Clearly, if something that happened that long ago still left a mark on Devero. But of course it did. Even though the petrification happened thousands of years ago to the people in the village, as an example, they were still affected by the fact they seemed to be the only people left, that they were surviving on their own.

"If there's one thing I've learned, my friend," Gen told him, "it's that people have an amazing ability to just survive. To adapt, to look at really long odds and decide, you know what? This is bullshit, we're going to beat this thing, even though we've got basically nothing."

He gave Devero a small smile. "And with the technology you have - you're clearly doing more than simply surviving, at that."