Oracle

Hugo Award nominated novella. It was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2000. It can be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 6 (2001) edited by David G. Hartwell, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection (2001), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Galileo's Children: Tales of Science vs. Superstition (2005), also edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collections Oceanic (2009) and Crystal Nights and Other Stories (2009). Read the full story for free at the author's website.