the almost-certain knowledge that my wife was long dead. This is one way to overcome marital issues. Orb Ertia was sold to me as a planet unblemished by modern galactic materialism. This is true. It was not the whole truth however. The orb is populated almost entirely by psychologists and psychodynamists, each of them sporting some clever theory about the decline of the empire, or the motivations of the Marquis, or the spirit of history, or the sexual proclivities of the couple next door.
