Fragment 1632

 Exa



 His name was Benjamin, at least that is what the Care governesses of Mother Moore’s Happy Orphanage had called him. HE was an orphan. As far as he knew his parents had been Gal Drifts those whako screw balls who considered themselves Citizens of the Universe, preached peace and the complety ancient and outdated philosophy of pacificm; rejected order and all forms of government. Of course love and proceration too was considered to be freely given and shared. No marriage, no bonds and the resulting children were are burden to the young mothers and more often than not simply abandoned.

 While the United Stars of the Galaxy was an enormous and perhaps the richest mulit cultural society in the known history of the Galaxy and its citizens no longer knew poverty, hunger or petty crime; Citzenship was not free and had to be earned and could be lost.

 In order for a Non-Citizen orphan kid to earn its citizenship it had to be in a Orphanage and go to Union School (or get adopted of course). There was only one fderal approved Orphanage in this sector of space and that was Mother More’s with branches all across the Upward Sector. Operated by Moore Humane Serviced Corporation, a tightly controlled company that also provided Maximum Security facilities to local planetary governments. Just like this Dust Mining Camp.

 Benjamin wearing the cumbersome protective suit and the low grav wide field boots of a dust miner dragging the mining hose behind him underneath Gigaball, the depressingly large and almost sky filling Gas planet.

 His legs ached with every step fighting the positive pressure of the suit, the heavy hose and the deep powdery dust. The other miners told him he would get used to it or die. That was almost twelve month ago, he would never get used to it. The very thought that he had to endure this another nine standard years was something he did not want to think about and yet it was never far from his mind.

 This was Twilight one of the large moons in orbit around that Jovian Gas Giant called Giga Ball.

 Twilight was tidally locked in its orbit around the big mother planet and did not spin on its own. This moon was almost Earth sized and had a NiOx atmosphere acceptable to many of the Nitrogen Oxygen breathers that were part of the community of sentient species that made up this oh so glorious United Stars of the Galaxies, simply known as the Union.

 A strip of about 60 kilometers width and 12,200 km long follows the permanent terminator line between the eternal night and perpetual daylight. A Canyon and River system followed this terminator all around the planet like a deep trench.Conditions and climate at the bottom of these trenches was moist and agreeable to an unprotected humanoid, but on the surface it was lethal. Temperatures soared on the day side to over 25o degrees celcius while they remained perpetually cold at about minus fifty on the night side.

 The strong permanent winds of storm gale force circulated in a perpetual convection pattern around this world; it had leveled much of the rocky surface and created valleys with mile deep micro dust.

 Benjamin turned his head inside the unwieldy helmet and the scratched face plate to bite on the silicon feed tube for a drink of water.

 The water wasn’t cold as they all wished it would be but the Camp Med said cold water would be unhealthy and the lukewarm water would be just as good to hydrate them.

 Of course he was sitting in a climate controlled office back at Sun Side City and only checked on them via Remote Avatar. Benjamin was certain this son of a bitch had never been outside in in person.

 His helmet radio crackled and the rough voice of Gang boss Arvid barked loud into his ears. “Get your ass to the left and start sucking that glimmer patch.”

 Benjamin stemmed his weight against the hose reel automatic and forced the thirty centimeter diameter metal reinforced flexi-plast hose attached to his sucker head to unreel and follow him as he waded through the powdery light brown dust towards a barely visible glimmer patch. Metallic shining dust spots indicated a higher metal content and that of course was the reason he and the sixty men of Camp 43 were out here at the most eastern shores of Talcum Lake.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> The big robotic hover platforms behind them slowly floated behind them holding the Dyson Cyclon Dust Pumps and looked like night marish bloated octopus floating in a foggy cloud of billowing dust with long thin tentacles stretching out to sixty tiny figures slowly moving forward. Like a geyser the worthless dust was blown in a wide stream back into the landscape, while a steady stream of 500 kilo metal cubes left the other side on a conveyor, made of the metals and useful minerals separated and ultra-compacted into easy stackable and shippable cubes.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> Another gang of men with load handler suits stacked the cubes onto the cargo beds of rugged flyers.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> To him it was senseless primitive. Robots could have done all this tireless, around the clock and with much bigger machines as Noire Mining used over at Lake Pixie.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> Of course using convicts was much cheaper, not to mention that the government paid 60 Credits every day for every convict used. That was an extra income for smaller mining outfits, since they hardly spend more than five credits on them per week.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> The wide round nozzle of his sucker took duck into the dust and created a little temporary funnel crater. It was mindless terrifyingly boring work in a terrifyingly boring landscape. There weren’t any real dangers. The suits were ancient and cumbersome. Cheapest surplus equipment not meant for compfort but it was Federally inspected and had to pass basic safety standards. The Health and Saefty inspectors were the only entity feared by the Mining managers and Gang bosses. Death came in only two ways, by suicide or murder. That most of the men dreamt od suicide was maybe a good indication of the conditions. Suicide was not as easy as one would have thought. The

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<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> Fresh and liquid water existed 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.

