I'd heard about them over and over again from the recordings on the walls, but I'd never stepped inside one, even though that's where everyone said Meir was. I still didn't know if I believed them. But it was time to find out. First stepped to the side and I got the hint immediately. This was something I needed to do on my own. I took a tentative step inside, hit a wall of hot, sticky air, and took an involuntary step back, bending forward, gasping for air. At least two hundred people had crammed themselves into a far too small space, all of them staring unblinking at the wall to the front. Soltakian weather, food production, population count, and other mundane—yet apparently popular—facts streamed from one corner to another. Sweat saturated the air and clung to my throat. My head turned fuzzy and darkness crept at the edges of my vision. Not Malik-type darkness. Queasy darkness that is usually a precursor to passing out. I took another step back into the hallway and inhaled the cool, fresh air like sucking up water.
