most people live in and above the clouds.

nobody visits the surface anymore.

before that -- a colonial planet, skyscrapers stacked into the atmosphere.

then the magnetic field collapsed.

communications went first, then the ships.

the planet sealed and stayed that way.

that was generations ago.

the surface has its own inhabitants now.

what's up there, in the clouds, is what survived --

and the people in it learned to be whatever the situation required.

not all of them chose the same thing.