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<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> Most cities and settlements are located on or under the Terminator strip but there is a Sunside city and a Nightside 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 snobs and weaklings. A short but violent war had been fought about 300 years ago between the two cities inconclusive and the Termis called for Union Intervention. [1] 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.

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<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> The sun shone brilliantly over the seemingly endless ice desert, it still was bitter cold but the sun was getting stronger every day and Shortsummer was not very far off. Winds howled with storm gale strength churned by warm rays of the sun, whipping snow and ice crystals across the frozen planes pelting people,machines and animals alike.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> Exa sat on top of a rugged ice tractor with very wide soft tracks towing a chain of boat-like skids loaded with Fangsnapper cages,food, fur bales and big boxes with meat and bones.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> It was a long trip of six days from the edges of the ice free Uhim grounds to Isen Landsby, and normally the trip could be done by flyer or Skid boat but the easiest way transport the wild, barley domesticated Fangsnappers was to herd them from the feeding grounds to the pens and dens around Isen.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> While the Olafson clan was realive new to this business, the Ragnarsson Clan and Steiner Clans were doing it for a very long time. Both clans merged with the Olafson Clan a little over five years ago and Fangsnappers became the main source of income for the largest and richest clan on Nilfeheim.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> Her tractor had just climbed a very soft incline and she could see the almost 2000 animals slidinga

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<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt"> Mr. Flensburger was a little late as usual. He came into the classroom dressed like a Harpooner in the middle of Long night. He wore a heavy hooded Fangsnapper fur coat, over a padded Iso-Tex Jacket and beneath the hood a heated wind mask, but that was far from all, underneath all that a Fleet Issue extreme suit with active heating. He was dressed like that despite the fact it was almost spring and he had to walk less than 1500 meters in the open. It was only ten below zero and light wind. Bare chest weather my Uncle Hogun would say. It would take him long moments to get undressed and I was certain the pile of clothing next to his desk grew just a little bigger every day. “It is exceptionally cold this morning, class," he greeted us and twenty two Neo-Vikings would say:”Good morning Mr. Flensburger.” I couldn’t help myself and said, "You have been on Nilfeheim now for over thirty years, Mr. Flensburger. Haven’t you gotten used to our weather by now?”. He took off his cold mask, revealing his slate ice gray eyes and his long pointed nose and looked at me, then shook his head. "Mr. Olafson, it took me all this time to get used to the barbaric customs of you Neo Vikings. I had no time to get used to the weather yet.” That caused the class to laugh. He walked to the windows and looked over the churning waves of the ocean. "It is a beautiful planet. It has lots of cold water, teaming with an abundance of life, blue oceans and very, very long winters. I come from New Algiers, no open water. Deserts as far as you can see. You have winds bringing ice crystals, snow and rain. Our storms bring dust, lots of it, but the temperature never drops below 30 and is usually at 48." I tried to imagine how it would be, to live in bread oven conditions like that. I glanced at my I-Board and checked on New Algiers. Our teacher turned to face the class. "It is your final year and some of you might actually leave this world and it will also be my last school year. Thirty years teaching you Neo Vikings about the rest of the Universe was a challenge to say the least.” His eyes became dreamy and he smiled.” First I am going to Para-Para and simply sit on the beach for maybe a year or so. I believe it will take at least that long for my bones to thaw.” Leif Swenkjard sitting across the aisle from me waved his hand.”I’ve been to Para-Para actually. When my Father had to go there for an ocean produce tradeshow he took me along. They don’t even have a little snow anywhere and their largest fish is about the size of a Surface Finner. On Para-Para there are no weapons allowed, if you use your fist to make an argument stick you get in trouble and arrested. No one wears much clothing and all they do is smile all the time.” Ygral Anders next to him drew the outlines of a woman into the air.”How about the girls, do they wear little?” “You could bunch up what they wear in your fist and nothing showing.” Ygral now grinned from one ear to the other.”I think I go there for a visit too!” “You wouldn’t like it. Because the guys don’t wear much either and you barely see any blonde tall girls with braids anywhere. Those girls can’t cook a decent meal, won’t clean up after you and want to be equal to men and sit at the same table!” Flensburger shook his head putting his right hand before his eyes.”You are hopeless.” Then he sat down on the edge of his desk and he stared at me.”You look different today, Eric. What are you wearing on your

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