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Deserts. The little girl was enthralled! She'd never known anything except
Acherons barren rock, completely overcast skies, and almost unpalatable air
driven by the unceasing wind of incompletely terraformed Acheron. It would be
centuries before Acheron could start to look like this.
From an unlit viewing bubble they watched silently as the orbiting station
dived into Earths shadow. The crescent Earth narrowed to a sliver as the Sun
dove into a cloud bank, its light going in seconds from white to red before
fading out. Lights came on automatically through most of the station to
compensate for the sudden night.
The world below certainly wasn't dark. Detail became visible in the
moonlight as their eyes adjusted to the dim light. Splashes of light from
numerous towns and cities shone out as the United States coastline rounded
the curve of the planet. Several active thunderstorms were flashing away over
Florida, and every now and then a meteor shot through the Atmosphere far
below, its passage lit by the friction of its own self-destruction. It was
a spectacle people had watched since the dawn of the space age.
The night lasted just under half an hour. The
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