[ He seems to warm up a bit, getting a little excited to talk about his work, something sane and normal. ]

It's a peninsula down in the Southern Sector, around an enormous, ancient impact zone in the ocean known as the Chixulub crater. People... People used to think it was the remnants of an asteroid impact that might have caused a mass extinction millions of years ago. I used to work in the area, and it was--

[ He hesitates, then smiles a little sadly. ]

It was a gorgeous place, even with the environment going to shit.