"This is a literary idea."

"If it's Sands of Love, I've already heard it."

"That was a great plot. No, it isn't romantic fiction this time." ... "Imagine, if you will," Slater said dramatically, sweeping his arms out wide, "a --"

"Keep it short," Graham told him.

Slater looked hurt. "It's sort of a Byzantine future, a degenerate technocratic empire with -- "

"Oh, not science fiction again."