Emissaries from the Dead
An Andrea Cort Novel
Chapter One
Habitat
I've never been a fan of natural ecosystems.
I know they're romanticized. They're great for people who like to swat bugs, step on feces, and catch strange diseases, an odd subsection of humanity that has never included myself. I grew up in urban orbital habitats and pretty much know better. But even I must admit that natural places evolve by accident and therefore can't be blamed for their high level of unpleasantness.
Artificial ecosystems, engineered by sentients who know we're better than that now, are just plain perverse.
The cylinder world One One One was an eloquent case in point.
It was so wrong, in both concept and execution, that it exalted even the most appalling messes arranged by Nature. Like most constructs of its kind, it rotated at high speeds to provide to the internal environment a simulated gravitational pull away from its axis of rotation. That's just basic engineering, so old that dumb old Mankind considered it a brilliant idea long before we went int ... read full excerpt from Emissaries from the Dead ebook
