"I know of the solids, but what is this sauce?" I asked of him.

"Carbon" he replied.

I looked at him and questioned, "Pure carbon? I have never heard of its
having this use before."

"Your civilization was long ago and had not developed it yet."

"That has perplexed me, now that you mention it," I said, "Onan seemed
to mean that I was going back in time to help my ancestors, but you say
that I went forward, that I am one of the ancients."

He was wary for a moment, though if it was because of the apparent
conflict, or because I was on a first name basis with his god I couldn't
tell. He soon recovered his countenance and said, "It is a complicated
question, and I believe you should ask Wagner the next time you see him,
after the raid though, of course. The time of departure is nigh now,
however, so you should put on your anti-electron suit," he said as he
picked it up from the corner and brought it to me.

It was a subtle dark brown and looked more like a normal suit of clothes
than an electron reflecting suit, but then again, I thought, why would
it be a strange looking apparatus? Why would an advanced technological
age necessarily be devoid of any sense of fashion, although that would
be assuming that any civilization had ever had one. Fashion is more a
characterization of a culture than a basic and unchanging principle, for
a desert people would wear clothes that would be most uncomfortable to a
people who lived in the snow. Clothes may not make the man, but the man
certainly makes the clothes, and you can judge a person by what they