KUIPER BELT—OGDEN ENTERPRISESThorpe and Braxton, in the flesh, sat in easy chairs facing Daphne’s desk, surrounded by the magnificent emptiness of the Kuiper Belt against a background of an impossibly bright Milky Way. Appearing as a swath of multicolored stars that stretched across most of the visible sky, the Milky Way rotated slowly counterclockwise, completing one full rotation every ninety seconds. Kimberly had left her desk to join them. Dr. Fredricks remained at his desk, working on his latest project.
“Thanks to Sally’s and Brad’s nanobots,” Thorpe said, “We have the first Mars settlement ready for occupation. Its capacity is ten thousand people. We can handle a few hundred incoming new residents at a time.”
Braxton projected a holoimage from his Link that showed the location of
