Stars Beneath My Feet by DL Frizzell

Author:DL Frizzell [Frizzell, DL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-07T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

There was one industry besides agriculture in Sunlo; mining. In the Colderlands, past the terminator line into the southern hemisphere, there were underground coal, aluminum, and titanium mines. There were also iron mines once, but they had long ago been abandoned due to unbridled magnetic activity.

Sunlo mining crews commuted to their mines in the southern hemisphere, living there for weeks at a time while using non-ferrous pickaxes to dig further into Arion’s crust. The mines were near enough to underground volcanic activity that they worked in a shirtsleeve environment, but when traveling between the mines and Sunlo, they dressed in multiple layers of bulky clothing to survive the frigid temperatures. To travel back and forth from the mines, which was necessarily done on foot, they needed to wear at least ten layers. We were told that since we’d be off-trail, traveling for an undetermined period of time, we’d each have to wear a full fifteen layers of protection.

Donald Biedrik, as a foreman with some influence in Sunlo, secured a full complement of extreme-weather outfits and had them delivered to the house on hand-drawn sleds. He insisted we get dressed outside, not just because we would have trouble fitting through his door with the suits on, but also because we would start sweating immediately if we dressed in the house. Perspiration was to be avoided at all costs in the Colderlands. After giving us basic pointers on ‘trail etiquette’, he took us outside to where the sleds were waiting and helped us load our gear onto them.

“Your guns won’t fire in the Colderlands,” he added finally. “Thermal contraction will make the barrels too small for your bullets. Don’t use them.” He loaded them into a wooden crate on one of the sleds.

“We couldn’t if we wanted to,” Traore said dourly, holding up the outer layer of the suit he was about to put on. The sleeves were nothing more than fur tubes with the ends sewn shut. Hooked wooden claws with small metal tips protruded between the seams. They looked laughably cartoonish.

I sifted through the pile of layers that Donald had assigned to me and frowned. With all this clothing wrapped around us, we’d be marching into night-time looking like overstuffed teddy bears.

Kate didn’t want to put the extreme-weather gear on, having never been south of the equator before. Norio explained that anyone dressed in less than maximum protection would find their extremities snapping off like twigs before realizing they were cold. Kate seemed doubtful, but finally agreed to wear a suit.

We began the arduous task of getting dressed. Body suits, thin garments which would prevent chafing and absorb sweat, were the first items to go on. Donald had us take them inside to put on first, and then put our regular clothes over the top instead of the standard second layer. He told us that departed from the normal procedure, but since we may not come back by the same route, we would need our regular clothes at some point, and the outer layers would protect our clothes the same way they protected us.

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