Denis Zakarov was dissatisfied with his life. And who will be happy if youth is spent on the outskirts of the Federation, among endless wastelands and industrial zones? No normal food, no career prospects. And even in a brand new aircar there’s nowhere to fly. And somewhere out there, among the dim stars of the smog-shrouded sky, powerful corporations are fighting for new technologies, the police are chasing pirates, and desperate psychos, who cannot be called otherwise, go in search of lost treasures. And you sit here, chew a protein bar and repair an autonomous drill that was broken by some local idiot. How could he know that the universe takes all our wishes in pencil, so that one day, laughing maliciously, it will fulfill them wholesale...