"A future, from the sounds of it." Soma had to smile a little resignedly at the thought. Most of the patients here came from worlds and times where even the orbital elevators and the readily available renewable energy obtained from them were a distant impossibility. If that wasn't bizarre, she didn't know what was. "2309 is a lot further along than anyone else I've met so far. But as far as I know, the ESF was an extension of the United Nations. Maybe you've heard of that?"

Mr. Conklin had, anyway, and he was from the late twentieth century or thereabouts. That was a start.