"G'day. - a framing illustration, that's innovative."

The summoner (the real one, not the one in the picture) appears shocked by the appearance of the demon.

"What - Where did you come from? What are you doing here?"

"...didn't anyone ever tell you not to draw on the floor, dude?"

"Fuck their fucking rules! There's nowhere else to draw in this fucking place! Back on earth I could draw where I wanted! If they didn't want me drawing on the floors they shouldn't have taken me to this blasted station!"

"Wow, that was more of a commentary on the wisdom of summoning demons incompetently rather than anything to do with your present residential situation but I sense I touched a nerve there."

"I - what? Summoning demons? Wait, you're talking about my picture?

"Wait, was that meant to be a joke?"

He seems confused and off-balance, but no longer as angry or scared.

"...well, what do you think happened here, you drew a circle on the floor and here's a demon standing in it."

"I have no idea what is happening here, and while I appreciate your sense humour I would appreciate it more if you could stop joking for long enough to explain what you're doing in my room."

"I am seriously no joking here because you summoned me."

"How did I summon you? I didn't mean to summon anyone. What capacity are you here in?"

"You drew on the floor, that's how demon summoning works. I'm not sure what you mean by capacity. Usually people summon us on purpose and want something and have something in mind to trade for it."

"I realise education on Earth isn't great, but I would definitely expect to have heard if drawing on the floors of space stations summoned demons."

"Yeah, I would have expect you to have heard of this too. I'm leaning 'alternate universe'?"

"Alternate universe?"

"Yeah, where I'm usually summoned we're common knowledge, here not so much."

"So there's - hell, and another world you're normally summoned to, and here? And people here don't know about you because they don't draw on the floor in space stations?"

"I guess! I don't know why this would be the first summoning circle ever to work in this universe, they're not that hard to stumble upon."

"Yeah. Is it literally just drawing a circle on the floor and writing 'I summon a demon' around it in Greek? People have spoken Greek for thousands of years. We have myths about demons. Maybe people did summon them and then they forgot and decided they were a myth?"

"It doesn't even have to be Greek. I... guess it's not totally impossible that everybody on my side thought the two Earths were one Earth till this one forgot about summoning being a thing you could really do but I'd be so surprised."

"I guess it's kind of comforting to know that you're confused as to what's going on too. So, you're a demon? What does that entail?"

"Demons can make stuff." He materializes a donut hole and eats it.

"That doesn't explain much, but I suppose I don't know if I'd be any good at explaining what being a human entails either. Um, when people summon you how does that normally work? I think the myths say that people sell their souls and get magic powers. I don't want to sell my soul."

"That's okay, I don't want it. I usually go for media recommendations and will take tourist trips. I can't give you magic powers, just stuff."

"I haven't been keeping up with media for more than a decade, and I can't afford a tourist trip. I remember Daisy Wilson's books being good, but I don't know if that's just nostalgia. What are you offering in the way of stuff? I could definitely use some more stuff."

(The apartment is undecorated and sparsely furnished, and what furniture and possessions are in it all appear cheap and low-quality.)

"...any kind of stuff? At all? Not antimatter."

"Wow. Could I have, uh, a luxury space station like the Paulos all to myself? A luxury spaceship to get me there? A hundred billion dollars? A robot army to take my home back from Zijin? A knighthood? An art degree from a fancy school and a job where I get payed to do art? A destructive brain scanning device and a computer server capable of running an upload? Something nice to eat?"

"Counterfeiting money is unwise for reasons unrelated to its physical representation. A knighthood is not stuff and neither is a degree. I'd need a good place to put the space station and the spaceship, and also, knowing how to fly a spaceship isn't stuff. If you folks have invented army-type robots and brain scanners for uploads I could copy them but might want to think about that for a while and learn some background context first. What do you like to eat?"

"I don't know enough about astronomy to tell you where a good place would be to put a space station, and I suppose a building permit probably isn't stuff either. It probably doesn't matter what you make me, if you can't make social constructs or robot armies they'll just come up with an excuse to take it off me. Maybe a really fast spaceship and a station out in the Oort cloud it won't be worth anyone's while to come after me. Could I have honey glazed tomatoes and steamed asparagus? Maybe some landscape paintings and adhesive painting hooks too. And some Daisy Wilson novels to reread."

"Do you want the novels in hard copy?" he asks, passing over a steaming plate of veggies. "Who is they, anyway, what's your situation here?"

"Hard copy is good. I don't have a particular expectation for who will take stuff you give me, just, powerful, rich, important people. My situation is that Zijin decided they wanted my land and the Council decided they wanted to let them so now I'm stuck here in public housing that's basically a prison, applying for shitty jobs that don't want me so I can get welfare that barely covers the cost of the terrible food that's the only stuff you can buy here."

