Ignoring the breeder, Emile walked to a porthole and looked outside. The stupendous bubblecity was visible beyond the lush hexacres of green farm land, with jagged mountains faintly discernible in the far distance. Beyond the rocky sentinels was the ultimate blackness, darker than even interstellar space where a trillion blazing stars tried to banish the eternal night. Down here, there was no light, except for the rare phosphorescence of exotic tubers from the depths and what Substitute suns humanity brought along with them.