“Spaceships aren’t half as glamorous as it probably sounds,” Palamedes says with a grin. “And space itself is a nightmare—gives me awful headaches. Honestly, I never traveled away from the Library very often.”

As they drive down the road, Pal gazes out the window, mesmerized by the sight of the scenery going blurry as they speed up. “Even less than that, in fact. People just write about combustion engines from time to time. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a find-hand account of an automobile in the archives. But they tend to get a mention in discussions of the precipitating events that led to the Resurrection--petroleum’s impact on climate catastrophe, that sort of thing.”

He winces. “Sorry, that probably sounds quite grim from your perspective.”