"Okay, so you're in an underfunded welfare situation and it was somehow cheaper to put you in one in space than on Earth? How's that work? Who're Zijin and the Council?"

"Space is cheaper 'cause it doesn't get in the way of mining, is the idea. Plus it's cheaper to keep just the atmosphere of a space station breathable than the atmosphere of the whole Earth. The Council are the people who are in charge of everything in the inner solar system. Zijin is one of a bunch of mining companies they're dividing the Earth between."

"...that makes no economic sense to me without you guys having any demons but I get the sense that you are not an economist. Are there aliens involved here or something?"

"If there are aliens involved they're being subtle enough I haven't found out about them. Up until now I was under the impression it was just humans and uploaded humans here."

"Do the uploaded humans get cool robot bodies?"

"Sometimes. Mostly they don't have bodies, they just run on the computers in the Foundation Ring."

"I guess that could be cool too. My world doesn't have uploading."

"So demons can have all the riches you can dream of but you're stuck with mortal lifespans?"

"Oh, no, demons are also indestructible and immortal."

"Oh. It makes sense that you wouldn't have uploading technology, then. It doesn't sound like you have any need for it."

"Yeah, though like, humans exist."

"Huh. It would be good for the humans in your world if you can take uploading technology back with you. At least if you use it better than Kensington has been recently, and if life for humans in Hell is better than the folklore makes it out to be."

"There aren't any humans in Hell. There's afterlives but anybody who winds up in mine turns into a demon like me."

"So your world is an afterlife for the other earth? Did you use to be human, then?"

"I did but most demons didn't."

"If the humans you're familiar with have afterlives, that would explain why they don't have uploading. The main thing people want uploading for is so they can outlive their bodies, so we probably wouldn't have bothered to invent it if we just became immortal demons when we died anyway. Where else do demons come from, aside from being dead humans?"

"Most of 'em just appear for no reason. The live humans actually don't know about the afterlife."

"So it's not the same humans summoning you as have you as an afterlife? I suppose the lack of uploading could just be a matter of just being less technologically advanced in general, I think you mentioned not having robot armies either, and I'd expect people to make those whatever the afterlife situation."

"It's the same folks, just the information transfer isn't great. What year is it here?"

"2425. Common Era."

"Oh, that's later than us, it's 2175 at home."

"That could be it then, the world you're familiar with is just earlier."

"Well, not just, I don't think it's plausible for Earth to just kind of forget daeva - that's demons and a couple other species - exist."

"It doesn't seem plausible to me either, but there are people who claim that demons are real and scientists are hiding them, and it doesn't seem less plausible than their being right about the first part by coincidence."

"Nah, I don't buy it. We're common knowledge. The level of conspiracy you'd need would be completely impractical, and it's not even clear why you'd want to do it, we're too economically important."

"If you say so. I don't have a great idea of how how hard cover-ups are, and you're right that I'm no economist."

"It sounds like possibly you could use some more economic importance around here."

"I definitely expect everyone on this station would have a better life if they were more employable, if that's what you mean."

"No, no, the thing you want isn't jobs, it's wealth. Different and separable things."

"So 'economic importance' is just economist speak for being rich? I probably shouldn't be surprised. We could definitely use more wealth here, yes."

"Yeah! Who would I talk to about finding a good place to build my own nicer space station?"

"I don't know. It's not something I've ever had reason to look into. I'd probably start with a web search."

"Name a nice model of local internet capable device."

"Moreira PT12?"

Ta-da! Will it connect to local wifi by itself?

No.

"And how does one connect to the web for any searching one might do?"

Isaac will demonstrate the process.

Does his device connect now or is it being rejected for creation-de-novo crimes.

It appears to connect now.

Yay. And what does searching for 'start your own space station" yield?

Companies advertising help with the process, mostly. Also a magazine article offering tips on the process, a magazine article talking about why it's a good idea, construction companies, 'Orbital distribution' companies which appear to offer specifically the service he's looking for, a computer game and a bank that mentions it as something their loans are useful for.

Orbital distribution! Tell Cam about your services, orbital distributors.

Orbital real-estate sale and registration for businesses (or occasionally for private individuals), sometimes advertising specialisation in particular ranges of distance from the sun, in specific ranges of space-station mass, or close to and on a similar orbit to some other space station. Clearly targeted at people wanting to build space stations. Prices are presented which vary by mass and distance to the sun (heavier is always more expensive, but cost increases less than linearly with weight). Most companies seem to sell real-estate specifically in the Inner Solar System. Purchases can be made online.

Damn, he needs money.

"Hey, do you happen to know where somebody could get a lot of of money by selling objects - not, ideally, weapons - to somebody who won't ask too many questions?"

