Owner 14 rests his wavering hand, covered with paper-thin skin, on my own and looks up at me with jaundiced eyes. “Turn the heat up, will you, Pal?” Once—thirty-five years ago, back before he turned eighty-five—he complained of the rooms never being cool enough....

I’m a fraud. That said, you know half of what you need to know about me. I’ll tell you the rest now, and it’ll be the truth. I’m an honest fraud. Damkina came up with the idea. We’d known each other as kids, me and Damkina, we grew up in the same House....

The company keeps a tight leash on us whenever possible. This party is no exception. They shuttle us to a big hotel, escort us to the ballroom, and shut the doors. Guards with impressive shoulders and amber glasses stand in front of each exit....

“I assume we’re talking about the boy from The Emperor?” “That’s right. Dennis Dontzov, according to his documents. Obviously, he never had any documents, it’s only now that . . .” “I understand.” “He is now thirteen years old. He was conceived and born during the expedition....

“What are we doing here?” That was the question I asked my late wife, Onyinye, the evening she flew us to the surface for our honeymoon. Being an evolved, she earned much more than I did and had promised me a grand post-wedding vacation....

Popular culture failed to prepare me for first contact. Countless starships bristling with canon and rail gun turrets did not fill the skies. The aliens didn’t flood our television and radio bands with messages of conquest or world peace or miracle cures....