All right. I owe you a character. Should we buy another one?” Ross chuckled. “Now you’re getting the hang of it.” He sighed. “No, let’s see if we can… - Daniel Suarez

For average working folks, America was becoming a puzzle. Who was buying all these two-hundred-dollar copper saucepans, anyway? And how was everyone paying for these BMWs? Were people shrewd or just stupefyingly irresponsible?

Adisa did manage to tune in Earth radio stations, and occasionally he would play music or news throughout the habs. The news was strangely the same — war, political crisis, and celebrity.

And yet on Earth, we spend a trillion dollars on war without blinking an eye. With each passing year, the chance of a global catastrophe mounts — the climate, an epidemic, a financial crash, or a war that shrouds Earth in space debris and prevents us from reaching space. Possibly ever again. Humanity’s future depends on going — now, not later.