"I don't know how many questions people are likely to ask where. Paulos and the Foundation Ring have more money than anywhere else, and Riordan is the biggest commercial centre. Cui University has a reputation as paying a lot for anything of academic interest, but I expect they'll ask questions about it. If you want to sell your world's art to people who want to pass it off as theirs that will probably go for a lot in Riordan or Diallo. If you want to sell minerals a lack of questions is hardly the biggest concession people in Paulos or Foundation have given in exchange for them, and even if they ask too many questions their suppliers in Riordan might not. People in Riordan and Diallo pay a lot for uploading, so if you can undercut Kensington by even a bit they'll probably pay a lot for that."

"I don't know how to do uploading but I can do minerals." What minerals are 'spensive here.

Tantalum, palladium, gold, platinum, ruthenium, tellurium, and erbium top the lists of mineral prices.

Are any of those principally used for horrible things?

Searching what they're used in gets pages on their use in electronics.

Cool. "I think I'm going to go off and get underway now. How shall I find you again if I need you for something or want to offer you a spot in my space station?"

"I'll probably still be here."

"Do you have like, email."

"isaac.carter@jsem.bas.cn, but they monitor it to make sure I don't use it for anything I'm not supposed to."

"Who the fuck is they and what are you not supposed to use it for?"

"The welfare overseers. They're supposed to monitor it to make sure I don't use it to plot crimes, but they're allowed to block anything that's not related to looking for work or education, and they generally do in case it's a coded attempt to plot a crime."

"Wow, I hate it. You don't have a free and clear one?"

"No."

"Not allowed?"

"I'm theoretically allowed one if I can get it."

"Are there just not... free email services any more."

"Free in the sense of not costing money, or in the sense of not being restricted in what you can use them for? There are both, they just don't overlap. Maybe you can get them for living in the right place or impressing someone rather than money per se, but at any rate I don't have one."

"Damn. I will try to circumlocute appropriately if I need to email you."

"I worry they'll notice you're circumlocuting and decide I'm definitely involved in secret crime."

"...I don't instantly have a clever way around that. Are you like, free to leave?"

"In theory, but I don't have anywhere else I'm allowed to go. Or a spaceship to leave on."

"Right, but like if I wanted to tote you along with me?"

"I might still get in trouble for trespassing if you took me somewhere I wasn't supposed to go."

"I would be making myself a spaceship and trying to find a way to make some money so I could buy an orbital and put a station on it."

"I don't think it would be illegal for me to be with you in your spaceship."

"Cool. What's the quickest way off this rig?"

Isaac will lead him out of the room, through an extremely long (probably somewhere around a mile) corridor, around a corner, along a similarly long corridor which doesn't have doors but has other corridors coming off the side and more people walking through it, to a set of lifts across the corridor from a grocery store. At the lifts (which have hundreds of buttons) he takes them to a floor labelled "E" (one of two floors designated with letters rather than numbers, the other being "S"), where they open onto a train station. After numerous stops, he will lead Cam out of the train and into a room with a number of doors on the opposite wall.

The room contains a large number of people in what appears to be some sort of futuristic blue armour and armed with rifle-like weapons, many of them escorting people in less uniform, shabbier clothing, similar in style to Isaac's but less well-made and more ornately decorated, into the train station. In some cases, the civilian-looking people are resisting and being taken into the station by force.

"These folks all got eminent domained out of wherever they were and trucked here?" Cam murmurs, barely getting a leather coat on in time to hide the wings.

"Yeah. Those are the docking ports over there." He gestures at the doors.

"How hard is it to walk out an airlock if that is what one wishes to do?"

"They're docking ports, not airlocks, opening them without a spaceship on the other side would kill everyone in the room, so the police won't let us do it and there's safeguards on the doors to make it physically impossible. Suicide by vacuum isn't illegal, but entering a spaceship without the owner's permission is and the police aren't going to assume we have permission to be on any of the spaceships."

"Right, let's go find a place where we can walk into vacuum. I'll make us air and a spaceship around us once we're far enough out."

"I don't know where the airlocks are. I've never worked on the exterior of the space station, and it's not something they considered important to inform us about."

"...okay." Cam makes a little model of the station to see if it's visible from the outside.

The size of the station makes it hard to make out features on that scale.

Figures. Can he get a map?

He can. The map shows that the nearest airlock is around a furlong away, but is on the other side of a door marked as being for maintenance workers only.

Sigh. Where is one they can just walk into.

It does not appear from the map that there are publicly accessible airlocks.

"Ugh. Is there... a poorly trafficked window or something. I'll put it back."

"Probably somewhere on the station, but none of the poorly trafficked parts I'm familiar with have windows."