spacetrash

Taarel and Emily in the city park, mid-2019.

The ecologies of early settlements outside of Ge had to be carefully managed. Nothing grew beneath the domes that did not contribute to the delicate machinery that kept the settlement alive; ideally, in more ways than one — the same algae that made the air breatheable was processed into fuel; the only flowers were ones that grew from edible plants.

Even then, it was many years before any of the crater cities really became self-sustaining. It was many more years before any of them hosted ecosystems so large and robust that they could support such frivolities as seasonal cycles, and deciduous trees.

De Gerlache was the first city on Lune. Apollo was the first one where you could hear cicadas in the summer.