Night Shade BookS preSeNtS For your hugo award “BeSt Short Story” CoNSideratioN: ted ChiaNg’S “exhalatioN”Night Shade BookS SaN FraNCiSCoedited By JoNathaN StrahaNEclipseNight Shade BookS preSeNtS For your hugo award “BeSt Short Story” CoNSideratioN: ted ChiaNg’S “exhalatioN”aS puBliShed iNEclipse Two ?? 2008 by Jonathan StrahanThis excerpt rom Eclipse Two ?? 2009 by Night Shade BooksJacket art ?? 2007 by Donato GiancolaJacket design by Michael FuscoInterior layout and design by Jeremy LassenDigital EditionEclipse Two: New Science Fiction and FantasyISBN: 978-1-59780-136-2Night Shade Books Please visit us on the web at http://www.nightshadebooks.com“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang. ?? 2008 Ted Chiang. Published by kind permission o the author.exhalatioNted ChiaNgit has long been said that air which others call argon is the source o lie. This is not in act the case and I engrave these words to describe how I came to understand the true source o lie and as a corollary the means by which lie will one day end. For most o history the proposition that we drew lie rom air was so obvious that there was no need to assert it. Every day we consume two lungs heavy with air every day we remove the empty ones rom our chest and replace them with ull ones. I a person is careless and lets his air level run too low he eels the heaviness o his limbs and the growing need or replenishment. It is exceedingly rare that a person is unable to get at least one replacement lung beore his installed pair runs empty on those unortunate occasions where this has happened—when a person is trapped and unable to move with no one nearby to assist him—he dies within seconds o his air running out. But in the normal course o lie our need or air is ar rom our thoughts and indeed many would say that satisying that need is the least important part o going to the lling stations. For the lling sta-tions are the primary venue or social conversation the places rom which