Ross 154 and Twilight Worlds

The hardy but prosperous life-forms of Twilight came as something as a surprise to most in the 22^nd century scientific community

Later a few groups dared to make the world there new home, seeking out the challenges of such worlds

Ross 154 is a red dwarf star 9.6 light years from the Sol system. In 2061 AD measurements of the stars movement through space were precise enough to determine the existence of a body between .60 and .85 Earth masses orbiting very close to the dim star with a "year" of 4 metric days . Theories had long stated that red dwarfs could be home to a vaguely terrestrial world with a water weather system and a potential (though not ideal home) to the average unmodified humanoid.

Interest for the potential of this otherwise unremarkable system reached a point to where a small relativistic probe was sent out in 2114 AD. In the mission’s favour was Ross 154’s proximity to Sol , after only ten years of travel the probe would arrive. Funded by a number of Martian and Lunarian institutes who unlike their terran cousins were not so biased towards any world that didn’t fit with the terran norm the unusual biosphere that might exist on the world could reveal a number of profitable genetic tricks.

Ross 151 I turned out to be quite abundant in life, the scientists looked forward to exploring the little world. The planet is tidally locked in its orbit to its sun, in the same way the Moon only shows one side of its globe to the Earth so one side of the planet is in constant daylight and the other is in eternal darkness. Thus the world was christened "Twilight" after some deliberation. Names such as "Cerberus" and "Hades" were suggested to capture the not too welcoming nature of the world’s opposed hemispheres but it was felt that there were plenty of more hostile worlds that would be more deserving of hellish references.

Besides Twilight was home to organic life dominated by the tidally locked nature of the world. The land based ecology of the dark side is fed heat from the daylight side by forces of convection, ocean currents and strong winds stream around the globe providing warmth to the hardy form that choose to make a life their. Plant life is rare on the dark side and instead is dominated by fungal analogues, using all sorts of methods to trap the heat bellowing around from the sunny side. Some forms use a sail or web like structure to gather energy, others deploy a remarkable method similar to a windmill to turn an organic turbine which in turn creates bioelectricity. Some species of these fungi then use the stored energy to illuminate themselves and attract creatures’ close enough to be devoured.

Crabdogs are the dominant carnivorous animal on the dark side having evolved from an ancestor that only migrated to the dark side in order to breed in safety. They found themselves becoming more successful on the dark side,scampering between the fungal forests hunting smaller creatures unprepared for such fast moving four legged creatures (life traditionally moving at a slower pace from the daylight side of Twilight.)

The dayside has a more conventional biosphere though the red light of Ross 154 means that photosynthesis doesn’t provide enough energy for larger vegetation meaning they are forced to rely on secondary means to fuel themselves. Entrapping and digesting insects appears to be the most fashionable method with nature developing all sorts of ingenious methods to hunt the swarms of insects that buzz around the planet.

Curiously one successful branch of carnivorous plant on Twilight is genetically related to Venus Fly Trap on Earth and the Mathilda Trap on Elysium. This suggests some cross-stellar fertilisation many millions of years ago possibly related to a major comet impact on the planet at the same time. Tests on the seeds of the plants in question on Twilight have shown it capable of surviving the freezing temperatures of deep space raising the speculation on what other life-forms might have crossed the inky depths of space.

The success of the colony around Barnards Star showed that human habitation around a red dwarf was possible and Ross 154’s proximity to a number of colonised systems such as Alpha Centauri and Altair paved the way for a colonisation mission to the exotic world of Twilight in 2171 AD. Colonists were predominantly from Mars, Luna and the Jovian system, people used to making a home in less than ideal environments (though by then Mars was a very pleasant world to live on.) The first inhabitants of Twilight rather fancied themselves as an adventurous sort with a taste for more extreme environments mixed with a number of Greens who wanted to preserve and live in harmony with the exotic and varied biosphere of the planet.

Unlike cases such as Iota Persei the Greens and the more technophile members of the colony managed to co-operate peacefully and actually complement each other. Ross 154 was never going to be a system devoted to heavy industry or commercialism due to its lack of heavy elements. Also the stormy weather of the world ,fuelled not only by the world’s own weather systems but the flare activity of the red dwarf star,earnt a healthy respect for the environment by the colonists.

In the early days of the colony most habitation was on the dayside of the world on a small continent near the equator where the sun stay constantly overhead. This is the hottest part of the world with an average temperature of 29°C, too hot for most forms of indigenous life but just right for the colonists.

The eco-friendly cities of the region were fed energy by geothermic methods ( the nature of Twilights orbit around it’s star involves a lot of tidal flexing) and massive wind farms spanning the terminator zone between the day and night side. Originally the wind farms were pretty conventional in construction, barely improved designs from the early information age but as further understanding of the genetic structure of the life forms of the world progressed most Greens were pleased to see bio-engineered turbines replacing the ugly mechanical versions.

The cities of Zenith are low impact designs in tune with Green philosophy and also considering the lack of raw materials in the system are very economical. Twilight developed a quite laid back and unassuming culture, content to exist in the backwaters of the interstellar relativistic scene and treating the occasional visitors and stopovers by ships on their way to such places as Altair and the new colonies beyond as rather brash loud people with little respect for their world and its biosphere.

The only other star system Ross 154 really felt an affinity with was its closet neighbour , Barnard’s Star. Physical trade between the two was flourishing as both cultures had a similar outlook on life. Barnardians, who wanted to breathe natural air and know what it felt like to have a real sky above their heads visited Twilight whilst Twilights who wanted to experience the tacky gaudy splendour of pleasure-orbitals such as Lister and Rimmer would pack their most vulgar clothes and set course for fun.

By the time warpships where replacing their slower ancestors Twilight had quite a respectable population of 20 million sentients. The younger generation felt the need to turn their backs on the ways of their parents a started building hedonistic night cities catering "for your dark side on the dark side" Casino arcologies and eroto-domes sprang up on the frozen wastes of the far side of the planet. The cash came rolling in as the orbitals of Barnard’s Star moved more upmarket and the bored citizens of the highly populated and conservative systems of nearby Altair and Epsilon Indi flocked to simulated sleaze of the dark side of Twilight.

Though murky and forbidding to the early colonists of Twilight the dark side of the world perversely became the more populated of the two hemispheres.

This opposition in the cultural nature of the two hemispheres has persisted to the present day. The money brought in by visitors to cities such as Pole City, Sleazeville and New Vegas (not to be confused with the planet of the same name) allow the more well behaved citizens of the day side to fund colonies on similar worlds with their Barnardian cousins such as the similar world of Artemis (36 Ophiuchi C I) and the Arievay system.

Twilighters like to think that they have carved a niche in the colonisation market, settling worlds that other cultures would leave sparsely populated or spend enormous amounts of energy and material terraforming to a more conventional world using orbital mirrors and blockers or using dense matter accelerators to add some momentum to a world’s spin. 

 The people of Ross 154 and their descendants are also responsible for the dissemination of the Twilight biome across Community space though rumours of man-eating versions of the carnivorous plants being dropped on unsuspecting worlds by passing Twilight ships are purely the realms of myth, the only specimens of the genetically modified plants can be found on a number of Cesola Defence treaty worlds to terrorise any futures Zarquon invaders!