In a society without advanced robotics, the suited spacer reigns supreme in the domain of orbital repair and ship-servicing. Here, a Noceboan goat of one of Drywinds' lowlands ethnicities dons a model of the modern era, a comfortable, skin-tight mechanical counterpressure suit visible over her arms and legs, overlaid on her torso and over her shoulders and near-loins by a layer of thicker fabric-and-metal bracing that keeps her survival backpack, her tools, tether, and her propulsion pack secured tightly to her person. A large wrist-mounted bracelet contains some of her tools, as well as a storage compartment for her signaling mirrors, and a bioluminescent signaling-light for when sunlight is not available - both critical technologies for short-range communications in a civilization that hasn't invented the radio.

The spacesuit has come a long way since the early days of Nocebo's present spacefaring age. The very first suits were huge, hefty pressurized metal-and-rubber affairs - cumbersome, difficult and tedious to put on, and often having very rudimentary, if any, maneuvering capability if the spacer were to become detached from her tether, or otherwise separated from a ship. Advances in materials science, textile manufacturing, and rocketry in the last thousand years have made possible suits that require no inflation to wear, which respond much more smoothly to an astronaut's motion, and whose propulsion systems can assist greatly in or even mitigate the need for rescue efforts.

Pictured in the background is Blue Yonder and the Mist Belt.