“Magnificent,” Kandara said quietly, breathing down the humid air, cleaner than anything the South Atlantic winds swept across Copacabana.

“Thank you,” Kruse said in genuine appreciation.

Nebesa’s interior was sixty kilometers long and twelve in diameter. What looked like a splinter of captured sunlight burned sharp along the axis, bathing the interior in a tropical glare. That surface was a mixture of long lakes studded with islands, confined by land coated in a lush rain forest. There were even some mountains, with slender waterfalls tumbling down rocky slopes. Clouds beset with odd curlicues twisted slowly through the air.

They’d emerged at the foot of a gently curving endcap. The base of it formed a ziggurat ring of black-glass balconies, extending two hundred meters above the paving where they stood, a vertical city that made her mildly dizzy tracing its course all the way around the rim until she was looking at the tiny ebony band directly overhead.

“How many people live here?” she asked, trying to do the math without using Zapata. Even if everyone had an apartment ten times the size of hers, the population could be measured in millions.

“Just over a hundred thousand these days,” Kruse said. “It was more than twice that when the terraforming was at its peak. But everyone wanted to move down to Akitha when it was cleared for habitation. Now it’s just the senior grade industrial staff and administration personnel.”

“Uh huh.”

“You sound like you disapprove.”

“I don’t get the Utopial grading system, that’s all. I thought the ethos was equality.”

Kruse gave a quick smile. “Opportunity is equal. People are not. In our society, you can progress as far as your talent and enthusiasm can reach.”

“The same as everywhere.”

“Not quite. Here everyone receives a fair share of society’s produce, no matter the level of practical contribution you make. If you choose to do absolutely nothing for your entire life, you will still be fed and clothed and housed, and given access to medical treatment or education without prejudice. But in reality, a life of total leisure, or sloth, is rarely chosen. It is human nature to want to perform some kind of activity. The difference is we do not require it to be what the old communist and capitalist theories interpret as economically viable. With the introduction of Turings and fabricators, the human race has advanced to a technology level that has given us a self-maintaining industrial base. It can provide consumerist products at practically zero cost. Nobody should be regarded as a parasite or sponger, as your media condemns and shames your underclass. Here, if you wish to devote your life to developing obscure philosophy, or an artistic endeavor that is outside the mainstream, that is to be welcomed and encouraged as much as someone who commits to designing new technology or researching pure science.”

“Some are more equal than others?”