Sachin “Cheddarboy” Rapalski hailed from an amazingly long line of Wisconsin dairy farmers who had weathered the twenty-third century’s ecocatastrophe with the zeal and perseverance of ancient American pioneers. Cheddarboy’s call sign had been chosen for him by his flight school instructor, who had used it as chide so often that it stuck. Of course the pale, baby-faced jock with the body of a fence picket hated cheddar cheese; in fact, he hated all cheese except the mozzarella on a well-done pepperoni pizza.