From the introduction: The characters are employees of the terraforming corporation and crew aboard the terraforming ship. Over the years, (D)Evolution Terraforming, Inc., has evolved a heavily layered and bureaucratized corporate structure, with the hoards at the bottom doing the work while the few at the top make the decisions, and those in the middle bridge between the two groups. ... [C]haracters are various low-level functionaries of the crew.