The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu

Chapter Twenty-Six

Salisbury was really two worlds.

When men came to Salisbury the first time, they found a gorgeous 18000 mile globe of gleaming white, a fluffy snowball with an iron core and layered drifts of carbon dioxide, water snow, and a thin nitrogen atmosphere. A beautiful 3000 mile rusty red moon with a matched pair of 800 mile satellites that chased each other between the two other globes made the whole system extremely attractive to the Royal Londinium Terroprospecting Society, which had discovered it. Founded for the purpose of protecting “certain valuable social and cultural customs” from the encroachment of the meta-culture, this seemed an ideal world, comfortably far away from undesirable influences. Terraforming procedures commenced quickly.

Because of the planet’s location in the solar system it was just outside of the zone where ice would melt. And while it was technically possible to move a planetary system, such techniques are insanely expensive and inherently dangerous. Instead, the world was heated by the expedient of huge mylar mirror arrays reflecting additional light and heat from the star, as well as a huge orbital “lens” that magnified and concentrated the solar energy. Once construction was complete the effect was dramatic, melting away glaciers of chemicals into liquid, and then gas. Within a decade, the planet had a thick, warming blanket of atmo.

Two of them, actually.

Once uncovered, the geography beneath the ice was divided into three rough gradients: a lowest area, encompassing about a third of the planet, which filled with the liquid run-off and became the four great oceans. Once sea-level had been established, the gasses in the world began a complicated dance, due to both their chemistry and the geology of the dry land.

About forty percent of the surface was 1500 feet or less above sea level – an area that became known as “The Bottom”, and included the oceans. Above this area a constant misty overcast of turbulent