With a deep sigh, Hilda suggests that the lucky ones perished during the first wave of plague. That was when optimism still prevailed, at least among the young. “Oh what I would not give to feel the sweet pain of youth and beauty again,” she sighs looking up at the sky. “Do you remember when the sky was filled with birds instead of flying machines?” Gazing at the murky sky filled with drones and flying vehicles, she imagines how it would be to live in the lunar or Mars colonies. In a soft voice of self-pity, she mumbles into her I-cell that she could have preserved her youthful look in outer space, if only she was born into a family of Life Lords. After the plague, government and media have convinced the public that space travel is the new Garden of Eden.
Although the walk to the Dream Di
