The Liberation Paradox

The Tenebricite Shadow

Danny

08:48

Danny Jake had two options: he could either leave the planet or he could catch a steamer to Distortion's mainland. Remaining in the city of Harvest Junction where several wealthy and powerful people would soon figure out the mining bonds they'd bought from him were worthless wasn't an option. If he remained in Harvest Junction, he would surely end up dead or in jail. For a man like Danny, who so relished his freedom, it was debatable whether death or jail would be worse.

Leaving the planet would be ideal, but interstellar travel could be prohibitively expensive. Danny found himself a little short of cash at the moment. Travel to the mainland via steamer, on the other hand, was comparatively cheap and therefore a much more feasible option.

But Danny really didn't want to go to the mainland.

Understanding why Danny didn't want to go to the mainland would require understanding why most major planetside cities in the Darklands (such as Harvest Junction) were built on flotillas in the middles of oceans. Darklanders have always built their planetside cities on offshore platforms connected together to form sprawling, deep-water flotillas so they can live outside of the "tenebricite shadow."

If you've ever been to the Darklands, you may have noticed that the night side of almost any terraformed planet was completely dark. Travel to any other galaxy and you'll see the night sides of the settled planets alight with vast cities twinkling gayly beneath you as you orbit. But not so in the Darklands. The small, remote dwarf galaxy at the tail end of human settlement had been named the "Darklands" by its first settlers because nights on Darklands planets were very dark. This was due to a phenomenon unique to the Darklands called the "tenebricite shadow."

Some say that at the formation of the universe, whatever gods oversaw its creation decided to set one remote dwarf galaxy aside as their garbage dump. There, those anonymous gods threw all of the universe's most useless mineral, tenebricite, where it wouldn't interfere with the advancement of civilization. They were confident that no species would ever be stupid enough to settle there. Those gods underestimated the power of human stupidity.

Tenebricite is a mineral found only in the Darklands. The cursed mineral emits a weak electromagnetic field. This EM field interrupts all but the simplest electronic devices. Hold a chunk of pure tenebricite up to your data terminal sometime and watch the terminal go dark. On Distortion, like most Darklands planets, tenebricite permeates the soil and the seafloor, preventing most advanced technology within about a kilometer of the surface. This area where tenebricite's EM field inhibits technology is known in the Darklands as the "tenebricite shadow." Light bulbs will work within the tenebricite shadow, but generators or batteries to power them won't. Magnetos and spark plugs will work, but carbon-emitting engines are banned on most terraformed worlds, except in very special circumstances.

About a thousand meters above the land or above the sea floor, the effects of the tenebricite shadow wear off and advanced electronics work just as well as they do in space or in other galaxies. Computers can function. Spaceplanes can land and take off as long as their runways are built on flotillas anchored in deep water. People can have electric light and live in the comfort of climate-controlled housing.

Within the tenebricite shadow, however, life is very different and much more primitive. Though the tenebricite shadow is death to technology, it harms neither human nor plant nor animal. Within the tenebricite shadow, those comparatively few people who eke out their primitive livings do so by the sweat of their brows, the power of beasts, and the heat of flame.

Within the tenebricite shadow, the living is hard. The people are poor and so are the prospects for a swindler like Danny Jake. Danny really didn't want to go to the mainland.