“All the land on Earth is covered in this material. The whole world looks artificial,” the captain said, and laughed at the ambassador’s flabbergasted expression, as if to say, This surprise is only the beginning! The ambassador also saw her own shadow in the crystal—or rather, shadows—spreading out from her in all directions. She looked up …

Six suns.

“It’s the middle of the night, but night was gotten rid of two hundred years ago. What you see are six mirrors, each several hundred square kilometers in area, in synchronous orbit to reflect sunlight onto the dark side of the Earth.”

“And the mountains?” The ambassador realized that the line of mountains on the horizon was nowhere to be seen. The separation between ground and sky was ruler-straight.

“There aren’t any. They’ve been leveled. All the continents are flat plains now.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

To the ambassador, the six suns were like six welcoming lamps in a bright hotel lobby. A lobby! The idea glimmered in her mind. This was, she realized, a peculiarly clean age. No dust anywhere, not even a speck. It beggared belief. The ground was as bare as an enormous table. And the sky was similarly clean, shining with a pure blue, although the presence of the six suns detracted from its former breadth and depth, so that it more resembled the dome of a lobby. A lobby! Her vague idea crystallized: The entire world had been turned into a lobby. One carpeted in tinkling crystal and lit by six hanging lamps. This was an immaculate, exquisite age, contrasting starkly with the previous darkness. In the time immigrants’ chronicles, it would be known as the Lobby Age.

“They didn’t come to greet us?” the ambassador asked, gazing upon the broad plain.

“We have to visit them in person in the capital. Despite its refined appearance, this is an inconsiderate age, lacking even in basic curiosity.”

“What’s their stance on immigration?”

“They agree to accept migrants, but they can only live in reservations separated from society. Whether these reservations are to be located on Earth or on other planets, or if we should build a space city, is up to us.”

“This is absolutely unacceptable!” the ambassador said angrily. “All migrants must be integrated into society and into modern life. Migrants cannot be second-class citizens. This is the fundamental tenet of time migration!”

“Impossible,” the captain said.

“That’s their position?”

“Mine as well. But let me finish. You’ve just been thawed out, but I’ve been living in this age for more than half a year. Please believe me, life is far stranger than you think. Even in your wildest imagination you’d never dream up even a tenth of life in this age. Primitive Stone Age humans would have an easier time understanding the era we are from!”