in 5555 AD, the ecosystems of the human colonies have been totally transformed by cybernetics, fusing green and machine into new kinds of forest that communicate by wi-fi and chitter with artificial intelligence, wired to the grid. the mecha-forests are an invaluable boon to life in space, so governments commit millions of workers to their careful stewardship. Ponderosa works for the forestry service along a section of the FTU's far-flung intercosmic highways; she is an experienced psychomedical technician, who dives into the cyberbrains of the forest to cure its dreams of infestation by dangerous memetic viruses.