“Professor Daghdev,” the commandant tells me, “you are a convicted dissident and heterodox thinker. You have been sent to the extrasolar camps. Because they know, back home, what our situation here is, you were diverted to one of the least lethal destinations within human reach. But Kiln will still kill you, sooner or later. It kills them all, the Labour. It’s what the Labour is for. It’s what you’re for. But in recognition of the assistance you can provide, I am offering you the opportunity for it to be later.”
