It was here on Twilight where

EXA Twilight GalNet – Info bank Encyclopedia Galactica Twilight

Twilight is a moon around the fourth planet of the Yutoo System in the Upward sector of the Milky Way galaxy. It is within the Orion spur of the Sagitarius Arm. The Yutoo system has eight major planets and a large number of lesser planetoids and moons, many of which are settled or occupied. The moon Twilight acts as a local traffic hub and has a Class B spaceport. Twilight belongs to the United Stars of the Galaxies and has a population of 23 million Union Citizens. A president and a ruling senate is elected every six years. Twilight is the seat of a Union District Court and has a Union Police station. Twilight is tidal locked around the planet Gigaball, an enormous gas planet with nine planet sized and hundreds of smaller moons. Twilight is unique among them as it has a Nitrogen Oxygen atmosphere, acceptable to most NiOx breathers. A strip of about 60 kilometers width and 12,200 km long follows the permanent terminator line between the eternal night and perpetual daylight side. The daylight side experiences temperatures up to 250 degrees Celsius and the night side is at minus sixty degrees. A strong permanent wind circulation between the two sides has smoothed much of the rocky surface and created valleys with mile deep micro dust. Fresh and liquid water exists at the terminator and developed indigenous plant life. No mobile or fauna life forms have been discovered so far. Twilight was settled by colonists from many different regions and no particular dominant culture about 1500 years ago. Most cities and settlements are located on or under the Terminator strip but there is a Suns side city and a Night side city. It is noteworthy to mention that the Day Siders do not like the Night Siders and vice versa and both sides consider the Termis as snobs and weaklings. A short but violent war had been fought about 300 years ago between Sun Side and Night. The Termis called for Union intervention, which ended the war. Main export items are a local variety of mushrooms that grow in caves, minerals and metals. Twilight also is a Traffic Hub to the other occupied moons and planets in the system. Some of the Tourist attractions are: Dust skimming, White water boating and a large Amusement Park.

It was here on Twilight where her mother ended up after stowing inside a freight container coming from Blue Moon. Exa remembered her mother well, even though she was still very little when she disappeared. Her mother and most likely her father were Gal Drifts, belonging to a small group of people that did not believe in Union Citizenship. They called themselves Citizens of the Universe and despised and rejected authority, hated the Union Fleet and the military and loathed the police. No one knew how many Drifts there were for sure but there weren’t more than perhaps two million, spread out all over the Union territory. The United Stars of the Galaxy or simply the Union spread over almost half the Milky Way Galaxy, practically the entire Large Magellan Cloud and even several hundred stars systems in the Andromeda Galaxy. The Union consisted of two or three Centillion Citizens, millions of planets and over 4500 distinct civilization and all was connected via GalNet, Space Bus, clipper connections, passenger and freight lines, space trains and Trans-matter tunnels. A Citizen could travel from one end of the Union to the other without any problems, barriers and without spending a fortune. A Drifter however had no CIT, no citizien identification tag and without it traveling was quite difficult. A few Drifters owned little space ships, some traveled by hiring on with Circuses, traveling shows and such, but most stowed away on freighter paying Placers a fee for getting a place inside a container or crate. This is how her mother came to Twilight, as a stowaway. According to her mother Exa was born on Blue Moon but she didn’t remember all she ever knew was Twilight. Most Gal Drifts didn’t believe in marriage or lasting relationships and shared sex with anyone as they pleased. This was easy on men of course but women sometimes got pregnant. Not being a citizen, there was no access to Union Clinics and therefore no birth control or abortions. Her mother got hooked on God Dust when she was about ten years old. She stole and sold her body to feed her addiction and this is what killed her. Exa didn’t know what happened, but her mother simply did not return to the hideout one day and the others said she was dead, shot by a Union Citizen. The very next day she was caught stealing food at the spaceport concourse and sent to Mother Moore’s Happy Orphanage. Orphans and homeless children existed, that was a fact of life and those minors without any family ties and without means, names or connections needed a place to be. Mother Moore’s Happy Orphanage Inc. a subsidiary of Megabix Corporation provided that service for the Union government under a long term contract and received funds for every kid they took in. Mother Moore’s had orphanages all over the union and one of them was on Twilight. Exa found out right away that there was nothing happy or nice about the orphanage. It was cold place, much more like a prison than anything else. Twenty orphans to a dorm, all wearing the same gray jumpsuits with numbers on them; everything was numbered at the Orphanage and to own any personal things was prohibited.

A legless robot floated along the isle serving refreshments to the few passengers that were awake. Most of the passengers had turned on the sleep inducers of their seats. The cabin lights had ben dimmed down. Exa flagged the robot down and asked for a can of Sparkle Bright Strawberry soda. She switched her jeweled bracelet PDD to Credit transfer and paid the machine. The robot filled a film cup with the bright red liquid and put both cup and can on the small form energy tray that appeared before her. Deep in thoughts she dismissed the machine with a thank you and turned her head to look through the small viewport next to her. There was little to see, other than the eternal night of deep space and distant stars and her own reflection. Her ash blond hair was much longer now than it was three years ago and her girlish face was changing into that of a woman. She wiped strain of hair out of her face and stared into her own large, purple colored eyes overshadowed by the straight bangs that hid her eyebrows. Her life had changed so much since she had met Eric Olafson three years ago at the Twilight space port. Twilight would also be the next stop of the space bus before they went on to Holstein and finally Nilfeheim their destination. Six days ago, they had left Pluribus, where they celebrated Union Week. A delegation from Nilfeheim had taken part in the annual Feast of Cultures event that was part of Union Week celebrations. Her new family had taken part in this event and her Stepfather’s grilled delicacies had been a huge success. The big man was sleeping right next to her. He looked fearsome with his black beard, the long black hair and the enormous arms he had crossed before his barrel chest. He was among the biggest and strongest men on Nilfeheim and yet inside he was the most gentle and loving father any girl could wish for. He treated her like a real daughter from the first moment she had seen him and nothing had changed even after the birth of his first son. Neither he nor her stepmother Freydis made any difference between their first child or the adopted one. When Hogun hugged her, she could feel his love and there was no place she felt safer. He was a man full of honor and she had learned fast to trust him. She had to learn to trust others, her previous life had taught her to trust no one and expect the worst from men in particular. No one on Nilfeheim had ever touched her inappropriately. She had nothing to fear and yet in a few hours they would land on Twilight, even though it was only a twelve hour layover she remembered her former life there and she could not shake this feeling of fear. On their journey to Pluribus 3 weeks ago, they were aboard a Saresii ship and made the trip directly and without any stops in between, but they returned on a normal space bus and Twilight was one of the stops it made before reaching Nilfeheim. She remembered meeting Eric like it was yesterday