"We also have the child allowance, which I mentioned, and we give money to old people and people looking for jobs who haven't found one yet and people who are too disabled to work full-time. Disabled people who can work also get money, but a smaller amount, because being disabled is expensive and they might need to pay for takeout food or special computers or other things we wouldn't necessarily think of. Necessary health care is free but if you want something that isn't necessary you'll have to pay for it yourself. There are some other programs that are cheaper-- paying for heating for people who live in cold places, that kind of thing."

This all sounds very complicated but if they have the logistical capacity to make it work more power to them, he supposes. Maybe this is easier to do by hand, and you need good computers to run Ibyabek. "All right."

"How does yours work?"

"People just get what they need without having to deal with money for it. I've never worked in logistics myself, though, I was a soldier."

"Are things... scarce?"

"- well, not everyone needs their own... helicopter, or what have you..."

"Huh. That's... a lovely future. Where things are too cheap to meter. Do you know what technological developments happened--?"

"Well, faster than light travel, and everything necessary for terraforming. I'm not a historian, I'm not sure what you already have in this year and what's yet to come."

"We have... self-driving cars, delivery drones, VR tech that works with touch, artificial wombs that work nearly as well as a biological womb after twenty-four weeks..."

"The owl didn't teach me 'drone' or 'VR'."

"Sorry. A drone is a remote-controlled flying robot, VR is virtual reality."

Kyeo can't help but notice that he has not yet been shown the moon. "Thank you."

"So, uh, you are in fact totally free to go right now, you can walk out the door and go to the public housing and ask for a social worker to help you sign up for food stamps, and I think it's-- important that you know that, that you can do that and no one will stop you. --I guess this is the part of the speech we wrote because we're used to refugees from Gilead and Mexico and Deseret and not from, you know, the utopian future. But that thing works the way you'd probably expect things to work."

"That's good to know. I'm not sure I need to be taking up hospital resources any more, though perhaps the doctors disagree? And also I don't know how to... shop for things..."

"Oh, if you go to the public housing and say you're a refugee and ask for a social worker they can walk you through all that kind of thing, they're trained for helping people who don't know anything. --But we would very much appreciate it if, instead, you would let the Cascadian government help you get a house and food and stuff, and pay you lots of money, and in exchange you let a bunch of linguists and engineers and anthropologists ask you questions about your home society. And eventually journalists although obviously we'll let you take the lead on that."

"That also sounds fine. I would like a look at the moon before we get into anything very substantive."

"The moon usually comes out at night but if you really insist we can probably figure something out? I know I've sometimes seen the moon during the daytime but I do not know where or when you would look if you definitely wanted to see it."

"Will your linguists and engineers be very upset if they have to wait until tomorrow?"

"Not at all, we are reasonably willing to accommodate the stranger from the future."

"I'm glad to hear that. Should I wait here, then, since the - assistance with the house and so on is only for if I'm talking to engineers -"

"If you want to. Or you could go out to a coffeeshop, or a library, or a movie theater, or a park. Or keep talking to me. Whatever you want, really."

"I suppose it has been a while since I've gone for a walk. I don't mind if you join me."

"That sounds like being outside in nature which I hate, and I'm sure you'll get enough of my pleasant company over the next few days." He pulls out a phone. "Do you know how this works-- I assume it seems unimaginably primitive to you--"

"I've seen things like it before." Poke poke.

Lev shows him how to get the phone to search for coffeeshops or movie theaters or libraries or Portland General Hospital, and to call a car, and to give him walking directions to a location, and to pay for things ("don't worry about it, the government put a couple thousand dollars in your account and you'd really have to try to spend all of it in an afternoon"), and if all else fails to send out a distress ping that will get Lev to come collect him.