Life in The Twilight Belt
The inhabited regions of the Twilight Belt are not a single area, but a honeycomb of valleys, some containing hot springs, each separated from the others by sheer volcanic cliffs, taller than Earth's Mount Everest. As the atmosphere of Mercury is extremely shallow, communication between the valleys can only occur by those possessing a breathing apparatus, as the mountain peaks reach into virtually airless space. Mercury has only one notable concentration of population, in the Trade City of Solar City (aka Sun City). Due to the strong electromagnetic field surrounding Mercury and the storms generated by the sharp twilight transition between heat and cold, the Twilight Belt is marked by powerful electric discharges. (A World is Born). The storms are worst at perihelion; the Terro-Mercurian colonists use metal pylons and copper cables to channel and collect the electric power from the charged atmosphere. Metals tend to become highly magnetized under these conditions, and normal navigational instruments are rendered useless.
Read more about this topic: Mercury In The Fiction Of Leigh Brackett
Famous quotes containing the words life in the, life, twilight and/or belt:
“I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more—the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort—to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires—and expires, too soon, too soon—before life itself.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“For life is the mirror of king and slave—”
—Madeline Bridges (fl. C. 1840)
“cover the pale blossoms of your breast
With your dim heavy hair,
And trouble with a sigh for all things longing for rest
The odorous twilight there.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The watchers in their leopard suits
Waited till it was time,
And aimed between the belt and boot
And let the barrel climb.”
—Louis Simpson (b. 1923)