle of sea-spray

For someone worth rescuing, duty or destiny

Out from the crumbling Docks with their agravs unraveling

The Net was a lie burning brimstone and reckoning

Each ping a point of pain

'Til the sand on the beach showed in intimate violence

A horror we'd much rather die than explain

 

Even so, Demon Power, when the long flight is through

I am nobody's tool, though I know that it's true

That hardware malfunctions, and software betrays

But I've remained trusty to the end of my days

 

I am a Skroderider... I'll die with my Skrode