Bill sighed. "When I was your age, we didn't have the fancy download-the-whole-friggin'-net-in-two-seconds implants." He pulled out a worn book and put it on the desk in front of me. "Back then, we read print..." He tapped his finger on the cover. "Nothing to do? Get some common sense." Cough.

The book was titled Destiny for a New You. Its cover had a chimpanzee staring up at a departing UFO: typical artwork for anything advocating Destiny Of Ordered Mankind. In my mind, I saw those people gathering around the sandcastle and their devotion to the kid who built it. I wondered whether the alien-plants-seed junk was any different. "One star goes boom and suddenly all mankind loses their minds." I slid the book back across the desk.

"What star?"

I looked at him like he was an idiot. "The supernova. Where have you been? It's outside your house right now."

"Well, I'm sure it's very nice," he replied in the same condescending way, "but that stuff isn't for me. Thanks anyway."

I drank from my slampak and started back down the hallway. "Just make sure your new religion doesn't get in the way of my career, okay?"

"Religion? What's in your head, kid? The Celestials are out there, it's proved by science!"

"Rek, Rek, Rek," I muttered as I stepped outside, thinking of how I'd wasted another fifteen minutes of my life.