"Miserable. But not unlike how things were on Venus," I answer, because that much is true enough. I remember the way Westerns used to be when I was a kid, the scenery, the dialogue, all of it. Some of it's remained in present day back home, things like the wide-brimmed hats and, sometimes, for the die-hard, the boots. (I've got a mean pair of white boots myself, and of them I've always been quite fond.) But these days, it isn't usually the swirling dust that becomes the feature of the scene, but instead the endless spread of stars speckling the sky.

I'd say that's one of the few things that's improved. That aesthetic.

But Venus is much like this. Hot as sin, and the only people who like living there are the people who have enough to pay for air-conditioning. What I wouldn't do for some of that right now.

"So, out with it," I say. "Whatever questions or pearls of wisdom you're here with."