《Periodic Table Mercury 》作者：- Michael Swanwick 【EPUB】

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Michael Swanwicks Periodic Table of Science Fiction 80 Hg Mercury200.59 The Outriders We are the outriders of Quicksilver City. We ride ahead sunward forever maintaining atemperature thirty degrees hotter than the city that follows us. Our job is to scout out theMercurial terrain for landslides crevasses and anything else that might hinder the city inits eternal journey around the planet. Ahead of us the robot mines and smelters factories andwarehouses wake from hibernation as they fall out of the blistering heat of noon. After radioconsultation with the autocomptrollers of Quicksilver City they disgorge the raw materials thecity will need this cycle. Meanwhile we blast grade and level. When we hit a scarp out come the mini-nukes and downgoes the rock. When we come to a crevasse we fill it in. The city arrives to find a gentleramp or level ground and all of us outriders gone long gone on our unending voyage into thesun. We were only a few hundred scientists suddenly stranded on a single mobile researchstation when civilization fell and Earth was destroyed. Not everyone thought we would survive.But we had the tools We had the determination Now Quicksilver City is a congeries of athousand great buildings all speeding around and around the planet tenaciously staying in thehuman comfort range growing thriving and above all never stopping. Here are the plain facts. The maximum surface temperature on Mercury is 427° C. Becausetheres no atmosphere worth speaking of to retain that heat at night the surface temperatureplunges to a minimum of -173° C. Machines can sleep through the hot times and the cold. Humanbeings