Dome 27 Was Always the Coldest

Dome 27 was always the coldest. Of the 36 domes spiraling out from the fusion plant in Dome 0, it should have been only getting towards the end of the middle of coldness. It is true that people didn't tend to live in the outer domes, with the ports and observatories and odd big structures under the domes. But even those places never seemed to have the chill in the air that Theophyllis felt in his home in Dome 27. All of the instrumentation said that Dome 27 had the same ambient temperature as every non-industrial area from Dome 1 through Dome 36: five point two. There were, on the long, real wooden shelves that lined one of Dome 27's many libraries, many different books about the psychology of perception, and some even might talk about perception of temperature. Perhaps it was the wooden furniture and finishings that the residents of Dome 27 tended to put in their rooms that made it feel rustic, even stark. Perhaps it was being so far from the bustle of activity in the central domes. But it always seemed cold here.

Not that he minded. It was just the slightest nip to the air that encouraged him to put on a sweater. That is what he had done this morning, like he did every morning: get up, roll out of bed, take a shower, and put on some warm clothing, and pad over to his desk, which was strewn with debris. In the center of the desk, open to page 1,752, was Volume 38 of the 42 volume History of the Pistol Nebula Expeditions. He sat at his desk and started reading, enrapt in the book. It was an hour or two later, with a line of scribbled notes now by his side, that he heard a knock on the door. He went to open the door, and found that his soup and tea were waiting for him. Madeline was pushing the cart along the long walk way near the top of the dome, where he had built his house. True to her name, she had a little plate of Madeleines on the cart. They shared a cookie.

She apologized for being a bit late, which was not really a problem: he had plenty of food in his own house. He had been busy reading and taking notes on the book, and Madeline was his only daily visitor. He of course, had com equipment in his house, and if he wanted to, he could talk to anyone in any of the 37 Domes. But he had been quite wrapped up in his books. After sharing some stories of other places and people she had been visiting in Dome 27, she reminded him that he had told her to remind him when 500 days had passed. And that was this day. An entire year, as they called it now, that he had not left his house. Time really does fly after your 200th birthday, as they always said. So by the time that Madeline and him had finished their cookies, and he brought his soup and tea inside. He rolled the pages of the History of the Pistol Nebula Expeditions between his fingertips. Then he opened the drawers of his desk, taking out notes. Some of these he should dispatch, in the network of pneumatic tubes that criss-crossed in and out of Dome 27. Some of these were from his own eyes. Including, apparently, the list he had made 500 days ago. And that had been four years after his last visit to Dome 1. All of the things on his mind, indeed, were still on his mind. So he got out another piece of paper and started writing.

Time to get the band back together.