The miners of Talus push a runcible transfer gate, enmeshed in hardfields, into the giant planet's core. Here, they prompt thousands of tons of nickel-iron to squirt through underspace, via the gate, to a distant location. […] Silica sand billows into a runcible gate on the planet Fracan, where a desert is being vacuumed away to bedrock.

And through this one small error of judgment, Elwood’s life is changed when he is sent to a reform school called Nickel.

Even though I have no arms or legs I did put my mom through some tough times. I did my share of rebellion and hi-jinx.

The candidate is aggressively branding himself as Vernon 2.0, a kinder, gentler Vernon Jones, a bridge builder, a fence mender. Asked by a Rockdale editor about his “road to Damascus moment,” Jones laughs. “I got knocked off my donkey,” he says.